Our adoption journey actually started over a year ago when we attended a workshop at our church presented by the Foster & Adoption Ministry at North Way Christian Community. We took home a folder full of resources and tons of helpful information. When we felt ready to start pursing adoption, we began working with one of the agencies mentioned in the literature.
Most adoption agencies will work with a handful of countries and help guide you to the one that best fits your family. As we worked with our agency, we were directed towards China. Different countries have different criteria (we were surprised that Taiwan, for example, would not adopt to us because Brad takes anxiety medication). In China you have to have a certain BMI - we never got far enough to see what they thought of our weight!
A month or so into the process, it was time to complete our "Openness Form." This form had 60 checkboxes representing different needs a child may have, from physical conditions to mental hurdles and beyond. We had many long discussions about how open we are to these needs. While some things were a no-brainer (missing finger, club foot, mild hearing loss, etc.), others really took a lot of debate. We spent hours Googling medical terms we were unfamiliar with and looking at what treatments would entail. In the end, our openness is fairly extensive and includes anything medically correctable or easily manageable. In reality though, our house is not wheelchair accessible, so that ruled several things out, and we don't feel capable to handle some of the more severe mental and emotional conditions.
After our agency spoke with their China partners, they came back with the news that right now the special needs coming from China are on the more severe side (think brittle bone disease, cerebral palsy, etc.). We searched our hearts, not wanting to deny a child in need, but in the end also had to be realistic with what we could handle given that we have two other children.
We made the difficult decision to close the door to China and start over with some place new.
We began looking at adoption agencies all over the country as opposed to those just in Pittsburgh. We found a few that we interviewed, but everything seemed right when we spoke with All God's Children International, out of Washington state. Based on our profile, they pointed us towards Bulgaria, a country with a large Romani population, which are sometimes called "Travelers" (and sometimes called gypsies, which is considered a derogatory term). This people group continues to be persecuted and ostracized, and some Romani children find themselves in orphanages. Of course, we cannot be sure of which child we will receive, but we are trying to study up on all things Bulgaria and Romani.
As far as the timeline, right now, we are in the midst of our home study. This is the period of time (about 4 months) where our social worker will gather everything there is to know about us and assemble it into a binder (or dossier) that will ultimately be submitted to the Bulgarian government. Once Bulgaria has all of our paperwork, then we wait! We are told the wait time will likely be about 2 years, but ultimately we are relying on the Bulgarian government to match us with the child who is right for us.
From China to Bulgaria it's been a whirlwind of emotions ever since we decided to start down this road, this past June. But one thing is for sure: this story is already written and we are just waiting for it to unfold.
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