After PJ & I tell people that we received our referral for our beautiful little girl, so many people say "you guys have waited so long" or "are you glad it is almost finally over" or some variety of those. But in adoption reality (China), we did not even wait one day. Your "waiting period" in China does not actually start til your dossier goes to China. Our referral came in hours before our dossier went to China. PJ & I feel blessed beyond words that we were matched with no waiting period. And honestly--sometimes we feel guilty. But then we remember that this is totally a God thing. If you are waiting to be matched with your little one, remember that God already knows who they are.
Sydney will have the last name Vinyard. Not sure what her exact name will be but right now we are thinking it will be Sydney Hope Li Vinyard. But that could change tomorrow! But her last name will be Vinyard!
Even though we know Sydney is our daughter, we just can't book tickets to China & go pick her up. China has a lot of rules/regulations/stuff we have to do in order to adopt. Once you decide to adopt from China, you just accept those rules & try to finish them as quickly as possible!! We are awaiting on our RA (referral acceptance) now.
Why China? PJ & I researched several countries (including the United States) in the very beginning of our process (Feb '08). But we felt like China just fit our family--stable program, cost, we saw the greatest need in China. It was not the whole "girl thing". PJ & I did not even know if we wanted to adopt a boy or a girl. By the way, China does have A LOT of boys that need to be adopted.
Will Sydney speak English? No she will not. This is a question we hear a lot! And then people ask what will we do to communicate? I really don't know! But for some reason, I'm not stressing or worrying about it. (I know several of you are SHOCKED!) I think having two older children in the house will be a great help to Sydney.
My least favorite question--how much does "Sydney" cost? Ugh. I'll just leave my comment to Ugh. Our agency stated at the beginning of our process that the total process would be $20-$22K.
Will we meet Sydney's birth parents? No we will not. We have Sydney's finding ad & know that her mother kept her from Oct 22 to Oct 25. She then dropped her off at the Children's Hospital. Sydney's birth mom made the ultimate selfless act. She put Sydney's needs first. Sydney was born very premature & only weighing 4 pounds at birth. I'm assuming this is all we will ever know. But THANK YOU to Li Sixin's birth mom.
Are we finally "done"? Honestly, we can't answer that. We said "yes" after we had Philip. We said "yes" after we had Ashlyn. And then God placed adoption on our hearts. This journey to Sydney has been AWESOME. It has brought our family closer to each other & God. I'm not sure how it will work with 3 kids. But I know that we will figure it out! I'm sure I will need a lot of advice from the BTDT crowd.
Please comment directly on the blog! Just click on the "notes from a friend" to leave a comment. I'm going to burn the blog (not sure how?) for the kids after we get back from China & then yearly after that. Kinda like a baby or memory book for Sydney.
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
I love this Jen. Thank you for opening up about your family and the adoption process. It is funny what people ask.
aI always got the "How much does it cost?" question. What people need to understand, is that a HUGE portion of "the cost", is your trip to China. Airfare is not cheap--and once you are IN China you have to pay for hotels, dinner, and traveling for two weeks. For some reason people think that the Chinese officials are making out with a ton of money. It's actually the U.S. side that seems to benefit the most on these adoptions!
And no one EVER asks me how much my fence cost....it was not cheap. :)
You'll be shocked at how quickly she picks up the language. Singing times is great for basic communication. Hudson was using signs within two daya and we couldn't get by without them now (because of cleft palate issues).
so glad you stopped by my blog ... Congrats on your PA ... Will be praying your sweet girl home !!!!
Post a Comment