Coming To A Screeching Hault

WOW...Craig and I were seriously on fire and looking like we were going to finish our end of things by the end of this week. Today, I faxed over our PRIDE training certificates and our CPR certificates to our agency...and I received this email in response:

Hi Heather,

As to your question regarding a case manager, I want to inform you about a change we have just had to make in our adoption process.

We believe strongly in finding forever families for all orphans, regardless of age, and we do facilitate adoptions of orphans from all age groups. That said, we have an abundance of families who desire to adopt a child who is four years old or younger. Statistically, however, only about 20% of children within the state system who are ready to be adopted are ages 0 – 4. Currently, about 80% of the children who need a forever home are ages 5 – 17.  I do not mention that to discourage you, just to give you an idea of the issues we encounter. We are also working diligently on developing a birth parent program that would draw more birth mothers to our ministry, allowing us to facilitate a greater number of private infant adoptions.

In order to address the child population presented to us at this time, we have instituted a temporary wait list status for families requesting a child ages 0 – 4. To give you an understanding of what this means, once I have received all of your homework, you will have reached the point in the process when we would normally assign you to a case manager to begin working on your home study. At that time your family file would be put “on hold” temporarily until our case managers and placement coordinator have room on their caseloads to add another family requesting a child under five. During this waiting period we would still keep in touch with you and be available to answer your questions. We would contact you immediately when you are taken off “hold” and assigned to a case manager.

Ultimately we believe that if the Lord has placed the desire to adopt on your hearts, He has already chosen a specific child to add to your family. We do ask families to prayerfully consider being open to whomever the Lord has chosen for them, even if the child may be older than hoped. Of course, there are legitimate concerns for adopting younger children, such as keeping the birth order within your family if you already have children. Every situation is different.

We appreciate your patience and understanding in this matter. As always, please let me know if you have questions, and I will do my best to answer them in as timely a manner as possible.


A little disappointing...who am I kidding...A TON disappointing, however, the end of their letter is true and I just need to keep reminding myself this: God already knows!!!! If adoption is the road that He has chosen for us, then He already has a child in mind and their "wait list" won't stop Him. This will all come together in His timing...not mine.

A small part of me felt that if I can get the paper work completed SUPER fast, then it will speed up the process of adoption and we will be chosen to be adopted parents sooner. YES LORD...thank you for your small correction in reminding me that I am not in control of this situation. I put this back in your hands, Lord, and I will take rest in knowing that this is Yours to handle and take care of.