Over The Rainbow

Two weeks and counting until we land in the Peoples Republic of China. What a journey it’s been. This started back in the summer of 2006 when Angie and I went through the adoption application process all over again, just like we had done for Alex. Physicals, fingerprints, background checks, and more paperwork than imaginable just to get to a point where we could send the dossier through our adoption agencies (Catholic Charities in Baltimore and Holt International in Oregon), and then off to the China Center of Adoption Affairs (CCAA), where it would eventually be logged in as an official application. Finally, in October 2006, we received word that our application had been “logged in” which gave us the all-important Log-In-Date (LID). Those adoptive parents who read this are nodding their heads thinking yep, been-there-done-that, never-wanna-do-it-again, would-have-rather-been-pregnant–for-nine-months-and-had-a-36-hour-delivery… Heck, the paperwork alone can easily take nine months! To those who have not experienced the process – let’s just say no words can ever do it justice. But we do it because at the other end of the rainbow is our pot of gold!

So we had our LID and at the time were thinking OK, the current wait time is about 15 months, our friends had done this in 2004 and they were about the same timing, so looking ahead we should be on our way in early 2008. Right? Wrong… Early 2008 had come and gone and the word was that there was a HUGE backlog of applications at CCAA and there could be HUGE delays to the tune of two more years of waiting. This was not sitting well with anyone in the backlog. Apparently, so many applications had flooded the China adoption system that the demand was far outweighing the available children. There was still the same amount of children needing homes, but way more applicants. We were beginning to question what was in store for us. Would we be able to wait that long? Our background clearances would expire yet again and there’d be more paperwork. Alex was getting older and the age difference between our children would be greater. Heck, WE were getting older. We were extremely uncertain where this was going to lead us.

Then Holt and Catholic Charities stepped in to provide some options. Seems there is a parallel system of children just outside of the mainstream that have some medical issues. These children are often hard to place in an adoptive home. Oh, and by the way, if we were open to adopting a boy, there are boys available in that program and that could speed up a referral. History lesson: available children in China’s adoption program are usually girls. To us, a boy was just as much of a blessing as a girl. We signed up for the program.

This worked faster than we could have ever hoped. Within six weeks we had the referral for Aidan. A boy. A medical issue so minor that it may very well have cleared itself up by now. We rec’d pages of medical information showing an otherwise healthy toddler. And as mentioned earlier, he is already chasing the cat in his foster family's home. Our pot of gold!

All that’s left now is to get to the end of the rainbow…