Wait, Wait, Wait

I've been getting a lot of questions lately about the adoption process and if there are any updates. The best answer I can give is, it's complicated. We could get a matching call any day, or it could still be months. Honestly, it has been difficult to not get discouraged and to just trust in God's timing.

The biggest thing is that Nick will be graduating from Stanford in June and we will be moving shortly thereafter. It will most likely to be to Kansas, but we're waiting on the official decision from the Army promotion board to see if Nick is going to be promoted to Major. Either way though, we will be moving. June is only 9 months from now. And, of course, as it goes with adoption, once we get matched, we still get to wait on more paperwork.

Most of the files that our agency receives are "pre-released" from the orphanages, meaning that we have to wait on her particular province in China to officially release the file. This can take a couple weeks or it can take a couple of months, depending on the province. Then, we have to wait for official approval from U.S. Immigration. Then, there's travel approval after that, then we have to get on one of the two trips our agency leads to China each month, also depending on the province that our daughter is in. This all usually takes 3-4 months.

So, you can see why we are a little antsy to get matched. Plus, we just found out that if we have to move before we are completely done with the adoption (meaning we have traveled to China and picked up our daughter), we would have to completely redo our home study and that would set us back months for travel.

Please, please be praying that our daughter's file comes to our agency ASAP! It is so difficult to just sit here and wait for a phone call. The wait after we get matched is going to be tough too, when we know who our daughter is, but the unknown and the looming move are a little stressful. We initially turned in our application over a year ago and we really did not anticipate as many delays as we have had. Our biggest concern is having to move our daughter shortly after bringing her home to America. A move is difficult enough as it is, and we want to ease the transition into our family and a completely new culture as much as possible. Thank you for all of your support!