This date is known in the Chinese adoption world as "LID". (Logged in date) The reason that this date is so significant is that from this point on we can receive a referral. In fact that is the official stage we are in now- waiting to be matched with a child. For the type of special needs adoption we are pursuing in China- we had to wait for all of the paperwork to be completed and our file to be in the Chinese system before we could be matched with a waiting child. So now that we are logged in our social worker, Jenna can present a file of a child to us that she thinks is a good match for our family.
Adoption from the country of China is exclusively a "Special Needs" program. The needs of the children however range from very very minor (things most of us would not consider special needs) to severe.
In the beginning of our Chinese adoption process we filled out a form called a "Special Needs Consideration List."
This was a long list of various types of special needs. We had to check either "yes", "no", or "maybe" to every need listed. Our agency has special partnerships with around 12 orphanages they are receiving files from those orphanages regularly of children who are available for adoption. Our agency also has been given another list by the Chinese government of children available for adoption. There is also a master "shared list" of all the children available for adoption in the country. I believe all agencies have access to this shared list. Most of Lifeline's families are matched with children in either Lifeline's personal list or from one of their partnership orphanages. These are the files our social worker Jenna is reviewing and seeking to find a match for our family based on the special needs list we filled out at the beginning of the process.
This reality brings us right to the edge of something we have not yet experienced in our very long adoption process.
We have been in this for almost 3 years now. It has been one of the most significant, difficult, surprising, challenging and soul shaping things we have ever done. In these three years we have trudged through, paperwork- mounds and mounds of paperwork, through financial uncertainties, waiting- long, long, seasons of waiting, hoping, praying, trusting, both in our Ethiopian adoption and this Chinese one. One thing we have not yet experienced in process in Ethiopia or China is the name and face of a child. This the brink we are standing on now.
We are waiting- yes- this is something we are well aquatinted with in the adoption process- but what we are waiting for is new. The very next phone call I receive from Jenna will likely reveal the name and face of our child. Our little one is the next step. A real heart, a real story, a precious child that will come into our family.
When we began this process 3 years ago we anticipated a year to a year and a half journey. We anticipated bringing 2 little ones home in that time. Two years into the process and almost no movement toward that goal our hearts started to numb a bit. It is really hard to stay excited and expectant with no signs of hope that it will ever happen. So somewhere we had to buckle down and just persevere. Joy and anticipation were pushed aside in an attempt to protect our hearts from continual disappointment.
We definitely felt emotions during that long, long, season of waiting and uncertainty, but they were more emotions of fear, panic, and ache.
We are moving into a new place. There is a light ahead. We are feeling joy and anticipation return. We are getting close to seeing God's promises fulfilled and our prayers answered. He has been fulfilling promises and answering prayers all along but to things we never expected and in ways that were never a part of our plans or dreams. What is coming soon is a hope realized.
We have learned and continue to learn more about our Shepherd. We have gotten to know his heart, his purposes, his ways through this journey. He is good and what he does is good. His plans are better than my own and he is always Sovereign. There is no comfort or certainty in this life or in anything the world has to offer. It's only found in Him. Through this journey I am learning my only hope is in Him. We have had to trust him with everything. Trust him with our plans, our dreams, our timing, for provision, for comfort, protection, and for our child. And He has proven himself faithful with all of those precious things. He has been stronger and more powerful than anything difficult thing we have faced and He has always been better. Better than my plans, dreams, and timing.
"I am still confident of this:
I will see the goodness of the Lord
in the land of the living.
Wait for the Lord;
be strong and take heart
and wait for the Lord."
Psalm 27:13, 14
"But I trust in you, O Lord;
I say, 'You are my God'
My times are in your hands."
Psalm 31:14,15
Would you continue in prayer for us?
- Join us in praise. God has been faithful. He has been good and is Sovereign. Join us as we praise him for this new season.
- Would you pray for our child? They are living somewhere in China right now. Please pray that God would protect them, and provide someone to love them deeply and bond with them. Please pray their needs are being met. Please pray for their little heart- that God would be preparing them to join our family and for the pain and confusion that will mean to them initially as they will have to leave the only things, people, and home they have ever known.
- Would you pray for the people who are caring for our child now? Pray they are loving and kind and give our little one what they need in this time.
- Would you pray that God would make it abundantly and supernaturally clear to us when we see the face of the child he purposes to be in our family? We could be shown a file and it not be the right child for us and then shown another file after that. This is possible in this kind of adoption. Our social worker may show us a file of a child that isn't who we are to adopt. (maybe the special needs are more than we feel we could handle) We want to be led very clearly to the child God has for us. It would be wonderful if it is the very first file Jenna shows us.
- Please pray that God would provide what we need for the rest of the adoption. There is a financial reality before us that is greater than we have in our hands. Pray for our grant applications- that we receive some. Pray for our coming fundraisers.
- Pray for the details of more paperwork, grants, travel plans, decisions, ect.
- For our hearts- that we would all be prepared to love this child and know how to parent them through hard things.
- For Caleb, Sophie, and Levi. That they too would know our Lord more intimately and real in their lives through this all. That they would be filled with love for their new sibling.
"Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than
all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us,
to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus
throughout all generations, for ever and ever!
Amen."
Ephesians 3:20
