What a whirlwind this adoption thing is.
Three months have passed since my last update, and much to be celebrated has happened since then. We'll start small.
Homestudy is FINALLY complete. Things I learned from the home study process:
1. Social workers are actually NOT members of the KGB. Huh.
2. Clean houses are for people who don't actually live in one.
3. Don't let your 3 year old answer the question "Do you like your sister?"
4. Don't believe everything you read on the internet (still debating the accuracy of this one).
Fundraiser Numero Tres came and went, and left us in a sate of shock. We decided to have a garage sale / bake sale on May 2nd and 3rd. I accidentally opened the garage when I went to pick up the girls from daycare, and when I came back, a mob had descended on our yard. The first night we were open three hours and made $1200. Saturday we were open three and a half hours, and made $1000. People. Seriously, no words. All we sold were pink baby things and some baked goods that friends and family had donated. We had five tables total. After the first night, I did a mad dash through the house to see what else I could find to put out since we were literally cleaned out the first night. People's generosity blew us away. It was either that, or I know how to put on a mean garage sale (I don't). I was barely able to keep up with the line, but luckily our friends and family are exceptionally awesome, and lent a hand during the craziness. Garage sales are so, so much work, but this one definitely paid off. No regrets here. And who needs sleep, anyway? Or sanity? One moment I hope to never forget is when we were about to close the garage at the end of it all, and an elderly woman pulls up in front of our house and hurries up the driveway. I'm going over how to politely say "I literally can't garage sale for one more garage sale minute" in my head when she asks if we are the family having an adoption fundraiser. I somehow mutter "yes" through my guilty conscience, and she immediately hands me $50. Just like that. She didn't know us, didn't know our story, had no idea if we were worthy or not, but has an amazing heart for adoption and just wanted to help. She later told me she has a daughter who is adopting from China and she knows how hard (and expensive) international adoption can be. While I agree, I'm still blown away that anyone would care enough to help us pay our child's ransom. A child we've never met. A child who waits.
And that child, now has a name and a face.
Due to Hong Kong's privacy laws, we aren't able to share his photo or any other identifying information about him publicly. Here's what I can tell you.
He's obviously a He. He's older than we thought we would feel comfortable adopting, and God absolutely placed him right in front of us. He was tired of us ignoring the little hints, so he brought a special lady into our lives through the wonderful world of Facebook who made it all very clear. Here's the story:
In the summer of 2013 I contacted Reece's Rainbow and asked if they had any children in Hong Kong listed. Soon after, I received an email with the profile of the cutest little guy who apparently loves Mickey Mouse (based on his shirt in EVERY picture). I distinctly remember that day. I was having a gourmet lunch at Taco Bell with my sweet friend Cindy when the email came. I remember reading over his profile and feeling my heart break for him. I couldn't understand why he was still waiting for a family. Being the awesome person she is, Cindy's response was "You have to adopt him". My heart screamed a great big YES!, but my head said no, he's too old and not right for our family. Fast-forward six months. Adoption business kept us extremely busy. We hadn't really been actively looking at any children's profiles. We had looked through the list of children our agency had, and since none of them had Down Syndrome, we decided it would be best if we were matched by the Department of Social Welfare in Hong Kong. We were truly content with that plan, and didn't want to rush things. Trusting God has been vital to this process. We knew He would lead us to our child, wherever they may be. Little did we know, he was busy at work trying to get us to realize what he had already shown us once. We aren't GREAT listeners, yet (work in progress).
I was browsing a group on Facebook for HK adoptive parents on February 17th when I came across a post from someone advocating for a child with DS in HK. She had met this child and loved him enough to help find his mom and dad. It was a short post, but something about it caught my eye. I sent a quick message her, and immediately got a message back. Something told me this was the same child I had seen on Reece's Rainbow the summer before. After a few exchanges back and forth, we figured out it was definitely the same little guy. I immediately heard God saying "It's about time!". I brought all of this up to Derek, and it didn't take long before we were calling and emailing our agency to see what needed to be done for us to be able to commit to him. Unfortunately for us, it wasn't as cut and dry as we had hoped. I remember saying to our adoption coordinator "I've decided NOTHING about adoption is easy". She laughed and assured me it wasn't. But man it's worth it. Lots of behind the scenes action has been taking place, which is allowing us to adopt our sweet boy through Dillon, the agency we have been with since the beginning of this process. We can't speak highly enough about Jan, our coordinator. She truly cares about the kids in Hong Kong and does everything humanly possible to help them come home to their forever families.
We are still so far away from traveling, but we are closer than we were yesterday. We have a picture. A profile. A story. A son. We're "expecting". Someone asked me if it's just as exciting as finding out you are pregnant. Absolutely. Without a doubt. Maybe even MORE exciting, because you have a face and a name, just not a due date. I think we can deal with that. It's only forward moving from here.
