One Year Later

Last April, we made the decision to adopt. At that time, we planned to adopt from China. Today, almost one year later, we have changed our course a little, but we mailed off the last of our documents to our agency. We mailed off the copy of our I-71H, a letter we wrote to Claire's birthmother, a photo album, and of course, a very nice little check to pay for our program fee.

Making the photo album this week is one of the hardest things that I've ever done. I was up so late every night trying to portray our family as accurately as possible. People are so visual, and I knew that if it was me making this painstaking decsion on picking the perfect family for my child, the pictures would be so important to me. I know what a wonderful home we can provide and how much love that we have to give. I know how much we laugh and how much we all love each other. I know that we value happiness, our closeness as a family, and our relationship and faithfulness to God above all else, but how do I show this in pictures? I prayed so much that God would lead me to create an album that would be everything that Claire's birthmother needed to see, so I feel at peace that God will take care of the rest.

So, it's done. It's out of our hands. Our paperwork will be on it's way to Taiwan to begin translation soon. The long, long wait begins. Thank God we have a four-year old, who is so sweet and goofy to keep us entertained through this wait of 18-24 months. He is currently, as I type this, showing me his mad "jumproping skills." They still need some work!