A Feeling of Peace

July 21, 2009

Yesterday I called around, on my day off, to the different agencies that I’m interested in. I got a hold of all of them and asked a series of questions. It’s really hard to compare “apples to apples” with agencies because they all organize their financial fees differently. Some include the home study, visas, international travel, etc. Others do not…therefore you really have to dissect the fees to really compare the agencies. Not to mention, all agencies have different agency fees, and they call them different things that mean the same thing! Also, included in adoption costs is a donation to the orphanage that your child will come from, or whatever humanitarian aid that the agency is a part of, totaling different amounts. Since there are many things that can vary, the price of the adoption can vary among agencies. I have learned though, that you will never really know that you need an exact amount for the adoption. One reason is that international travel is a big part of the expense. This can obviously vary quite a bit depending on what time of year you need to travel. You won’t know what time of year you will travel because it depends on how quickly you put together your dossier (all of your documents in order to adopt—usually take 3-4 months or longer) and then send it to the country in which you are adopting from. Then the wait time begins. The wait time varies with what you’ve asked for…how old the child is (older children are more available), the sex of the child you’ve asked for (that depends on the country you’ve asked for), and the country itself. All countries have organized their international adoption to work a certain way, wait times are different because of how it works in their particular country and also it depends on how popular the country is to adopt from.

As I called around yesterday, one of the questions I asked was for them to recommend a country going off of what our “priorities” are…girl, under 2, without a huge wait time. Remember that all agencies have a different countries that they work with, some the same and some different, but my answer was narrowed down to 3 options…Russia, Kazakhstan, and a “Waiting Child” from China. For those of you who are not familiar with what the “waiting child” phrase, it basically means, a child in need, or special needs. Now to us Americans, we think of special needs as handicapped in some way. Special needs in China can simply mean an older child. A child with cleft lip and cleft palette. A child with a missing toe. Now there are, of course, other more serious things like children with missing limbs or heart problems or hepatitis, etc. If we were to adopt a special needs child, we would still specify a girl and under 2 and then we would basically include what type of things we would be able to take on and then our referral would be of a child with one of those particular characteristics. The waiting child programs wait time is significantly less than for a healthy child.

It’s still a lot to think of and figure out. I think I’ve figured a possible way to afford this financially and today is looking bright. =)

Dusty’s promotional exam is in a couple days and boy, I can’t wait! This is a test that can possibly make him eligible to promote in the next 2 years. He’s studied more for this test than I think I’ve studied for anything in my life!! He’s a great husband and very focused and devoted to doing well for himself and his family. I will say though, I’m looking forward to having my husband back! Can’t wait till his head is outta the books! We decided that we would sit down and really start talking together about the adoption and all of the details once the test is over. I’ve just been doing all the research for now, so I have a lot to share with him after the 23rd.

Proverbs 19:21
Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.