A big thing that we need to do on this adoption journey for our fobulous child is to choose an adoption agency. But with hundreds of organizations and the associated research, it seemed like a whirlwind. Where and how to start so we can start this long journey?
We started to ask around. We also did some bulletin board research. As we started to consider agencies, we also began to discuss where we wanted to adopt from, as that made a big difference. Naturally as we prayed and talked about things, we began to strongly consider adopting a child from China. This definitely helped us narrow down the agencies.
In a matter of weeks, we immediately were drawn to Holt International as our possible candidate. Not only was it an originating international adoption agency for Korea, it had a strong China program amongst other countries. In addition, we were impressed with its storied past. So we made some time out to listen to webinars put on by prior Holt families and heard their stories. Not only did it place comfort for us in knowing we would be dealing with an ethical and supporting agency both here in the US, but also over in China.
As we concluded with Holt, we felt God reaffirming our hearts not only on this infertility journey, but also in terms of adoption. During our agency reviews, looking back, it seemed as though God was strengthing us for His plans to start a forever family for the little one in China. One thing in particular was our decision to adopt from a special needs program.
Adopting a child that is need of special needs means a child has a medical condition, from minor to moderate to major, that is correctible in different ways. Children who have more severe cases, like down syndrome or that needs concentrated attention, are placed in the special focus grouping. As part of the special needs program, we felt that we were comfortable to adopt a child who may have some of these listed conditions, help correct the condition with the required medical treatment, and be the forever family. Not only that, this could also help the adoption process by lowering the amount of time to adopt a few years.
Once these decisions were made, we officially signed up and were on our way. Within the first month, God again showed us His goodness. Through different avenues of friends and reading, we found out other families that also used Holt for their adoption and were happy. God leads and is always true.
