Hubby and I had really been thinking about our family, what we feel like God has called us to, the passion he has put inside both of us, and in wanting to live out obedience to God -knowing that we are not just here on earth for us- had thought alot about doing foster care/interim care/SAFE families with our old adoption agency, Bethany Christian Services, (which may end up being part of our story down the road but not right now)... hows that for a run on sentence! ;-) With all this on the brain, I (momma-bear), went to an adoptive moms retreat in Atlanta in Jan of this year. While at the retreat I felt really challenged, felt God stir my heart for the fatherless... for a particular group of kids with medical challenges... In talking and praying things over with hubby we felt like we were supposed to add to our family, permanently. We talked with some individuals about adopting kids with this particular need, did lots of research and ended up choosing as adoption agency that we had been told would be able to place this type of child with us.
Enter CC*I - located in Colorado of all places. On April 4th, 2011 we sent CC*I our 'medical conditions' checklist, specifying the type of child that we felt led to... I kept expecting that they would contact us, let us know about potential kids... but nope, heard nothin, nada. We had just moved (end of march) so were still pretty busy unpacking boxes, getting adjusted to our new home... felt like the adoption was on the backburner (well, not really even on the burner yet).
On June 26th, I got a call from CC*I, just following up to see if we were still interested in adopting. We asked if they had any kids available with the medical condition that we were open to, but they didn't. Did I mention yet that we had specified that we wanted a girl (purely b/c that's what we've already got - so seemed easier, sharing clothes/rooms/toys etc). While still on the phone the social worker said, 'You know we do have other kids who are waiting if you want to consider some without the specific need that you were pursuing. And there are a lot of little boys waiting - it seems like everyone wants little girls.' I know the SW didn't mean anything by her comment, was just an observation, but man did it pierce my heart. There were little boys who were waiting purely because they were boys - girls who had the same needs as them would have already been chosen... just seemed so wrong... and yet here we were, one of those families who wanted a girl. So hubby and I got online, looked at some of the profiles of the precious ones who were waiting and were drawn to a sweet little boy with a cleft lip & cleft palate. Here we were, heading one way, only to be led by God in an entirely different direction... Is amazing to me that God would use our desire to adopt a child with a particular special need to lead us to CC*I where our sons profile was - no other agency had his information, only CC*I.
On July 9th we met with our pediatrician to review sweet boys paperwork and then on July 11th we mailed off our formal application to CC*I along with our intent to adopt JJ. On July 14th we had been approved by CC*I... We submitted our formal Letter of Intent to CCC*A (the govt body in China responsible for adoptions) and miraculously had our pre-approval from CCC*A on July 15th. This basically means that they have put JJ on hold for us...
Now that there was a face & a name, not just the idea of some child out there waiting for his family, we started working like crazy to get our ducks in a row to bring our son home. We started the home study process (whole OTHER blog post there) and started the dossier paperchase. You may think that adopting from China cant be that different from Hong Kong's process but oh. my. word. Hong Kong will accept photocopies, photocopies, of important documents (like birth certificates, marriage certificates etc) but no, not China. They require that you give them certified original copies (yeah... not sure that makes sense but hey they say jump we say how high) of said documents (created within the last 6 months no less). These documents then have to go through the 'authentication process' which because we live in TN involves numerous steps.
- Step 1 (after obtaining certified original copy): Have it notarized.
- Step 2: Take the document to the county clerk to have the original notary's notarization notarized.
- Step 3: Now take said document (with its additional stamps) to the local state level and have the county clerks notarization notarized.
- Step 4: Precious document must now travel to the US Dept of State in Washington DC to have the TN state notarization notarized.
- Step 5: Document can now finally be authenticated by the Chinese Embassy and be ready to go to China as part of our dossier.
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