Our adoption journey started on February 7, 2004, the day our son was born. Despite a healthy and normal pregnancy, the delivery became complicated and ended with our son in the NICU and me in the ICU post hysterectomy. My husband and I had never even thought about adopting a child, but God had a special plan for our family. He knew there was a child on the other side of the world that would need a family and He used this traumatic day for good.
After some time, my husband and I began to seriously consider the possibility of adoption. For many reasons, we felt led to an international adoption. In 2006 our church hosted an adoption seminar by A Helping Hand. At about the same time our church had also started doing mission work in China. Many circumstances began to present themselves which made it clear to us that China was the place to pursue our adoption. In January 2007 we officially started our paperwork and began a new chapter in our life. Our official log in date was September 5, 2007. When we started our paperwork it was approximately an 18 month wait to referral for your child. Totally doable! Right?!? Little did we know then that things were going to drastically change. As the wait for a match continued to grow, so did our disappointment and frustration. During this time a couple of opportunities for domestic adoptions presented themselves, though again, with much disappointment none worked out for our family. With the passage of time we now see that God had a bigger plan for our family.
As the wait continued to grow with weeks turning into months and months into years with no improvement in sight, my husband and I began to seriously consider a special needs adoption. For those of you who have completed adoption paperwork regarding For this reason it took us eight months to finally complete our paperwork. Then with a series of incredible miracles, a more dedicated prayer time for our family about our future daughter and the amazing work of God, we were matched just two months later with Chloe on April 26, 2011!
I cannot put into words the incredible emotions our family felt that day. The almost four year journey was hitting the high point. I wanted to shout it from a mountain top; as a matter of fact I told anyone that would listen. The joy in our hearts was overwhelming. Praise God for His amazing gift. It is now over two years later and I can now see how this was the perfect match for our family and it was all orchestrated by God. I don’t think there is any human way possible someone could have matched our daughter so perfectly to our family. Her dynamic personality and loving spirit are such a blessing to us. In addition to gaining a daughter, our experience deepened our faith, taught us to rely on God and not our own abilities, and instilled in us the need wait on God’s perfect timing.
