An Announcement, Part 1

We came home with Kate NaNa in October 2008. At the time, I can remember thinking things like, "Next time we do this..." or "When we are here again..." We settled in pretty quickly as a family, but I always had that in the back of my mind.

Once we had been home a year, I started pestering my dear husband about adopting again. Bless him, he usually just rolled his eyes at me because I get smitten with pictures of children I will never meet and daydream about parenting them. I just told him to pray about it, and assured him that I would pray too.

In November 2009, he told me that he was ready to start our next adoption. I was excited and terrified all at the same time! We started praying over our options and investigating programs. We considered looking into other countries, but our hearts kept coming back to China. We both love China, and with it's special needs program, it just felt like a natural fit for us.

But we had one problem. In fact, it was the exact same problem we had when we started Kate's adoption in 2005. China said that we didn't make enough money. China's income requirements are based on how big your family is. In 2005, I was devastated by that news. But God provided in the form of a friend who hired me to do part-time work for his company. It turned out to be a huge blessing because we were able to save most of my income for the adoption expenses.

This time around I didn't get devastated. The money needed was only about half of what it was back then, and if God could do it then, He could do it now. The question was, how?

I researched several options for me and for Tim, from merchandising to substitute teaching. The one thing I did not want to sacrifice was time home with the kids. Amazingly, several friends I knew were looking for part-time childcare. Out of the blue, people started calling me. It was a slow build-up, finding the right families/schedules for my business, but by summer 2010 I had a solid clientele and a steady extra income.

But for some reason I still wasn't ready to start the adoption paperwork. This time the problem was me. I really had to do some soul-searching - Do I want to raise a fourth child? Our family works so well together right now. Will another kid throw off the balance?

After a season or two of soul-searching, Tim and I both decided that yes, we did want to proceed, and the time was right. In February 2011, we started our home study. I can't tell you how many roadblocks and delays we hit. Notaries who wrote down the wrong expiration date. Notaries who wrote it down correctly but had expired. Lab results and extra tests that postponed our doctor's reports. And at the end, when I finally had everything in my hand, I realized I just plain old forgot about having Tim's birth certificate certified. The red tape is rather ridiculous, and everything must be perfect. And what should have taken about three months, took us seven months. Ugh.

But there is a time for all things, and this was definitely a time of preparations. Preparations that were going on on both sides of the world...

Stay tuned for more...