Journey to Sarah

I'll start at the beginning. About a year and a half ago I started to seriously consider adopting again. I was going to go to China, but it was hard to find a singles slot because China only allows 8% of applicants to be single. So I contacted lots of agencies and tried to get on waiting lists. After doing more research, I started thinking about adopting a "Waiting Child" in China. My heart was always drawn to the kids with cleft lips and palates. They wait so long to find their families and to me it is such a minor need. We have a great cleft team here at Texas Children's Hospital. Surgeries and speech therapy, I can handle just fine.
But I changed my mind and decided to go back to Kazakhstan. The children are well-cared for there and my kids would share the same heritage. I started the process last summer. Things got delayed as my mother and I tried to decide if we were going to move in together or not. Then after we decided to move in together, would we build onto her house or build a new one? We decided to build a new one close to my brothers and their families, which will be wonderful.
In the middle of all of that, last fall, Kazakhstan had a short shut down while they changed their requirements slightly. January 7th I got all of my paperwork turned in to my home study agency and was ready for my home study. Hmmmmm...... my paperwork must have gotten lost because my first home visit was not scheduled until March 11th. All in God's time, I kept telling myself. The agency promised me a finished home study 2 weeks after the first visit. Didn't happen. The end of April, I was still waiting and thought that maybe God was trying to tell me something. Maybe my daughter wasn't in Kazakhstan after all.
I knew if I was going to change countries, I needed to do it now so my home study would reflect the change in country. I kept going over everything in my mind~ the cost of adopting from China is about half that of Kazakhstan. In China you have one 2-week trip, vs. a long 6 week trip in Kazakhstan (or 2 trips of about 3-4 weeks and 1 week). Katie does not do well with change and the thought of a long trip in Kazakhstan was worrying me. The paperwork from Kazakhstan was overwhelming to me (over 30 documents), especially since so much more was expected since I now live with my mom in a house she owns. The China dossier has 10 documents. The China process is much more predictable.
I started asking Katie if her sister was in Kazakhstan or China. Without hesitation, every time she said, “China!“ An e-mail friend of mine who adopted from Kazakhstan the same time I adopted Katie just told me she was adopting #2 in China. A friend of mine at school told me she was talking about my adoption to her friends and her friends asked, “Why doesn’t she adopt from China?“ Another woman I know online who had a daughter from Kazakhstan just returned from China with her second daughter, who was a “Waiting Child”. All signs kept pointing to China.
I e-mailed a friend of mine in my single-mom group the end of April. She is adopting #3 from China, a Waiting Child (her 2 daughters were adopted in Vietnam). I told her my thoughts and if she had any advice. I also asked her if she know of any girls, under 2 years old, with a cleft lip/palate. She told me her agency, Heritage, just came out with their new Waiting Children list and that Wan JinSui, 19 months old, has a cleft lip/palate. I e-mailed them and over a dozen other agencies to see if anyone else had a child fitting that description. Heritage was the only one with a child under 2 with a cl/p who would let me request a file and place a child on hold. Many agencies have singles quotas even on their waiting children.
I did a lot of praying. While I was contemplating my decision, I clicked on this website http://www.thestoryofyou.com/ and clicked on the slideshow. The song playing was "When God Made You". It is a beautiful song and my heart was finally at peace. I knew I was meant to adopt JinSui. I had a phone conference with Dr. Schwarwald from Texas Children's Hospital that afternoon. She was very pleased with JinSui's medical report and did not see anything to be concerned about. She said the kids with clefts do very well and that Dr. Stal, the chief of the cleft team, would meet with us as soon as we got home to discuss JinSui's surgery to repair her lip and palate (I did find out later that her lip has already been repaired).
I told my mom, who I thought would think I was crazy, but she was very supportive and wonderful, as usual. She, Katie, and JinSui, to be named Sarah JinSui, will all share the same birthday week. Mom’s is September 23th, Katie’s is September 26th, and Sarah’s is September 27th.
My LOI was mailed to China on May 23rd and I am finishing my dossier up now (my home study is now finished) and mom, Katie, and I will hopefully travel to China in the fall to bring Sarah home.
And ancient Chinese belief states "An invisible red thread connects those who are destined to meet, regardless of time, place, or circumstance. The thread may stretch or tangle, but never break." I believe many red threads led me to my Sarah and I cannot wait to bring her home!!