The road to Tyson, Part 3

So we left off on our trip to get our fingerprints in Seattle, with a slight detour to our agency's office in Tacoma.

At 10:30 am, we arrived at our agency and sat down with our sn coordinator, and we actually looked at the shared list! It was amazing, and more kids had been added the night before. When we saw this little boy, Chang Li Chen, we were very interested, but with the emotions still running high, we were hesitant. He had a repaird cleft lip, unrepaired palate, and a smile that could light up a room! We looked at a few more kids, and when we went back to look at him again, there was one less file, and we couldn't find his name! Our hearts just dropped...we were in disbelief, but yes, that's how fast it happens with the shared list because it is viewed world wide. But, we did find him, and we LOCKED HIS FILE!!! So wow, what a morning! We already had an appt with the UW international adoption doctors because I made the appt with the first referral, so we just called them to give them our new story and sent them the new file of Li Chen.

When we walked out of the agency, we felt good, like a weight had been lifted. We did not go in with the intention of locking another file. And if we hadn't thought his file was gone, I don't know if we would have locked it. But I'm telling you, I was looking at the same computer screen, and his name was not there. Then it was. When we thought he wasn't there, that's when we knew we wanted to adopt him.

The wave of emotions in 24 hours was amazing, to say the least. Cleft lip/palate was a need I kept coming back to all the time, but we were open to others. Somehow, I knew that would be the need our child would have. And yet, our journey on our decision to adopt him was not over. Not even close.