Why did we adopt? Basically we did it because we had trouble with the most direct way of starting a family, natural childbirth. We discussed it over the years, seven of which were outside the church, where we basically dismissed it, followed by two after we made confessions of faith, joined a Christian church, and were then exposed to adoption programs. We considered domestic adoptions (we considered the legal risks too high), European adoptions (too stringent travel rules, and not pursued for other reasons personal to us), and international. We decided on China because it was the most stable program for international adoptions from a legal point of view, and didn't want to have the rules changed on us while we were going through the waiting process.
We sent in our adoptiion application on August 12, 2002, and began a program of Home Studies, background investigations, autobiography writing, and waiting. The following March (2003) we were informed that our packet had been sent to China and we would be over there in about a year. In the meantime, my mom had fallen upon bad health, and we found out later that she would not live to see her newest granddaughter. Mom passed away less than one week after Easter.
Over the summer, there was a little crisis. The SARS crisis hit, and travel to China was halted for a short period of time. For some reason, it didn't bother me. I was expecting to be traveling in March or April 2004 anyway so I didn't think it would affect us. It affected others however, and we were meeting them, as we had joined an organization called Families of Children from China (FCC). Through FCC and our adoption agency, we found out that the Chinese authorities were not happy with the interruption of the adoption program, and they made serious changes to their procedures to speed up the process. As a result, we were told informally that we would be traveling sooner than we thought.
On the date that would have been my Mom's birthday, November 17, we got a picture from our adoption agency that had Rebecca's picture attached, the first picture we had ever seen of her. Her name then was Fu Dong Lan. I've often wondered if receiving that picture on my mom's birthday was my mom's way of saying "I'm sorry I couldn't be there, but I'm happy for you, and I asked God to send you your daughter's picture on my birthday so you know".
Posted by Joel Fuhrmann at November 14, 2004 10:08 PM