Following the Leader

The idea of adopting again had been stirring in my heart for quite some time, but with the wait for another child from China estimated to be 5 to 8 years or more we weren’t sure what direction to go with it. So, I contacted our previous agency to see if they had any suggestions. One year ago yesterday we met with them and one of the first things out of the social worker’s mouth was “We just opened Taiwan!” Jeff and I looked at each other as if to say, okay, this is where the Lord is leading us. Well, it wasn’t as simple as it sounds. The agency sent us the information on the program the next week and everything looked like a perfect fit for us. Even though we were pretty sure we were going to move forward with it, we gave it a few weeks and then decided to fill out the pre-application. That’s when we found out that they had made a mistake and the program was only going to be open to families who would accept children with special needs. We were devastated. So Jeff suggested that we check into other agencies that might have Taiwan programs. That’s when I found All God’s Children. I stumbled upon their website and saw that they were starting a pilot birth mother program for healthy infants in Taiwan! I contacted them right away and was told that it was currently just a pilot program and the official program would be opening by the end of the year. We submitted our pre-application on September 16th and were pre-approved on September 22nd. Then in November I contacted them again and was told the program wouldn’t be opening until spring. On November 19th I got an email newsletter from them saying that they were looking for volunteers to go on a mission trip to Taiwan to help paint the birth mother home, which was also the current baby home. I thought it would be awesome to be able to go paint and prepare the home where our future son or daughter and his or her birthmother lived, but didn’t know how I would convince Jeff. Then there was a sign … within a couple of hours of finding out about this mission trip I received another email from AGCI that said “Dear Pam, Thank you for your interest in attending or leading an Embrace Missions trip with All God’s Children International. . . .” What? I didn’t tell anyone I was interested. . . .except God! Well, God opened many doors to lead us on that trip. Surprisingly, Jeff was on board as soon as I mentioned it to him. Originally it was only going to be open to groups, so I sort of dismissed the idea, but in the back of my mind I still wanted to go. Then on December 10th I found out they were opening the trip to individuals! Our application was in the mail a few weeks later and we left for Taiwan on May 5th. It was an amazing trip. As it turned out they got a building for the new Hannah’s Hope Home just a few days before we arrived and we ended up painting and preparing that home instead of the birth mothers home. I even got to design and draw all of the murals for the baby rooms! The rest of the team that went was made up of AGCI staff, so we got to know them and learn more about the program. We were told that we would probably be able to enter the pilot program as soon as we returned home, before the program is officially open! As soon as we got home I contacted them and they said we could start the process right away. We sent in our application on June 2nd, Jeff’s Birthday, and were approved on June 10th! On June 15th we had our orientation call with AGCI and found out that we are only the 22nd family to enter the pilot program. Four families have completed their adoptions and the others are all at different stages in the process. So, that brings us to where we are today. Let the paperwork begin!