A Bit More of an Explanation

Thanks to everyone who has sent along their congratulations and good wishes to our family! But, it probably does seem to some that this good news came out of nowhere, so maybe I should try to fill in some of the gaps.

We began this adoption process in February, 2005. We waited for a year, then were able to start our province's "preadoption" course (since in Canada, adoption is under provincial government juridstiction) and our homestudy. This was last February (2006). It took us up until the end of August to get complete provincial approval to adopt, via China's Waiting Child Program. A few loose ends then still had to be tied up and our file finally got to our adoption agency in November. We were then informed that the CCAA had asked to agency to only submit select information on families that were requesting to adopt via the WCP- and that they would send child proposals in December or January which met the profiles approved for these families in their homestudies. These child proposals never came, however, for reasons I believe the agency is still trying to extract, but the agency DID get a Waiting Child list- with 8 children on it.

There were about 25 families expecting to be matched by the CCAA. SO, the agency started at the top of the "waiting family" list and tried to match the 8 children with families. We were near the bottom of the list- and because we believed we would be matched directly by the CCAA, we had been very specific about the nature of the medical need that we would accept. Actually, we stated that we would like to adopt a boy or a girl, but preferred a boy, aged 0-3 years, with a minor heart condition.

Well, near the end of January, there was some "informal" talk that most of the children on the agency's list had been matched, but that there were still 2 little boys, both with cleft issues, who, because of their age and their condition, had no obvious family matches. We had heard that one of these little boys was only 2- the perfect age for us! BUT, we had not been approved in our homestudy for a child with a cleft issue. This was a problem, since the agency is bound to only discussing children with families if those children meet the provincially-approved parameters for age, sex, and medical need. SO, before our agency could "talk" to us about this little 2 year old boy, we needed to find out if our provincial authority would permit us to change what they call our "preferred child profile". As well, we really needed to consider whether a cleft issue was something we could deal with as a family, in our community. We set out trying to figure this all out- and then, on the day that we had the answers (Yes and Yes!) and called the agency to ask them to proceed and send this little guy's file to our province for us, something very wonderful happened. Out of the blue, the agency had received an unsolicited update on this little boy- a report which had been done only 2 months prior! So, they were able to send 2 medical/developmental reports and updated pictures!!! Our provincial adoption authority was great- they had no problems with us opening the nature of the medical needs that we would accept and they have been very supportive since we received the child proposal.

Well, the rest is history, as they say. We began to fall in love with the child who we already consider our son. Our daughters were so excited when we showed them his pictures. Our oldest girl beamed and shouted "Is that our brother!?!"! I wish I had videotaped their reaction.

Without a doubt, we feel extremely lucky that we could be matched with Xinguang and that there were no other families on the list ahead of us who had requested a boy of his age. I know it sounds cliche in the extreme, but I cannot help but feel it was "meant to be"!

We're hoping that all the other families still waiting for their little ones get matched quickly.