The Long Wait

Fourth Sign

After China received our dossier, the paperchase was finished. We were now part of the referral stage. The wait had been lengthing each month. When we sent in our first application, the wait times were 10 - 11 months for referral. (Referral, means you have been matched with a child.) Our dossier sat in a pile with all the other new dossiers waiting to be logged in to the CCAA's system. Our official log in date was Feb 5, 2007. While I write this, the CCAA has only matched dossiers logged in up till Feb. 2, 2006. They are 2 and a half years behind currently, and the wait continues to grow.

In April 2008, all of our documents required by the US Citizens and Immigrations, expired. We had to update our home study and get refingerprinted. We sent our updates to the USCIS in early May. A few days later I had coffee with Julia. She strongly advised Dave and I to apply for the special needs "Waiting Children". With no end to the defeating wait, we looked into the different categories of special needs. After gathering all the information possible, we completed the seemingly endless application for GWCA's Waiting Child on May 7.

Dave and I went on with life thinking we would not hear anything for a long while. Mon. May 19, my cell phone rang. Stephanie from GWCA wanted to tell me about a little girl almost 3 years old, named JianHua, whom she thought would be a good match for us. Stephanie had pulled and locked this girl's file from CCAA's shared list. She explained we had 48 hours to decide. Dave was in Tennessee for all but 12 hours of that time.

It was overwhelming, reading a paper file, looking at a few pictures, talking to Dave over the phone. I made an appointment with my Doctor to discuss JianHua's medical issues. After talking to him and several other people Dave and I continued to be hesitant.

Our middle son Christopher looked at the picture of JianHua and emotionally asked "How can you say no to her when she has already been abandoned once?" Indeed! It occurred to me that JianHua's file, for what ever reason had not been released until Dave and I were willing to open our hearts to the possibility. Less than 2 weeks transpired between our change in plans and the life altering phone call from Stephanie. Could it be that God was waiting all this time too? Patiently waiting for us to be ready to accept the blessing he created for us.