Finding Ad

I mentioned before that the Chinese government requires a "finding ad" is posted in a newspaper before a child is put up for adoption. From my understanding, this is to comply with Hague Convention rules that every effort was made to find the child's biological parents. This ad is often the only baby picture an adoptive family will have of their child.

When we heard about the finding ad, we knew that we wanted to have this for Z. Any history we can have for him, we want to make sure we get. So, we contacted the man who has all of the newspapers and gave him the information he needed to ensure he sent us the correct child's ad. And--this weekend we got our Z's ad...and I just stared at it. I am so happy to have a baby picture of our boy, but so sad for him that he is in this situation. Adoption is more of a mixed set of emotions than I was expecting. We are so excited that we are on this road, but we have been told many times through this journey "adoption begins with loss."  It is so true. For any child to be available for adoption, they first experience the loss of biological parents for any number of reasons-none of which are the fault of the child.

So, while we are excited and happy to have this little bit of information, it is tempered with a sense of wishing we had somehow been there to cuddle that sweet little baby when he was tiny and alone. We see the baby we didn't hold, but see the hints of the toddler we will soon kiss, cuddle, and give every ounce of love we can.

So please continue to pray for our little guy on the other side of the world. We are getting through the process as quickly as we can, but there are always many hurdles. Pray for speedy paperwork, pray for our visa applications to be approved quickly and for our dossier packet be authenticated and be on it's way to China this month. Pray for our sanity as this process is difficult, but we know it will be so worth it.