We made it through the China Review Room!

HIP HIP HOORAY! Our China dossier, which was logged into China's system on 8-10-06, was finally reviewed! We began the process for China in March of 2006, so this has already been one long wait. At this point they have only placed children with familes who were registered before November 25, 2005, so the wait has really just begun!

I have had some questions concerning our adoption process, so I will try to briefly address them here. After being married a couple of years and not getting pregnant, our PCP referred us to the local Center for Reproductive Health, which is one of the best in the nation. We had every test imaginable and were finally told by one of the physicians that we fall into the 15% of couples who have "unexplained infertility." The doctors couldn't find a cause, nor could they determine which of us was "infertile." After 6 rounds (9 months) of Inter-uterine Inseminations and other various humiliating (UGH!) and painful (OUCH!) procedures, we decided to move in another direction. Was it a difficult decision? I will address that in another post so this one won't be too long.

Before we left for Taiwan to meet Matthew, a lady said to me, "I don't know why you have to go all the way to Taiwan when there are children to adopt here." I suppose that view is understandable if you don't believe in God's hand in your life...if you think that people go and adopt just ANY child. I explained to her that God's perfect plan for our family included Matthew and God chose for Matthew to be born in Taiwan rather than Texas; therefore, it was to Taiwan we would go.

People may say they "decided" to adopt from here or there, but I believe that decision comes from God putting His promptings in your heart. When we began to research countries, we also looked at the US as well as other countries, but we felt drawn to Asia. I had looked at one agency representing Taiwan, but noticed their requirement for length of marriage excluded us from adopting there, so we applied for China. At the time it was a 9 month wait from application to referral. After 9 months we realized our adoption wasn't going to happen anytime soon, so we decided to look at the possibility of adopting from another country while we waited for China. I visited a family's blog who had adopted from Taiwan and then contacted their agency at the mother's recommendation. This agency supported a program which did not have a marriage length requirement, so we were good to go (although as a twist in the plot we received notice the week before we received Matthew's referral that the agency was increasing the marriage requirement, which would have kicked us out of the program, but then the officials made an exception for us). We applied in late 2006, finished our paperwork in early January 2007, received a referral in March, and traveled in August.

I have no doubt that God placed Matthew in our family. Perhaps our China adoption was a diversion until Matthew was born and ready to join us, or perhaps God has plans for our family to include a child from China, too. Perhaps we will eventually have a biological child, or perhaps we will adopt domestically. I don't know, but I know the One who does know...and I can rest in that!