Here we go...

A special little blog to record the long process we are heading into, to adopt our 3rd child (from Vietnam.) It has been something Shaune and I have discussed many, many times over the past 10+ yrs. Before we ever were blessed with 2 biological children, we have always talked about our shared desire to perhaps... someday, if we could make it happen - adopt a child that needs a loving family. A child that would complete our family and bring us great joy and happiness just as Keaton and Chloe do every single day.

And so it begins. The past 2 months we have been quietly gathering information at home and researching all the ins and outs of International Adoption. We also looked into CAS and decided that we were not able to adopt a child older than our youngest daughter. We wanted to add to our family but we feel that a toddler or infant is best for our family dynamics. There are so many children in need of a family of their own and our hearts are drawn to them. It isn't really something we've chosen to do, it is something we feel called to do. A want deep inside both of us that we cannot ignore any longer.

It is going to be a very long road. It is not like we just decide we want to adopt & then get to go pick up our child. It involves months of homestudy appointments with our social worker, it involves applications to our agency, it involved waiting lists, tons and tons of paperwork, finger printing and criminal checks, preparing a dossier to send to Vietnam. It involves waiting months and months and months waiting on your child to finally be matched to your family. It means we will be holding our breaths for months waiting for our referral to come through and the moment we finally get to see which amazing child will become a part of the Lightfoot family. After we see a photo of our child we will then have to wait months before we can travel to Vietnam to bring her/him home. That I'm sure will be the hardest part, knowing and loving a child that lives half a world away and putting your trust in God and the orphanage that she/he will be okay until you finally get to go and bring them home. Travel to Vietnam involves 3 wks in country. That means K & C will either travel with us (which I am hoping we will be able to do, but doubt it is an expense we will be able to handle - air flight arranged last minute to Vietnam is very costly... not to mention the 20+ hr flight/transfers we will have.) The thought of leaving Keaton and Chloe for 3 long weeks is another thing I've already been thinking about a lot. The stress begins already!

We decided to keep this blog seperate from our regular family blog, as I plan to hopefully keep it very detailed and almost like a diary of events for the next couple of years. I have gained so much knowledge from the blogs and family websites on the Internet. Maybe someday someone will be able to look to this blog for hope and understanding along their way.

As we head into this, we are hopeful that our adoption from Vietnam can be complete by next Fall. Of course, with International Adoption things can be pretty unpredictable so nothing is set in stone at this time. Our agency is hopeful that by summer we could be traveling to Vietnam but I know that probably means closer to Autumn.

And so it begins. With the support of family and friends and a wonderful on-line community of Adoptive parents, we hope that the time won't go by TOO slowly and we know that in the end, it will all be so worth it!