Only God Knows!

While I was waiting to adopt my youngest daughter Phoebe in 2003, I felt God speak to my heart about another child yet to be revealed - a son with special needs who would one day join my family.

Right after my first daughter Frances and I brought home my newest little girl, I met a wonderful man with 2 children of his own. We fell in love, got married, and blended two families. We spent the next few years creating a new normal as a family of six. Then, nearly 6 years ago, China announced major changes in their international adoption program. The news dashed the dreams of many people, including me. Reflecting on the emmense effect of these changes on my hopes for adding to our family, I wrote these words in a blog entry:
"As a single parent a few years back, my intention was to adopt a third child, a waiting child, perhaps an older child (ages 5-13). When we made the decision to marry, my husband and I discussed this issue. He felt that 4 children (my 2, his 2) was enough for us to handle but would be open to discussing the possibility of adding another child via adoption from China when and if the right situation presented itself. I held onto this hope of adding to my family again. Now I have to let that dream go. Don't get me wrong - I know I am VERY blessed with the wonderful children I have, and I am grateful to God that I have these children in my life and have been honored to be their mother. But I thought there was one more child from China to come home with us...
Guess I was wrong."

But God wouldn't allow that dream of adding one more child to our family to leave my heart. I felt that tug for 6 years, and everytime I tried to let it go, it got stronger.

"Don't give up. There's a son waiting for you in China."

As time went on, I learned that China would issue waivers in certain situations, one of which was the age of the parent. This was the stumbling block for us - my husband Eric had "aged out" of the program, so to speak. But now there was some hope that China could issue a waiver. We considered a few waiting children over the years (all boys), but each time we'd hit a wall for one reason or another and could not continue with the adoption. We stopped discussing adding to our family, but I kept hearing that voice.

"Don't give up. There's a son waiting for you in China."

Then, on October 13, 2011, I saw this picture...

It was part of an email I had received from a wonderful organization that advocates for waiting children in China, some of whom have special needs.  They described this cutie as,

   "Wang Wei... an adorable 6 year old boy full of fun and personality... a charming, smart and sweet boy...very polite and kindhearted...ready for a loving family. This little boy is so special!" 

His special need was brachial plexus injury, a very manageable condition. I got excited! This sweet little boy...could he be the son that my heart longed for? I immediately contacted the organization to get more information. They sent me his file via email the following morning. Not only did it have lots of information about Wang Wei, it had this:

His photo said to me, "Here I am! I'm happy and fun and waiting for you to come and get me, Mama!" Tears rolled down my cheeks as I reviewed his file and looked at the other photos in it, including a picture of a tiny baby, about 6 months old, with big dark eyes and a sweet smile.

My heart knew. This was our son!!

I forwarded the file to my husband in an email:

"I still feel it heavy on my heart that God means for us to have a son. As much as I try to put it aside, it keeps coming back again and again. When you get a chance, take a look at this cute little guy and let's talk."

That evening, I met a group of my friends for dinner - all moms with children from China. We started chatting about children who we had seen on the waiting child lists who touched us. I shared that I had found the cutest little guy the day before and that I had forwarded information to Eric for consideration. My friend Lauren (who is Phoebe's Godmother) was sitting across from me. She and her husband had adopted a little boy, "L", from China the previous December. I said to her, "He's from "L's" province, Heilongjiang." She asked his name. When I said, "Wang Wei" she looked shocked. Then she asked what orphanage he was in. I told her. She said, "Teresa, that's "L's" little friend from the orphanage." I was speechless! I showed her Wang Wei's photo and she said she was pretty sure that he was the child with her son in photos that the orphanage had given her. She asked me to email her the photos I had so she could show "L". The next morning, Lauren showed him Wang Wei's photo and he stared at it. When she asked him who the little boy in the photo was, he answered, "Wang Wei!!" and told her how he'd slept in the bed next to him and how they played together and were best friends. Since coming to America, Lauren's son had prayed every day for his friend to have a family, preferably HIS family so they would be brothers. She had heard these prayers for months - and now they were being answered.

Eric and I spent the next days praying, talking and praying some more. We agreed that God meant for us to adopt Wang Wei - China just had to issue us a waiver and if they said yes, we were going forward. We sent in our application to the adoption agency and prepared the "mini-dossier" required for getting pre-approved for the adoption. We were overjoyed on November 1, 2011 when China said, "Yes!" and we received pre-approval to adopt our son. Our dossier took longer to complete than we originally hoped, but it finally went to China (DTC) on August 7, 2012 and was logged into the China Center for Children's Welfare and Adoption for translation and review on August 13 (LID).

The Alphabet Soup of Chinese Adoption:
DTC-LID-LOA-I800-ART5-TA-CA-TRAVEL

We're now waiting for the next step - receiving our Letter of Approval (LOA) or Letter Seeking Confirmation of Adoption. This will be the formal "referral" of Wang Wei to us for adoption. Right now, this step is taking anywhere from 41 to 60+ days after LID. I sure hope it's the former - Wei has waited long enough for his family, and we want him HOME!!

"Don't give up. There's a son waiting for you in China."

I guess God knew all along!