Changing Adoption Directions

We have been waiting in the Colombia adoption program for three years now... logged in and waiting. In April we spoke again with our caseworker at our agency asking for any hope they could give us. They really didn't have any unless we would consider increasing our age range which was 0-4 years and adopting 3 or more children at once. We considered it and spoke at length with our caseworkers at our homestudy agency who encouraged us to go with our gut feeling. We knew 2 children would be a challenge for us, and three at once looked a little overwhelming to say the least.  We prayed about it and discussed it and decided that we did not feel like we could do three at once. To remain on the list for 2 children ages 0-4 years was looking like another 4- 7 year wait.  Unreal, I know.  (RED TAPE).  I researched many other adoption avenues but nothing looked like it would work out for us.  We got a call from our agency while we were at IHC asking us if we would consider switching countries and adopting in the Special Needs Program from China. We told them we had already tried China and had been rejected because Mike is missing a hand.  They assured us that things have changed and China makes exceptions.  We were not convinced.  We texted a picture of Mike to our agency for them to forward to China to inquire if an exception could be made for us.  The following day they called back and told us that they had been informed by the chief Welfare Officer in China that it would not be a problem.  Soooo... we started more paperwork and had more visits with a new homestudy agency. Our paperwork for our dossier has all been turned in and our homestudy is being reviewed by our agency.  As soon as it is approved, it will be sent to Dept of Homeland Security / Immigrations for their approval.  Once that approval is received (takes approx. 2 months), our dossier will be sent to China and our new wait will begin. From all reports, it should be a much shorter wait, but time will tell....