Adoption Update: Victories, Patience, and a Movie Night!

We did it!

We asked if 30 people could gift $30 (1/day) in National Adoption Month, and you DID it! (And several of you gave more.) Thank you thank you thank you to everyone who prayed and shared and gave!

If you don’t have buttons yet they are either in the mail, or in my folder to bring to you in person.

Movie Night: Saturday, December 9

If you’re local, bring friends and family and come hang out for a super fun movie night next Saturday.

We’ll have Chinese candy and (American) popcorn. Donations for gift baskets to be raffled off are rolling in, and I’m super excited about all of this great stuff! Hand-lettered Christmas decor, Cambodian coffee, homemade soy candles, and more!

Movie will start at 6, so if you’re in the area, come a little early to get a snack and a seat!

And if you can’t make a donation at the door, don’t worry about it. Just come and hang out. Your presence is invaluable emotional support. Seriously.

We’re on the List!

Still waiting for the home study report. We need to submit a copy of a health insurance card, which we just signed up for November 1. The card went in the mail yesterday, so that’s one pile of paperwork almost complete!

And then we wait for the report.

In the meantime, the ONE thing that does NOT require a completed home study, is the application for the Waiting Child list with our agency. We finished that application over the weekend and it was accepted this week!

This means our family is officially on the list of families available to be matched with children ready for adoption!

(We’re on the bottom of the list, of course, but it still makes my stomach jump every time I think of it)

Every month, China releases a batch of files on children who are available for adoption. That list gets divided among the U.S. agencies who have relationships with China. Our agency takes their short list, and prayerfully compares it to the families on their list, to find matches.

As part of the application we identified the gender, age range, and any special needs/medical conditions we feel capable of parenting. Those are things they’re comparing to the children’s files. And, of course, lots of prayer.

But we don’t expect to hear about a match any time soon. We can’t even accept one until the home study, dossier, and immigration paperwork are all finalized and accepted, but the matching process takes so long that the agency lets us get on the list while we finish up paperwork.

Still though … we’re on the list. Something about it just feels so very real to me.

What’s Next?

Next, we finish the home study. Once that’s approved and finalized, we can start pushing the rest of the paperwork forward AND start applying for grants.

Which doesn’t mean the fundraising will stop. The buttons are gone, but I’m gonna have a new little thank you gift for anyone who feels like donating in December. Stay tuned on IG and Facebook.

How Can I Help?

You’re too much.

• Pray. Pray there’s no (more) hold ups with the health insurance card, and that the home study gets finalized without a hitch. And pray for our boy — wherever he is — and the people taking care of him for us.
• Movie Night. If you’re in the area, come hang out with us. If you’re in the area and want to help set up/clean up, hit me up and I’ll get you details. (Or … just show up an hour early or so.)

Thank you for going on this adventure with us!