My husband and I submitted our Dossier to China one week ago today on 11/23/2015. We are currently waiting for LID (locked in Dossier). LID informs us that the Chinese government has received our Dossier and being processed.

Eighteen months ago, we were very perplexed about which country to adopt from or what agency to go with. It can be very overwhelming when you know God is leading you to adopt but feeling unsure about how or where. Do we choose an agency first? Maybe do a Google search for local adoption agencies and just choose that way? Do we choose a country first? Certain agencies deal with certain countries. Or, do we choose a child first by looking at photo-listings of children needing to be adopted? I admit, at times I felt so overwhelmed by this beginning process that I had to take few mind breaks at times.

The first child we discovered was a 2.5 year old boy named "Vaughan" (adoption agency alias name) on the Reece's Rainbow advocacy website in April 2014. He was a few month younger than my son and he lived in the country of Armenia. His special need was Down Syndrome. This child definitely tugged at my heart. The agency sent us many up-to-date photos and videos of him. I loved how the medical charted mentioned that he ate well, slept well, was very strong and that he was an all around happy content little boy. My husband and I, however, were not quite ready to take that initial step as it was too soon.

The next child we considered was a 4 year old boy listed in RR named "Ernie" during the summer 2014. He had varies special needs along with living in a very poor area of eastern Ukraine. There was very little information about him and the adoption information that was provided was several years outdated, including his picture. Sadly, war broke out in his area of Ukraine with active Russian military presence and bombing. At that time, there was European news reports stating that an orphanage in his area suffered some bombing after effects. It turned out it was not his orphanage. I learned later that he was moved to a safer area of Ukraine but his whereabouts unknown. His adoption status was suspended. This is about the time I took a long several month hiatus from our adoption search..

In the winter of 2014 I began to receive emails from a woman named Rebecca Coleman. A well known and dedicated advocate in adoption circles. Her primary country of focus is China. She is a mother of two biological boys and two adopted Chinese girls. It was Rebecca's China adoption advocacy emails that got me thinking about possibly considering China as a potential country to adopt from. Soon thereafter, I discovered our son "Perry" (agency alias name) in mid-January 2015 from a photo-listing adoption post. We contacted the adoption agency that held his adoption file and received a very generous amount of pictures, videos and information about Perry. We then finally committed to him on March 11, 2015 and received Pre-Approval from China April 1, 2015.

China is an excellent choice for us. We plan for him to attend a Chinese Immersion Elementary school along with his future brother. Our son, currently, attends Chinese Immersion Pre-school that helps to prepare him for Chinese Immersion Elementary school. As a family, we plan to actively participate in Chinese culturally holidays and traditions that will hopefully allow our adopted son to feel welcomed and proud of his Chinese culture and heritage.

China, in general, I understand, proves to be an excellent choice to adopt from for many prospective adoptive families. It has consistently proven to offer a very predictable and stable adoption program. The travel time is reasonable, as well. China requires a one time in-country travel of about two week in length.

So far, we are about half way through our adoption process and everything has gone quite smoothly with no surprises.

If anyone has any questions at this point feel free to ask. You may do so privately by email or IM and I can post anonymous answers at a later time.