Isn’t the Light OK?

Time to rewind again…when last we left this stream of consciousness, Carla and I had discerned what we thought to be a divine calling to international adoption. If you missed it, part 1 is here. Hopefully I’ll be able to wrap this up soon and get all who are interested up-to-date on my extrablogicular (is that a word?) life. Without further ado…

The force of our conviction was so strong that the details arranged themselves. We didn’t spend the same amount of time praying and deliberating over the adoption agency or the country we would adopt from. It was pretty obvious - we were going to adopt through America World. We were going to adopt a child from China, most likely a baby girl.

Having spent two years in Taiwan in my early teens, I was familiar with China’s policy of one child per family, and the Chinese cultural preference for male children which led to orphanages full of unwanted girls. That, plus my long-dormant knowledge of the Chinese language (learned in Taiwan), just added to the feeling that this all made sense.

Because of China’s adoption policy requiring both parents to be at least 30 years old, we couldn’t even begin our paperwork until Carla turned at least 29 and a half (which happened in August 2006). In the meantime we kept ourselves busy: buying our first house, relocating, changing jobs (in Carla’s case), and adapting to a much longer commute (in my case). In most cases, the adoption was one of the major factors in the decision - especially buying a house and relocating closer to family.

2006 rolled in, and over the next few months, we wavered in how excited we were about the prospect of adopting. At times we wanted it to be August already, and at times we wanted August to be years away. When August finally came around, it felt like we’d been waiting for decades. We were alternately terrified and elated. We finally got ourselves together in early September. We downloaded the initial forms for the adoption agency, filled them out together, and mailed them in with our first payment of $250. Within weeks we got a message that we’d been accepted into America World Adoption’s China program.

Thus began the roller coaster of the last 5 months.

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