Anyone want to adopt from China?

If you or anyone you know has considered adopting...lend me your ear! Over a year ago the CCCWA (China Center for Children's Welfare and Adoption) granted our adoption agency (Lifeline) a partnership with the orphanage where our daughter lives. Because of this partnership, Lifeline was able to place close to 50 children with families. And we just got the news today that Lifeline has been granted partnerships with 7 more orphanages!! This is "unprecedented", in the words of Lifeline's International Director. What does this mean for you???

First let me say I can speak from experience that this partnership has been a HUGE blessing to our family. Our daughter has had 2 medical examinations (at 8 months and 17 months of age) by American doctors and nurses from UAB's International Adoption Clinic who have visited her orphanage.We have a more detailed medical report on our daughter than we would have had otherwise. The vast majority of her medical info has come from these doctors. We have numerous current videos and photos of our daughter that we otherwise would not have. (It is very common for photos and medical information to be 6-12 months old at referral.)  The orphanage director and caregivers at the orphanage know Lifeline's staff by face and name because of personal visits to the orphanage through this partnership. We will have the opportunity to visit the orphanage and be taken to Grace's "finding place" once she is ours (not all orphanages will allow people in). And probably the biggest long term blessing for us personally is that many of our daughter's little friends that she plays with everyday, sleeps next to and has known her whole life are now being adopted by families in Birmingham and several of them even go to our church!! So these children one-by-one are being relocated from Guangdong, China to Birmingham, AL. From the orphanage...to the church nursery.... together!! They will be able to grow up together, attend the same play groups and the same churches and schools! This is so valuable! Just last Sunday I was walking down the hall at Brook Hills and passed by a "bye-bye buggy" with 6 children (all one year old's), and 2 of them were recently adopted from Grace's orphanage and it made me smile! She already has friends here to greet her!

So I want to encourage anyone who is or has considered adopting from China to pray about the possibility of moving forward in this direction. Over the next year Lifeline will have access to over 3,000 children! How awesome would that be if the Lord moved in the hearts of his people to pursue these children and all 3,000 of them were spoken for by this time next year. I will pray that He will do it!

So in conclusion, the partnerships with these orphanages are a good thing for everyone involved. It makes the whole adoption process easier. I would love, love, love to talk with anyone who has questions about adoption, the China program or Lifeline. I am a fan of all three!