The adventure begins

As many of you know, we began the process to adopt a little girl from Asia about 10 months ago. We decided to adopt even before trying to have kids, as we’ve both felt from the start of our marriage that part of God’s plan for our family includes adoption. Right now, we’re in the thick of our second round of paperwork (the dossier), our home visit, and our series of “interviews” to be sure we’re fit to adopt. We’ve learned a lot through this process so far and are more excited than ever to welcome our little girl in 2014. Unfortunately, the estimated time span for this process has grown by a year even since we began. The good news is that she will have a big brother to look out for her when we bring her home!

We’ve learned it’s possible that her adjustment to life in our home will be a difficult one for all of us, since her life in the orphanage likely isn’t what we’d choose for her. Books like Silent Tears, and The Connected Child, have helped us understand what she will experience and ways to smooth the transition. Our girl will be between 14-22 months when we get her and she’ll not have had much physical contact apart from occasional, rough bathing in “assembly line” style. This means she’s likely to develop a self-soothing habit such as rocking herself or another repetitive motion. For us, this means she won’t seek us out for comfort, since her former caregivers paid no attention to cries and pleas or even punished her for them. When she does self-soothe, we will need to sit with her and participate in the soothing (like taking her in our arms and rocking with her) so she learns to associate us with comfort.

So, we're asking for your help. We need our friends and family to commit to pray for us and our little girl, who probably isn’t even born yet, throughout this long process. It’s heartbreaking to hear of the treatment in some facilities and though we can’t rescue them all, we can give a loving home to one little girl. After we complete this next round about a month from now, we will basically just wait 18 months for our next review where we meet to update our paperwork (which we’ve been told we’ll likely need to do 3 times before we are matched with our girl). As a part of the dossier, we also need to pay $12,000 of the adoption fee before it can be sent to Asia. We’ve saved a good portion of the money already, but are working to find creative ways to raise the final dollars we need for this round. We ask that you prayerfully consider our family in your giving. Checks can be made payable to our agency, Bethany Christian Services, with “Dorman family” in the subject line.

Bethany Christian Services
Attn: Maelanie Schweitzer
4008 Barrett Dr. #206
Raleigh, NC 27609

We are excited about what God is going to do and has already done in our lives through our little girl. Thank you in advance for your prayers and support.

Love,
Richie and Kim