Our Adoption Story

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We kept thinking we would have more answers and we could write an exciting update.


Instead, our paperwork didn’t make it through two initial checks at the embassy without an explanation for which we could take corrective action. We can thank COVID because before the pandemic our agency’s liaison would pick up the paperwork in person and be able to have a clarifying conversation. That no longer matters because the extra time caused by COVID for the paperwork to travel through the various agencies has now meant all of the notarizations are too old and have expired.


So last week we began our third round of the same paperwork. We sent off for birth certificates and marriage license. And started the conversation with the police department (took us ~2 months last time). Next week we will be printing and taking all of the other paperwork to be signed and notarized here in town at various places. The hope being that by early to mid-march we will be able to send a packet back to through the Texas State Department – US State Department – Chinese Embassy verification process.

On the immigration front our paperwork is at USCIS to get immigration approval for our future child. Also, all of us have passport paperwork being processed in various agencies.

In many ways this setback has created a new beginning and with that has come new energy and excitement about the future for our family. We are hopeful that we will be off this paperwork carousel this spring.

Twist & Turns

This week has been a disappointing week. One of the strange things of any adoption process is how emotionally charged each piece of paperwork can be. We spent this last year redoing everything we had done the year before, and we found out this week there is a chance we may have to do it again.

Our finalized home study still has not arrived. We found out our packet of paperwork at the embassy was deemed incomplete, but there was no explanation of what was missing. We had to overnight a new set of forms that start the paperwork file at the embassy and our agency is going to resubmit the file.

Then it was good news, bad news. Our agency was able to get a embassy appointment to resubmit everything for this week, yea! Bad news the processing time is now 6 weeks instead of 2 and this could mean some of our documents are too old. So we may have to start 2021 by doing this paperwork step over again for the 3rd time.

Home Study Approved!!

In the Fall 2019 we began the journey to grow our family again. We started an adoption process to bring our son or daughter home from China.

As this year draws to a close we have finished what feels like the first chapter on the long journey to bringing our second child home!

This year has been filled with tons of up and downs at least in the paper trail. Everything has taken twice as long and we now have done this first round of paperwork twice at least. In many ways getting to this points feels like a huge accomplishment we spent so much time pushing through emotional and pandemic related obstacles.

We are mindful though of the families who are travel-ready, set to pickup their children, but the pandemic has kept them apart this whole year. We pray just as governments have reopened travel soon will follow.

Up next for us is US immigration paperwork and more fingerprinting. And with a completed home study we can now officially begin seeking grants and other financial support.

How it all started – 1st Adoption

Our adoption story begins before we even met. Over our years growing up, God placed a sensitivity towards children without families in our hearts. We met in college, and as our relationship grew from friendship to dating, one of the unique ways we connected was that we both felt called by God to grow our family through adoption.

We have been married for eleven years now, and we have not been able to have biological children. We have never despaired over this, however, because of our call to adopt. We have seen our heart for adoption grow over the years as we have worked with teenagers, many from unstable homes. Our work has been motivated by God’s passionate love overflowing out of us, and this in turn has further fueled our heart for adoption.

Also, early in our relationship we realized we shared a heart for China despite having no experience with the country or its people. Over the last several years we have traveled to China twice. Our fascination with and love for the people and culture grows deeper with each visit. China is now a place of lifelong friends and a place that feels like a second home.

Based on these motivations we began the adoption process in 2015 with Dillon International. We applied for the Open Options program choosing not to select a country. Instead, we wanted to be open to a child from any country for which we qualified. A few months after submitting our application in the fall of 2015, we were matched with a waiting child, a seven year old boy from China. We have worked for the past year through the mountains of paperwork, and now we are eagerly awaiting approval of all the travel paperwork so we can bring our boy home.