Hamburgers and Home Studies

Nǐ hǎo, wǒ shì měiguó rén, wǒ xǐhuān hànbǎobāo.

I (Christina) have been working on my Mandarin. The opening sentence says, "Hello, I am American. I like hamburgers."

Nelson can say "hànbǎobāo" correctly and I feel that's as far as we'll get with him. Fortunately, he won't go hungry in Taiwan.

A couple weeks ago we completed a two hour "orientation" call with our liaison at Nightlight Christian Adoptions. The purpose of this meeting was to go over all the documentation that we had read regarding the remainder of the adoption process.

There are approximately three billion forms (inaccurate but not far off) to complete, and that actually excites us. NCA has done a fantastic job of providing a portal that has checklists and keeps our completed items in one place. It's very satisfying for those of us that like checklists.

Now that we are done with reviewing how the process will work between us, NCA, the U.S., and Taiwan, we have begun the home study and education phase which includes background checks, completing parent education requirements, book reports, creating dossiers for Taiwan, etc.

It's weird to explain and share with others how we know this is how God intended for us to have a child. He made me and Nelson with certain skills and passions that make this path one that feels natural and meant for who we are as a couple, and who we are to be as a family in the midst of His Creation.

We look forward to sharing more of the paperwork, challenges, and knowledge that are before us!