Journey to a Family of 5 (Here We Go....Again!)

"Once our eyes are opened, we can't pretend we don't know what to do. God, who weighs our hearts and keeps our souls, knows that we know, and holds us responsible to act." Proverbs 24:12

Someone so kindly emailed me to say that in a post way back on November 18, (on the anniversary of the night I first saw Aaron's photo and knew I was supposed to be his mom), I had given a "hint" at the end of a post but never followed up on it. The hint was the Bible verse at the top of today's post. Oh dear, time has certainly gotten away from me apparently! I apologize for that!

As was hinted in that post, and should come as NO SUPRISE to anyone, yes, we are going back to China for our next child. Our paperwork is in China, and we are waiting. The wait time is so long...probably more than 5-6 years even with being expedited for Chinese descent. We will NOT be waiting in that long line; once the boys are both in school full time (fall 2012) we will begin looking for a waiting child as we did with Aaron (this time a daughter, between the ages of 2 and 4). There are currently over 2000 children on China's Shared List of Waiting Children. Each one deserving to find their Forever Family, as Aaron has.

I think part of the reason I never followed up here on my blog, is that I had shared this news in our Christmas letter, and somehow thought I had typed the same thing here. Here's what I wrote in our Christmas letter:
Expanding our family by the process of adoption has been such a positive experience for us. In fact, we are happy to say it is a process we have embarked on once again! Within a week of arriving home with Aaron, Donovan told us that he loved his new brother so much, and asked that we please go back to China for another sibling for Aaron and him. (Little did he know this was exactly what we had been planning to do!) Donovan and Aaron understand, just as we do, that we have the ability to change the life of another child from China, who deserves the chance at the love of a family. At this point, our paperwork has been logged in with the Chinese government to adopt our next child, this time a sister for Donovan and Aaron. The adoption process from China is a lengthy one, and it is likely the boys will be in kindergarten or first grade before we are matched with a little girl. In the meantime, these two boys of ours keep us busy and help us to focus on what is truly important in life!

We actually completed our home study update at the same time our social worker came to our home to complete our 6 month post placement report on Aaron. The truth is that less than a month after getting home with Aaron I had contacted our wonderful social worker, Ann, and let her know she should be prepared to do our home study for our next adoption when she came for Aaron's post placement visit/report in August, and that is exactly what happened. I knew before we went to China that we'd be going back for another child, and of course my experience visiting Aaron's orphanage on April 15 solidified that for us. Seeing all of the children there, each deserving a family of his/her own, and knowing this was just one of hundreds, likely thousands of orphanages in China, millions of children in need of families...well it is overwhelming and as the Bible verse says at the top of this post, we feel responsible to act...to be the family for one of the children who needs one.

And so, we happily embark on this journey we have chosen to become a family of 5!