Really, our story to adopt began about eight years ago. Jolene saw a program about the availability of girls in China. At that time we did not qualify because we were too young and already had children.
After a few years passed by, the rules changed in China regarding families with children and we met the age limit
Sometime in '98-'99, we investigated CCAI (Chinese Children Adoption International.) We appreciated their response to us and held onto the video and application.
In the fall of 2002, Jim decided it was time to begin the process. We sent off our application to CCAI the day before Thanksgiving 2002.
We received the acceptance call the following Monday. The paperchase began.
We won't go into the whole paperchase thing only because so many others have done a much better job than we could. Suffice it to say that all went very smoothly. Jolene had some
doubts that we would be able to figure out all that would be required. She spent a few moments in tears, feeling it was all just too overwhelming. Eventually we just broke it down into smaller segments (Jolene is the queen of lists) and we were able to check each item slowly off the list.
Once the paperchase was over it was time to FedEx the dossier to CCAI, our adoption agency, we found ourselves standing at the FedEx counter feeling very nervous to let the dossier out of our hands. We prayed over the packet and let it go. Once we were back in the car, we both just wept as we prayed for God to travel with it. We realized it had been nine months since we had started the journey. Jolene said she felt like she had just given birth.
Our Dossier to China (DTC) date is 9/3/03. That means we were logged in by the Chinese government agency, the CCAA, in September and the countdown began. With the timeline speeding up, we are looking at being matched around June 2004, with travel being sometime in July 2004.
Which brings us to the present. Our match day will be about nine months from our DTC date, which means we are paper pregnant right now. Jolene is acting like an expectant mother, which we understand to be perfectly normal. : )
This adventure, that we believe we were called to by God, has so tested our faith and grown us spiritually. We pray for our little Julan Abigail, and know that God is knitting her together perfectly for us.
Our three boys are very excited about being big brothers. Javin is especially, since it will be a new experience for him.
March 2004 – We are currently in a holding pattern. With referrals coming in recently, we are hoping to be matched in May and traveling in June to China. Her room is done (quite an adventure moving the two younger boys in together!) and we have our child carrier and car seat! Now we just need Julan!
