Thank you!

Yesterday was the big day, the day that we finally sent out our blog link to our family and friends.
The response has been overwhelming! So many people took the time to write back to us and send us well wishes for our journey. The encouraging words brought more than a few tears to my eyes. Thank you everyone for being so supportive, it is nice to know that we will have family and friends cheering us on throughout this process.

Happy New Year

Back in March of 2014 we completed the first step in the adoption process. We paid a yearly Children's Bridge membership fee and we contacted the Program Manager for the Waiting Child (WC) China program. The phone call with our Program Manager covered information such as; age, gender, and special needs of the children in the WC China program. We discussed timelines for the program and the next steps for us.
After the phone conversation we were emailed reading material pertaining to cleft lip/palate, an information package outlining the adoption process, and the contact information of a family who has been through the WC China program. We were required to contact the family to hear their adoption story and ask them questions about the program. The purpose of the reading material and contacting the family was to ensure that the process was really right for us. We found the conversation with the family very helpful. It provided us with information that was not in any of the printed materials and gave us a contact to use throughout the process.

Once we felt confident that we wanted to proceed with the program we called back our Program Manager to be placed on the callback list. The callback list is for families that have paid their fees to be in the WC China program but do not have their paperwork complete (i.e. home study, background checks etc). We have also been placed on this list because the Chinese government requires that there be an 18 month age difference between the child we have and the child we adopt. That means our daughter needs to be 18 months older than the little boy we bring home from China. At the time of our initial conversation, the youngest boys with a clef lip/palate what were being adopted were 16-18 months of age. At this time our daughter wasn't even a year old yet so even if we had our paperwork complete we wouldn't  be able to move to the active families list (a list for families who are waiting for their paperwork to be accepted by the Chinese Government). Our Program Manager advised us to wait until January 2015 to start the next step in the process. The next step is finding an Adoption Practitioner (Social Worker) and doing PRIDE (Parent Resources for Information, Development, and Education) Training. http://secure.adoptontario.ca/mobile/pride.main.aspx#&ui-state=dialog

 

 

So here we are, it's January 11, 2015 and we are starting the next step of our journey. Happy New Year everyone.

A little more background..

Years before our daughter was born my husband and I attended an information session held by Children's Bridge. At the session we learned that there are a number of countries that you can adopt from. At that time China was already one of the countries we were interested in adopting from. We learned that China offers an adoption program called the "Waiting Child Program".

This program is for families that are interested in adopting children with special needs (minor handicaps and/or health problems). Some of these minor health problems were correctable, and by accepting a child in this program your wait for a child was sometimes cut in half. We heard that life for the children in this program was often quite horrible. As an example, in China, children with a cleft lip/palate are seen as being cursed. They are not accepted in society and are not able to go to school or get a job. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. A common medical condition that can often be fixed was seen as a curse? Right then I wanted more information about the program. The next thing I remember was seeing the cost of an adoption from China in our information book and I looked at my husband in disbelief. I thought right then, we might as well go home because there was no way we could afford to do this. But then, Children's Bridge popped in a little video documenting one family's journey to adoption. Of course this family was adopting a child from China and by the end of the video I was weeping all over the budget information sheet that I had been fretting over only a few minutes prior. I looked over at my husband and this time we both knew there was no turning back now.

Here is a link to the Waiting Children adoption page on the Children's Bridge website. This will give you a better idea of the requirements from us as adoptive parents, the timelines of the program, and the process. http://www.childrensbridge.com/pages/china_wc.html

Our Journey Begins

Ever since I was a little girl I dreamed of adopting a child from another country. When I was younger I thought that meant sending $20/month to Alex Trebek  so that the little girl or boy on my TV screen would have clean drinking water and school supplies. As I grew older and I learned what adoption really meant my passion grew even stronger. I was also lucky enough to have two positive examples of adoption within my family as two of my Aunts were adopted.
 

 Luckily I married someone who agreed to share in my adoption dream. He knew very early on that I wanted to adopt, and I knew that he wanted to have a biological child. So we agreed to meet halfway and now we have a beautiful little girl who turned one in May 2014. We both adore our daughter but we know that our family will not be complete until we adopt a child.

 

After many years of research we have decided to adopt a boy from China. The company that will be facilitating our adoption is called Children's Bridge. Here is a link to their website if you would like more information. http://www.childrensbridge.com/
Welcome to our adoption journey.