In our last post we mentioned that we were in the process of getting more info from WACAP about our next steps. We asked, "are there other countries we qualify for based on our discipline choices?" The response was, "yes and no". We were told that there are 3 countries/respective orphanages that would accept spanking as a form of discipline (this is the yes part). The 3 countries are:
- The Democratic Republic of the Congo
However, this is a "no" as adoption from the DRC is closed indefinitely. - Thailand
However, this is also a "no" as the orphanages from Thailand that WACAP is associated with only adopt to parents with known fertility issues. - China
However, this is a "not now" as China only adopts to parents 30 years or older. Both parents must be at least 30, so although Matt will be 30 in the fall (crazy!), I will not be 30 until 2017.
So, that was a little sad to receive those responses, although we're not full of despair. For starters, we are pregnant! So God has another child in store for our little family and we are excited/grateful. Also, the entire adoption door is not closed, just the door with WACAP (and even that's not permanent. In 2 years we can try again to adopt from China through them if we so chose).
So what does this mean for the Sones and this adoption journey? It means that God's plan isn't what we exactly thought, and although not easy, it's better that way. We are not going to stop pursuing adoption. We still feel the desire to try to add to our family in that way too. It's just going to be different than we thought back in April. For starters, we may be adopting through another agency (we plan to talk to CFC and get their opinion as well as do another wave of research into international adoption agencies). Also, when we started, I thought we were going to be adopting a 1 or less year old (as that would make the child younger than Liam). Now we may be adopting a 2 year old or so, as Liam will be older and therefore our age range options will be bigger. Who knows, we may even be able to adopt a young sibling group. Only God knows! We were sad at first, but in general we're encouraged. Our adoption journey is far from over.
Our journey has hit a slower patch, and with Baby 2 in the womb we want to be wise about pursuing things and make sure we do the right thing for all involved. So our updates will be further apart, but we are still walking this journey. Thanks for walking with us!
