The Journey Begins

As many of you know, Randy and I have been talking about expanding our family through adoption for several years. Well, now is the time! After years of research and speaking with adoption agencies and adoptive families, we've decided to adopt internationally. We've chosen an adoption agency in Washington state. They have a program that is a perfect fit for our family. The adoption will take place in Taiwan.

We started our home study in early October. After it is complete, we will be placed on a waiting list. The list is based on First In, First Out. Once our name pops up on the list and a baby is available, we will be given the referral for that child. Since we are open to either a boy or a girl, our name may come up quicker than others. (Some people have a definite preference and are willing to wait as long as it takes for that preference) The program we are in does not have birth mother involvement in the selection process. This is unusual for Taiwanese programs. Most programs allow the birth mother to choose the adoptive parents.

About the child: The child will be an infant around 2-6 months old at the time of referral. He/she will be healthy (with no known or minor correctible health issues). At the time we accept the referral, the child will be placed into foster care (as opposed to an orphanage).

About the process: The referral process takes 2-6 months. After that, we will have to jump through some hoops and put together our dossier. Once all the I's are dotted and T's crossed, our case enters into the Taiwanese court system. This phase takes 4-6 months. After the court process is complete, we will be able to travel and pickup our child. Randy and his mom are planning on doing the traveling and Jan will stay with Judson and Sawyer.

So that's it in a nutshell. We are extremely excited about this journey. We hope that you will be excited for us. We'll keep this site updated as new information becomes available. However, the wheels on an adoption ship turn very slowly so we won't be updating it every week.

Love,
Randy, Jan, Judson, and Sawyer