As many of you know, Tim and I started out in the non-special needs line to adopt from China. At the time, NSN adoptions were taking about 6 months. We didn't really research Special Needs adoption very much, largely because we were uneducated about it, but also because we didn't like the way our agency handled SN adoptions at the time. Plus, Will was still an infant, and I couldn't imagine taking care of a one-year-old Will and a special needs child at the same time.
I won't get into all of the reasons why the NSN line slowed down, but it did, and two years after our log-in date of March 7, 2006, we found ourselves re-evaluating our decision. First of all, Will was 3, not under 1, and that changed things. Second, it no longer made sense to us to insist that our child be 18 months old or younger. Third, our agency changed the way that they handled SN adoptions. At first those changes seemed scary, but we soon discovered that we were comfortable with those changes. And we love the SN director... She is great:)
Last, we had two whole years to research various special needs, read the files of children that our agency were representing, and read blog after blog that described the day to day lives of families who had adopted both special needs and non-special needs children. Basically, I learned that adopting a non-special needs child did NOT mean that the child would not have things to work through. It did not decrease the possibility of attachment/bonding issues, and sometimes there was a special need that did not manifest until the family was home with the child. In other words, there was no guarantee. We had known this... I mean, there are no guarantees with biological children either, so why should we expect one with an adopted child? Evidently we are very slow learners, because it took us more than 2 years of waiting for us to understand all of this. But God was definitely trying to teach us. Thankfully He was patient.
This time last year, we filled out a special needs checklist and sent it to our agency. We met with our social worker, and she approved us to adopt a special needs child. In July, we were finally matched with Su Xu Na from Suzhou, China, and we were overjoyed to show her precious picture to everyone we knew. She was (at the time) 20 months old and had a repaired cleft lip and an unrepaired cleft palate. And she was the most beautiful little girl I had ever seen. We met her in October, and she has been the perfect addition to our family. As I type, she and Will are dancing around the house with their Elmo dolls singing some song that they made up about Elmo. She is a joy.
So, why am I bringing all of this up??? Because yesterday, April 3, 2009, the families who had a LID of March 7, 2006, received their referrals. After 3 years and 27 days of waiting, they finally saw the faces of their children. I want to congratulate everyone who was in this batch, and I pray that you will be blessed. But I also want to express my thanks to God, who led us to Kate NaNa, despite our ignorance and our stubbornness. He is good. All the time. And I am sooo glad we are not just now seeing our daughter's face for the first time.
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