Adopting an Older Child

I have been following the journey of a number of families who are adopting from China.  Most of them are adopting infants or toddlers.  It is so much fun to share this journey with them.  In many ways, there is not a lot of difference between their road and ours.  We all stress out over paperwork, preparations, deadlines and WAITING!  It does not matter if the child is 2 or 12, this does not change.  We want to be with these children we already love and would do anything to remove the obstacles that keep us apart. 

However, there are differences as well.  While they plan for bottles and diapers, we are planning for school and language acquisition.  If you would look for our registries at Walmart or Kohls, you would see the differences there too.  One list contains the typical baby supplies of strollers and sippy cups while the other has bicycles and backpacks.  One buys a crib while the other gets a bunk bed. 

But when you break it all down, we all just want the same thing; to bring our children home, to love them, to help them to grow to be all that God has intended for them to be, to help them know the love of a Father and Mother, and to know for the first time in their life that they are home.