At some unknown but hopefully not too distant date in the future, we will become a family of 6. We have already started the process of adopting a Waiting Child from China. 🙂
This news might come as a surprise to some of you who have seen how crazy our circus can be, but those people who know me well know that adopting is something that I have wanted to do for many many years. I couldn’t be more excited right now that we have decided that the time is right for our family to grow again.
We have been laying the ground work with our kids for a while. One day, several months ago, Z started praying out loud in the middle of breakfast that God would send him another baby. My heart was touched, and I started telling him that sometimes babies don’t grow in the mommy’s tummy, but instead a family adopts a baby who needs a home. He got a huge smile and said, “That’s GREAT! Let’s do that after school!!!”. 🙂
Since then, we have been talking a lot about China, and the children there who need a home. Z seems to have a good understanding of what we are going to do, and has remained excited. I think it helps that they have a wonderful cousin from China, so they have some concept of adoption. D seems to understand to some extent, but I think only time will tell how much he really has processed. He is not the same kind of deep thinker that Z is, so there is a good chance that he will never spend much time thinking about it. I kind of picture him when the baby comes home thinking, “Oh, you live here now? Okay”.
At this point, we are in the very beginning stages. We have selected our agency, and had our initial application approved. Our reference forms have been turned in, and the agency has already made some calls to our church to follow up on work we have done there with children. We will have an orientation meeting later this week, and our home study will begin after that. We will have several months of paperwork ahead of us, but I am hopeful that we will be bringing home a baby girl in the next 12 to 18 months.
We have had so many things to be thankful for this year, and beginning this process definitely tops the cake for me. I love this little girl already, and I am so looking forward to the day that we bring her home!