Adoption Column 4

Copyright, Stephens Media

Editor’s note: Mark Buffalo is the sports editor for the Cabot Star-Herald, Carlisle Independent and Lonoke Democrat, which are members of Stephens Media’s Central Arkansas Newspapers. He and his wife, Linda, who is a teacher at Lonoke Middle School, will be adopting a 2-year-old girl from China, who will be named Mary Elisabeth. They are scheduled to travel in September. This is the fourth of several columns about this family’s adoption experiences and the process. His e-mail address is mbuffalo@cabotstarherald.com

By Mark Buffalo

Linda and I attended our one-day Vacation Bible School at Palm Street Church of Christ on Saturday, June 5. While outside shooting pictures of the various activities, my cell phone rang and the caller ID said “American World,” which is our adoption company. We’ve received calls from them on weekends before, but it usually means they have a child’s case to review.

And sure enough, our case worker, Melissa, was on the line, telling us about a little girl who would be 2 years old in a couple of months. She was on the waiting child program, with some special needs, but ones we knew we would be able to handle. So, Melissa sent us an e-mail with the child’s photos and medical records. I told Linda about the phone call and we told our pastor’s wife and we hurried home to check the e-mail.

When we opened the message, we knew that, finally, we had found our Mary Elisabeth. There were a couple of photos and her medical records. We had to talk to a doctor that day and get his opinion on what he thought about her health. We were convinced that we were making the correct decision about our chances of finally being parents.

We called Melissa back at America World and told her that we wanted to go forward with adopting the child. There were some formalities to take care of, such as paying a translation fee, writing a nurturing plan for the child and promising to take care of any medical needs she might have, even if they weren’t covered by our insurance. After that, we knew we were a mommy and daddy. For me, personally, it was the most special feeling I’d had since Mom died on July 28, 2008.

While we knew we finally were going to get our Mary Elisabeth, several stages of approval were left for us to go through with the China Center of Adoption Affairs. We had to stay patient ,but for the first time in this entire process, there was light at the end of the tunnel.

We were told that if everything went according to plan, we would go to China to complete the adoption process before the end of the year. This was such a blessing. God was looking down on us and blessed us by making us parents.

As we continued to wait, we received our preliminary acceptance. At this point, we still couldn’t post the picture on a blog or Internet group. She was still ours but we had to follow all the conditions set forth by the CCAA and our adoption company.

Then, on July 31, exactly one year since Mom’s funeral, I was taking a photo in Carlisle while on my “vacation” when Linda called me crying. She had received a phone call from Melissa at America World. She said we had received our referral approval, which meant Mary Elisabeth was ours! We could finally introduce her to world. I really think Mom was looking down on us, trying to give us something to remember July 31 for other than her funeral. My mom had a silly way of taking care of us, even after she was gone.

At that time, Melissa told us we could possibly travel to China by the middle of September. That meant Linda’s school year and my football. volleyball, golf, tennis and cross country seasons would be interrupted temporarily while we went halfway around the world to bring home our beautiful little girl. We knew that this would be a possibility during the adoption process. So, Linda started getting ready for school. I started covering my three football teams, trying to get our football preview issue completed. Then we got some more great news on Aug. 25.

Next: Making plans for a trip to China.