It's Official - We have a Log In Date

     This post is way overdue, but it marks a very important step for us.  We have our official Log In Date (LID) - January 29, 2013.  Next step...wait for a referral and be matched with our child!  So more waiting...and I think this is the hardest wait yet.  I have asked one of the Waiting Child staff at our agency (CCAI-Chinese Children Adoption International) if she could give me a vague time frame of when we might receive a referral.  She told us that we were getting closer to the top, but there were several families still ahead of us.  "Several" as in five or twenty?  It is so vague!
     Many people probably do not know what "waiting child" means.  A waiting child is an orphan waiting for a family who has a special need or needs (mild, moderate, or severe), OR an older orphan waiting for a family.  These children are truly "the least of these" and are considered by many in the Chinese culture as unlucky.  The only hope and future for them is the hope of adoption - a forever family.  The face of China adoption has drastically changed over the last few years.  In a program typically known for healthy baby girls, now 95% of the orphans there are children with some type of special need.  The wait for a "healthy" baby girl or boy is over six years!
     Choosing to adopt from the Waiting Child program was probably the hardest decision Nathan and I have ever had to make.  We had to fill out an MCC (Medical Condition Checklist) marking the special needs we would consider.  I have chosen not to list those needs here on the blog - it was a very personal decision.  China's special needs can be so minor - birthmarks, missing or extra fingers or toes, club feet, lazy or crossed eyes.  Things that can be fixed medically here.  Anna Li may or may not have a special need that is visible to the human eye.  All that matters to us is that she is the child God planned for our family.  It is awesome to think that before time began, God knew Anna Li and that she would be a Beddingfield! 
     Since before we even turned in our application to adopt, I have poured over photos of waiting children on websites such as Rainbow Kids and Love Without Boundaries.  The beautiful thing about our "wait" is that over time, you become able to look at these kiddos without seeing a special need, but instead seeing just a child that needs a family.  I am never more proud than when Henley and Griffin look at all the babies who have a cleft lip and palate and talk about how cute and beautiful they are.  They have grown to where they can see past the unclosed lip, and just see a child.
     A verse that is used a lot along with adoption is this...

A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows,

is God in His holy dwelling.  God sets the lonely in families.

Psalm 68:5-6

 

 It is so true that "God sets the lonely in families."  Only God could make my arms ache to hold a child that I have never met, a daughter who is now living literally on the other side of the world.  Dear Anna Li, we cannot wait to see your sweet face!