Q & A

This past Sunday (2/10) was a great day in our adoption journey. Tim and Stephanie, the Sr. Pastor and his wife, hosted an Adoption Encouragement Group at their home. In addition to their great hospitality, it was an awesome time to be in close company with many in our congregation who have been touched by adoption. Some had adopted children, some have friends or children who have adopted, some were adopted, and some were there because of a desire to learn more about what we are up to. The amazing common thread was the encouragement and support.

What we came to discover was the breadth of adoption experiences right in our own congregation. It was amazing. Both Mer and I feel that no matter what we run into we can go to someone who has “been there, done that” and lived to tell about it. Even better, there is a great core group that is soooo ready to celebrate this great event with us. We are thankful for each of them.

The other great thing to come out of this was all of our recognition that the face of adoption in America is changing. Adoption is coming out of the shadows as more and more people are adopting out of a call to care for the orphan. As Vero – and First Pres – grows, there will be more people who follow in this path. It was awesome as the group came to the collective realization that together we are paving the way for the next family to start on this journey. What a great privilege.

During our afternoon, a great many questions were asked and answered. Today, I received an email with several more questions from one family. I thought this would be a great place to answer those questions and to open the door for other questions that people might have.

Q: Is it difficult to insure this new baby from China on your health policy?
A: No. While it varies from policy to policy, our policy will cover Caleb from the moment he becomes ours. He is treated as a “newborn” in the sense that there is no waiting period, etc.

Q: Who will cover for your absence?
A: The great staff and dedicated members at First Pres will cover for me in my absence. While from a professional standpoint I hope that we do not leave until after Easter, from a personal perspective, I cannot wait to go and get our new son. Being a minister and missing Easter is kind of like being a CPA and missing the week before taxes are due. However, when our travel orders come, we will go. The dates are not “negotiable.” Those of you who have ever dealt with MediCare will know what I am talking about. Now imagine trying to do it in Chinese!!

Q: How will Mer work it out while at work to care for the baby at home once you bring him home? Right now the schedule works out while the kids are in school.
A: We are fortunate that Mer works part time at Port St. Lucie Medical Center as a Lactation Consultant. This does allow her some flexibility in the use and scheduling of her hours. More than likely, she will continue to log a good bit of hours on my day off, and she will work more evenings and weekends. With some planning and flexibility, we will do our best to work it out.

One Step Closer

The pace of our adoption is picking up. Monday we received our LOA (Letter of Acceptance) from China. This is basically an official letter and certificate from China that says they have received and "accepted" our letter of intent to adopt Caleb. Today we sent it back to Holt, our adoption agency, and can now expect to wait "an average of two to five weeks" for our travel notice. Once our travel notice arrives we will be given "an average of two to four weeks" to get to China to meet Caleb. This means we could have Caleb in our arms in as soon as one month. Wow!!! More realistically, though, we still have to wait about two to three months.

The one thing we have learned about this entire process is that God has his own timing: what began as a three (plus) year journey has turned into a journey to a new son that could be complete in less than one year. Every step has been met with a completely different time line than we originally anticipated. In this we are learning to be both thankful and flexible - we do love to plan (especially Meredith). But if we had stuck to our "plan" we would not be blessed with this awesome new little guy. We've finally stopped trying to figure out God's timing and started jumping through the doors when he opens them. As usual, his plans are better than ours, and we are sooooo thankful for that - and for Caleb.