Thursday, December 17, 2009

The Slow Boat to China Takes a Detour

Imagine my family on a boat. A boat moving very, very slowly. A boat headed to China very, very slowly. In fact, this boat could easily take 8 years to reach China where we are adopting our daughter. So we've decided to take a bit of a detour...to Ethiopia.

It has always been our plan to grow our family through biological and adopted children, specifically two each. After Jack was born, we got pregnant very quickly with Logan and realized that we would be putting off our adoption plans for a bit. About a year after Logan was born we started researching our adoption options. At the time, adopting our daughter from China seemed like the best fit for our family. We became "paper pregnant" on 8/13/08 and estimated an 8 year wait before we'd met our daughter.

Though we knew, intellectually, that the wait was long, we could not guess what the wait would actually feel like. After a year, it was wearing on us and we felt, since we have always planned on adopting two daughters, that maybe we should focus on starting a second adoption.

Two months ago, Scott and I began researching other countries from which we could do an adoption while still “staying in line” for China. We quickly realized that we also had a daughter in Ethiopia. After picking an agency we started compiling our dossier. This time around it only took us 5 weeks (as opposed to the China dossier that took more than 9 months).

Yesterday, 12/16/09, we officially became a waiting family...again! If all goes as planned, we should be matched with our daughter from Ethiopia in 6-9 months. Approximately, 8 weeks after that our paperwork will go to court and approximately 8 weeks after that we should travel to pick up our daughter. So, hopefully, in a year we will have our family of five home! We are thrilled to be starting on another journey to grow our family.

This slow boat is picking up steam to Ethiopia...

18 comments:

  1. All the best to you and your family as you wait for your family to grow. I feel so much admiration for all of you who open your hearts and home to children who need 'real' families.

    Have a blessed holiday season. :)

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  2. My heart sings with joy for the journey you are on, and the destination of your voyage... I so hope someday to provide a home for a child (or two) in need.

    I'm eagerly anticipating updates on how things are going with your adoptions!!


    :o)

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  3. I remember how excited I was to finally get on the waitlist!!!

    I'm so happy for you...and I think it's great that you're now officially waiting for 2 beautiful little girls to come home to you.

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  4. How exciting, Carey! I'm sure your pleased with the shorter timeframe. I can't wait to hear how it all progresses...

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  5. I am so happy for you and your family! Beautiful things can happen when we are willing for a little detour along the way. I look forward to following along.

    Question...so the wait is up to 8 years now for China?

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  6. That is such happy, joyful news Carey! What an exciting detour to travel :) We look forward to sharing this journey with you! So happy...here's to a smooth ride!

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  7. Hi-New here :) Very excited for you!! We are also on the waitlist for Ethiopia and would love to adopt again in the future. We too have thought of China, but I had no idea it was that long, I thought 3 years...wow. Hope you can stop by my blog too sometime. www.fermemberwhen.blogspot.com

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  8. All the best to you, Carey! This is great news!

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  9. That is wonderful my friend. I hope that this process goes quickly and that your sweet daughter is home with her family soon!

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  10. Oh how wonderful! That is the best news, I hope the next few months whizz by for you and that your new daughter is safely with you. Merry Christmas!

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  11. Carey,
    How very exciting! I can't wait to follow along as you journey to your daughter. I'll have to get much better about my blog reading. :-)

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  12. That's awesome! Way to go! The slow boat to china is well, slow... I wish you continued success. What a great thing for you and your expanding family! Best of luck!

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  13. Congratulations!! It is so exciting!! I look forward to getting to know you better.

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  14. How exciting!!!! I look forward to more updates and eventually a lovely photo of your Party of Five!

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  15. Congrats on the growing family! Merry Christmas!

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  17. It sounds like the start of a wonderful new journey!

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  18. hey- I was wondering if you could email me at gesweinfamily AT gmail DOT com and give me info on your agency you are using. We are just starting the process and want to make sure we choose a fantastic, ethical agency. Thanks!

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