Our Taiwanese Journey Begins...

After talking about adoption for many years now, God has finally brought a peace to both our hearts to go for it! We are so excited about our journey.

I know many of you are curious, "Why Taiwan?" There were lots of different reasons really.

#1- reason being- We really want to be parents!

#2- we want to do something more to prevent sex trafficking and potentially rescue a little girl who may have potentially ended up in the sex trade. (Many of you know about the non-profit organization Greg started called World Causes. Since World Causes' project Free Chains started 2 years ago in hopes to raise awareness, prevention and fight the issue of sex trafficking, God has given us a heart to adopt from Asia. This is the Free Chains site if you are interested: www.freechains.org

#3-we want to love and raise a child to dream big dreams and do big things for God.

#4- Taiwan was the only Asian country that we met all the requirements for. How's that for a clear answer!

2010 Taiwan Adoption Requirements:

Parent Ages: Prospective adoptive parents must be at least 20 years older than the child, and not older than 55.
Travel: Both parents must travel. Length of stay is approximately 1 week.
Marriage Requirements: A married person who adopts a child shall do so jointly with his/her spouse.
Income Requirements: Prospective adoptive parents must have a stable residence, legitimate work and sufficient financial means.

Those are a few of our big reasons in a nutshell. As far as our time line goes, last week we turned in our application to start our home study process. We are going through Nightlight Christian Adoptions Agency. (http://www.nightlight.org) Our great neighbor Laura works with them and has been a huge help. She's been very patient with my hundreds of questions. Thanks Laura!!

This past Friday, Nightlight accepted our application and our first home study visit should be later on this week or early next week. Yay! The home study process takes 4-8 weeks.

From what we've read the on the country specifics for Taiwanese adoption, the time line is as follows:

The child may be adopted about 10 to 14 months from completion of paperwork to birthparent match or referral. From match or referral to travel, about 4 to 6 months.

After our home study through Nightlight is completed, Greg and I have decided to go directly through Home of God's Love Orphanage in Taiwan. We have heard amazing things about this orphanage and are praying hard for our future baby girl.

We have turned in our application and 5 references to the HOGL orphanage. Mandee has been wonderful with her quick replies and confirmations of references. We are thankful for her. Apparently the HOGL orphange changed their polocies a few months back so we are not officially on the waiting list at the orphange until they receieve our completed home study. We are working hard on getting it done a.s.a.p.