If you've ever, ever, even if it was years ago, thought "Maybe we should Adopt" you should read this.
I can't imagine adopting without my Faith. I just can't. God and Adoption go hand in hand. May I remind you, Moses was adopted. Ruth was adopted and Jesus himself was raised and I would assume loved very much by a man that was not his biological father, Joseph.
For me, Adoption and all of the decisions that come with adoption have been answered with prayer. First, I pray and ask heavenly father to help me think clearly and to guide my education and instincts. The next steps aren't always in this order but most of the time they are. I educate as much as I can, get a feel of what seems the best for our family, then talk to my husband and get his opinion. Together we pray.
I personally think every married couple should pray about adoption. I think they should pray a few times throughout their life about adoption. What might be a "No" now, might be a "Yes" later. This happened to Shane and I. You can read about it here.
(If you get a "No" don't think that's a "get out of jail" card. haha.. You were suppose to think about adoption for a reason. Maybe you will adopt later and maybe not, but until then Pray for orphans. Pray for adoptive failies. You can also Donate your time or money towards the orphan cause. You can advocate for children trying to find families.)
I also think that some single people should adopt too. (GASP) Yes, I just said that. There are too many Orphan's in the world for me to NOT say it. If a single stable adult has prayed and feels like they should adopt then Yay!!
There's a great site called Rainbow kids.
Here's the link http://www.rainbowkids.com/international-adoption/country-programs/usa
I spent hours on this site. It lists each country that is open for adoptions. I wrote each country including the US down on a paper. Then I went through and read about each country. After you click on the specific country there's paragraphs that say, Children Available, Parent Qualification, Timeline, and Tavel. I studied each paragraph...
Children available- I eliminated a few countries right off the bat because the children were older then 6. However, I would pray about this before eliminating older children Chu was two years older then we expected.
Parent Qualifications for COUPLES- Th
ere were many that I eliminated because we had too many children to qualify.
*** Today when I looked at the China page it had a few things WRONG and this might be the case for other countries too.
Note, that you can obtain a waiver for having an BMI higher then 40.
You may be able to obtain a waiver if you have a serious medical condition too. Especially if your spouse is healthy.
You can also adopt a child with the same medical conditions you have.
Timeline- If the timeline to adopt took longer then 3 years, I eliminated it. Which took away the China "Healthy" program and left the "Special need" Program.
Travel- I had 4 biolgical children so how long I left them was a huge consideration! If it required more then 2 trips or a huge amount of time in country, I eliminated a country. However, If this is your first child or you can easily take your children with you, then I wouldn't eliminate what I did.
When I was done. I was left with Ukraine, Poland, Russia, The special need China program, and the US. Russia closed shortly after that and I eliminated it.
I started praying about a specific country and I used the link at the bottom of each country that says "Agencies placing children from this county" to call agencies.
I called a few agencies from each country and asked
1. What are the fees for this country?
2. Has this country closed in the past?
3. How stable is it?
Funny thing, when I would call about other countries, I kept hearing "Chinese special need adoption are very stable, cheaper fees compared to other countries, and don't be afraid of the special need program."
Pretty soon, I was down to China special needs and the US.
The US had two options. Infant adoptions or Foster care.
I specifically prayed about Foster care and felt No.
Both Shane and I Prayed about infant adoptions and Shane felt No.
So China it was!
But maybe you'll end up in a different country. If you do, ask on your fb wall. example. Do you know anyone that has adopted from Africa? Try searching on the FB search African adoptions.
Also, You can send me a pm on FB and ill try to help you. or comment below.
How to navigate the China adoption world will be my next post.
I can't imagine adopting without my Faith. I just can't. God and Adoption go hand in hand. May I remind you, Moses was adopted. Ruth was adopted and Jesus himself was raised and I would assume loved very much by a man that was not his biological father, Joseph.
For me, Adoption and all of the decisions that come with adoption have been answered with prayer. First, I pray and ask heavenly father to help me think clearly and to guide my education and instincts. The next steps aren't always in this order but most of the time they are. I educate as much as I can, get a feel of what seems the best for our family, then talk to my husband and get his opinion. Together we pray.
I personally think every married couple should pray about adoption. I think they should pray a few times throughout their life about adoption. What might be a "No" now, might be a "Yes" later. This happened to Shane and I. You can read about it here.
(If you get a "No" don't think that's a "get out of jail" card. haha.. You were suppose to think about adoption for a reason. Maybe you will adopt later and maybe not, but until then Pray for orphans. Pray for adoptive failies. You can also Donate your time or money towards the orphan cause. You can advocate for children trying to find families.)
I also think that some single people should adopt too. (GASP) Yes, I just said that. There are too many Orphan's in the world for me to NOT say it. If a single stable adult has prayed and feels like they should adopt then Yay!!
You know you SHOULD adopt, now what?
This is really important!!! Do not be surprised if now you decided to adopt that EVERYTHING goes wrong!
I hear of this all the time. I experienced it.
The week we decided we were adopting. A tire went flat, our cow died, my kids got sick, the neighbor dog killed our chicken, and that was just to name a few.
Satan doesn't like good things to happen!
This is where I started.
Here's the link http://www.rainbowkids.com/international-adoption/country-programs/usa
I spent hours on this site. It lists each country that is open for adoptions. I wrote each country including the US down on a paper. Then I went through and read about each country. After you click on the specific country there's paragraphs that say, Children Available, Parent Qualification, Timeline, and Tavel. I studied each paragraph...
Children available- I eliminated a few countries right off the bat because the children were older then 6. However, I would pray about this before eliminating older children Chu was two years older then we expected.
Parent Qualifications for COUPLES- Th
ere were many that I eliminated because we had too many children to qualify.
*** Today when I looked at the China page it had a few things WRONG and this might be the case for other countries too.
Note, that you can obtain a waiver for having an BMI higher then 40.
You may be able to obtain a waiver if you have a serious medical condition too. Especially if your spouse is healthy.
You can also adopt a child with the same medical conditions you have.
Timeline- If the timeline to adopt took longer then 3 years, I eliminated it. Which took away the China "Healthy" program and left the "Special need" Program.
Travel- I had 4 biolgical children so how long I left them was a huge consideration! If it required more then 2 trips or a huge amount of time in country, I eliminated a country. However, If this is your first child or you can easily take your children with you, then I wouldn't eliminate what I did.
When I was done. I was left with Ukraine, Poland, Russia, The special need China program, and the US. Russia closed shortly after that and I eliminated it.
I started praying about a specific country and I used the link at the bottom of each country that says "Agencies placing children from this county" to call agencies.
I called a few agencies from each country and asked
1. What are the fees for this country?
2. Has this country closed in the past?
3. How stable is it?
Funny thing, when I would call about other countries, I kept hearing "Chinese special need adoption are very stable, cheaper fees compared to other countries, and don't be afraid of the special need program."
Pretty soon, I was down to China special needs and the US.
The US had two options. Infant adoptions or Foster care.
I specifically prayed about Foster care and felt No.
Both Shane and I Prayed about infant adoptions and Shane felt No.
So China it was!
But maybe you'll end up in a different country. If you do, ask on your fb wall. example. Do you know anyone that has adopted from Africa? Try searching on the FB search African adoptions.
Also, You can send me a pm on FB and ill try to help you. or comment below.
How to navigate the China adoption world will be my next post.
