So after my last entry, I received an email from a friend in South Carolina. She recently adopted from Taiwan and had told us about her agency. We were very interested in adopting from Taiwan and researched a few agencies including hers. All of them are closed. Her agency doesn't fill up the waiting list with too many people...makes the wait really long. When we saw the program was closed, we obviously moved on to other avenues and planned to adopt from China.
Well the email I received was her agency looking for a home study ready family for a healthy infant boy from Taiwan. I responded immediately to express our interest.
The exec director responded quickly and while we were not eligible for the infant boy (not home study ready), she was willing to answer some questions about Taiwan adoptions.
She explained that they had 3 people on the "healthy infant girl" list and 3 on the "either gender infant list." When the healthy infant boy became available, she asked each family on the "either" list if they wanted him. All three said no..that they actually wanted a girl. That's how the email looking for a family for the baby boy came about.
While we weren't eligible for this particular baby, I asked her if the wait list was open (since no one is on it) if we were willing to take an infant boy. She said yes. Then I asked her if they ever place toddler or preschool children...anyone younger than Nathan. And she said something that changed everything. :)
She replied "I happen to have a referral right here on my desk for a 5 year old girl" (2 mos younger than Nater). She has been in the foster system, has had a rough go of it for sure, and they were looking for a home for her. She asked if I would like to review the file.
About 10 min later I was looking at her pictures, reading a pretty extensive report on her family history, birth history, living situation, medical eval, school report, etc... Of course I immediately called Andy and forwarded it all to him at work.
She is absolutely darling. She's a petite little thing with beautiful dark hair, and huge brown eyes. Her mother is deceased and her father is out of the picture. She has two older siblings, one of whom was adopted by a family in here in the U.S. about 6 months ago.
We talked and prayed...a lot..and told the director we are definitely interested in her. We certainly feel like we were led to her and that a LOT of things had to happen in order for us to be considering her. We feel strongly God has put her in front of us.
Sooo, all of that to say that we are officially adopting from Taiwan. The agency director is traveling to Taiwan soon and will get to meet this sweet girl and speak with her caregivers to get some more information. We have some questions about some things in her referral and we want to make sure we understand and are equipped to give her everything she'll need once she arrives.
If this goes forward, we COULD have her home by the end of next summer. We were looking at an 18 month wait if we adopted from China. This certainly changes our timeline!
When the agency director gets the info we need, we will finalize our decision. If for some reason we feel that we aren't a good fit for her, then we will pursue the adoption of an infant boy from Taiwan. The wait will probably be a bit longer but we are prepared to follow God's lead in all of this.
So once again, our course changes. And we're VERY okay with that! It's been very exciting so far and we both have peace about what is happening. If she is meant to be with us, then she will be and in the meantime, we are praying for patience and clarity as we get more info in the next few weeks.
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