Orphan Hosting

Thursday, June 23, 2016

Update - Progression from Mama and Bah Bah to Mom and Dad

Update from Chris:

Today we transition from being proclaimed as Mom and Dad by our little girl to being Mom and Dad.  In the eyes of China, we are officially the parents of our daughter.  That is weird to say but yet I keep saying it over and over in my mind and I am loving it!  We are still a long way from the completion of the process but for some reason it seems more real now.

We prepared a package for her, which could be her last depending on the speed of the rest of the process.  I had some photos printed to go along with the goodies mom had prepared a week or so ago in preparation for today.  I finished putting it together, taped it thoroughly and shipped it.  

The package includes a translated note to explain that we will be coming for her.  That she will join our family forever and that in a few months we will travel by airplane to come see her.  It further explains we will adopt her while in China and we will return back to the US.

My thoughts on the process
I would like to tell you all that this process is for the masses and that everyone should go out and pursue an adoption, domestically or internationally, but I won't.  I will tell you that if 8.5% of the Christian population adopted a child there would be no orphans.  And that even though this process was very smooth for us, it is a very challenging process.  The waits are killer and the unknowns are worse.  We pushed hard and fast every time it was our turn to make a step and then we go back to the wait game.  Even though most waits were short, they are the most agonizing waits and all of them felt like forever.

How did we get here?
As I reflect back on this process I will tell you we didn’t start looking at adoption to fulfill our Christian Duty.  We didn’t look into adoption to find our child.  This desire started with our mission trips to the Dominican Republic just 3-4 years ago.  We love our family in the DR and love our Church Family there as well.  Our opportunity to host grew from our Love for the DR.  We love the children of the DR but the process to adopt is very difficult. You have to be in country for nearly 9 months straight and this seemed impossible for both of us.  When we came to the realization of our inability or unwillingness to adopt from the DR our agency, an agency that facilitates adoption from the DR, recommended we look at hosting as a way to try out the process.  The hosting process isn’t perfect but I would recommend anyone, considering adoption.

Hosting
You don’t even have to have a desire to adopt to host.  Nearly all of the children that come to the US from China find their forever family while here.  I am not sure exactly how many but more than half of the hosting families are undecided or hosting to advocate when they commit to hosting.  We committed to being open for whatever God had in store for us.  It is like the saying goes.  If you pray for God’s Will be prepared for what he has to say. 

All I can say is here we are.  We are the very proud parents of a young lady that is in desperate need of love and a family to call her own.  Yes, God, our daughter is coming home.

If you want more information on how to make a difference in the life of a child, via hosting, please feel free to email us:



1 comment:

  1. That is awesome and encouraging. Thank you for sharing that with us.

    Troy Wyatt

    ReplyDelete