This week we received an e-mail from our adoption agency that China has just made a new window of opportunity for those who have a LID (remember what that means? If not read my last post) but are not yet matched with a child. That would be us.
Before I explain this opportunity, you need to understand this: with a China adoption, your file is in a LONG line in China to be matched with a NON-SPECIAL NEEDS (NSN) healthy child. You can ALSO, SIMULTANEOUSLY choose to sign up for the Waiting Child (WC) program, which is for SPECIAL NEEDS (SN) kids, which is a short line inside the US adoption agencies. Because the wait for the NSN is 7 years, and the wait for the SN is under 2 years, you'll likely be matched with an SN kid first.
The interesting news: China has just recently announced that anyone interested in a healthy, NSN, "older child" ages 6yrs-13yrs old, can essentially JUMP THE LINE. This is likely due to the fact that a vast majority of adoptive parents have requested a child under the age of 2, and the number of older kids available is becoming overwhelming. (Maybe they were abandoned at or after age 2 and missed the chance to be adopted as a baby?). It made me very sad to hear about these perfectly healthy kids waiting for a family!
When we started this process a year ago it was recommended that we keep the "Birth Order" of our children, especially when it came to Evie. We still believe that it is important that she remain the "first born", for the sake of maintaining peace in our house! LOL. So we had signed up for a child under age 2. But when this opportunity came up we decided to discuss it as a family. Surprisingly, we ALL found ourselves VERY excited about the idea of adopting a child the SAME age as Evie... who is now 6. The more we thought about it, the more it seemed to just... fit!
Our agency needs to know by this Thursday if we want to sign up for this option, and we plan to pursue it. We just have to work out the details with our home study agency, who will need to make an amendment to approve us for an older child. We will also need to file a change with the US Immigration (a lovely $405 piece of paper!) for this approval, but I believe that it just needs to be done before we bring her home, not before we could get a match.
I have NO idea how quickly a match would come. It certainly sounds like it could be fast, since China is giving it top priority, but we are requesting one very specific age, and even though we are moving to the front of the line we will still be behind others who take this older-child opportunity and have had a LID longer than us. We will still remain in the second line as well, for a Special Needs child, so I guess we will see from which direction God brings us OUR GIRL! :-)
Until then, I'm having a really hard time sleeping! All this excitement has my brain working overtime! So I figured since the effort to sleep is futile, I might as well give you all an update so you can join us in prayer on this new unexpected turn in our adoption journey!
You should have seen Evie's eyes light up when she realized she could have a sister the same age as her. But she understands that we are waiting to see what God will do. Last night she prayed, "Lord, help us to find our China sister, big or small." Amen! (Yes, she brought tears to my eyes. So thankful God is preparing her heart for this journey as well).
