after somewhat of a lull between posts,
i've decided it's 'high time' (as my dad would say) to update
everyone.
It's been an interesting couple of
months of researching, reading and learning for us. It seems like
every day I am coming home and telling Andrew about a new tidbit of
information I learned in the day about a certain country or a new
rule for domestic adoption. I've learned a lot by contacting private
agencies in Canada or just lurking on various forums.
About a month ago, we felt we were 90%
for sure choosing Russia for international adoption. It seemed like a
program that was moving relatively fast (around the 2 year mark) and
the children were still under 2 at the time they were being brought
home. The major downside is the cost (over $50,000) and the THREE
trips required. We felt (and still feel) that if God wanted us to
move in that direction, He would supply our needs for that.
However, that same week, I received an
email from my Auntie, who passed on a message of hope and
encouragement from her friend, whom we will dub “Sarah”. My aunt
mentioned that we had ruled out domestic adoption (adopting within
our province), since we had heard reports of a 5-7 wait time. But
Sarah told my aunt that she felt this was an exaggeration and went on
to explain that they adopted their beautiful, healthy infant girl,
after waiting only ONE YEAR! What an amazing story it was to read
that! Sarah and I connected via email after that and she told me her
whole inspiring and encouraging story. One little sentence she wrote jumped out at me:
"If this is the path God has chosen for you, just be confident that he
has someone planned to call you mom and dad. They just aren't ready yet!"
So I chose to trust that that was God's
way of telling us NOT to give up on domestic adoption.
The process COULD be a long time, or it
could be short. It's an absolute shot in the dark.
A wonderful piece of news that I just
received was that we can now be on both international AND domestic
waiting lists. So, if we choose to pursue Russia in the future, we
could have that option.
We have requested our “Orientation
Workbook” from our local support centre and once we've completed
that, we'll get referred to a social worker. At that point, we'll
officially submit an application for domestic adoption.
I am feeling a tiny bit scared of the
unknowns but also hopeful.
thanks for reading and partnering with
us. Any questions?
