Our Adoption Journey

BEGINNING & EL SALVADOR
We started our adoption journey back in 2007.  We researched a lot of countries and decided on El Salvador.  Got all our paperwork in and then just waited....and waited.  Finally in May 2009, we got approved to adopt.  We were told our referral of a child should come shortly.  Again we waited...and waited.  Finally in November 2009 we decided it just wasn't going to happen.  We considered giving up our dreams of adopting, but then saw the opportunity to adopt through the China Special Needs program.

CHINA SPECIAL NEEDS
We started researching agencies and through a friend of a friend on of the recommendations was Bay Area Adoption Services.  We saw posts from several families who used them and loved them.  So, in January 2010 we signed up.  With special needs adoptions there is a list of children that come out about every 6 weeks.  When the list comes out all the agencies go in and choose children for their families  We started the homestudy and all the paperwork again and waited for the list to come out.  The week before it came out, I was reading again through all the guidelines and our prior information.  One of their requirements in China is that won't allow anyone with a 'serious illness that requires long-term care such as malignant tumor'.  When I read my homestudy I noticed that the melanoma spot that Kraig and I both had was listed as a tumor.  I never realized the mole we had removed was a tumor.  I knew it was cancer, but never thought of it as a tumor.  I called our coordinator at BAAS and she didn't know if they'd approve us.  She said she'd try to match us on the next list and then send our info and see.

MATCH

On January 19th we woke up that morning and opened our e-mail the find us matched with a beautiful girl.  We instantly fell in love with her.  We checked her info with our pediatrician.  She thought she looked good so we went in our Letter of Intent to adopt her.  Our coordinator sent a letter with it explaining our tumors and mentioning that we just had surgery to remove it years ago and that was it.  If they approve us, we should know in 2 weeks.  Well, again we waited... and waited.  5 weeks went by.  On  a Wednesday night I had a message from our coordinator.  I called her back and got the dreaded news that we weren't approved :(  I was devastated.  Our whole family had fallen so much in love with this little girl.  Our coordinator told us the China officials say we may be able to adopt, but it would be on a case by case basis.  She sent us over a few files of girls that had been on the list for a while. I just couldn't look at them for a few days because I was still so upset.

2ND MATCH
When we looked at the file we fell in love with another adorable girl.  She was almost 2 and her special need is 'deflection of mouth and nose to the left side'.  Which means her nose and mouth aren't symmetrical to her face.  We actually didn't see it much.  To use she looks perfect.  We sent in our Letter of Intent to adopt her.  After 2 weeks our coordinator called CCAA and they wanted her to send another letter explaining eveything in detail.  She sent it in.

PRE-APPROVAL
I was expecting to wait a while to hear anything , but on the day after she sent the letter to CCAA I opened my e-mail and our Pre-Approval was there!!!  I couldn't believe it.  I had to read the e-mail a few times to make sure I was understanding correctly.  Kraig had just left for work so, I immediately called him .  I could hardly talk becaue I was crying.  Andrew came in my room and asked why I was crying.  I showed him the picture of  Chun Li and told him she was going to be his little sister. He was so excited and ran to tell Jakob.

That's our history.  The rest is in the blog postings.