My wife and I are in the process of adopting a baby girl, known affectionately as ‘Squish’ here at the Daily Dad until her adoption is finalised.

This is my weekly column — a place where I am sharing the ins and outs of parenting a newborn and the joys and challenges of adoption.

Enjoy this week’s edition of ‘The Adventures of Squish’.

Applying to Adopt

Our adoption story is a twisting, turning tale that stretches across three countries and involved the riskiest decision my wife and I have ever made.

It all began in April last year, when Angie and I were in the United States visiting her family. (For context: Angie is an American, but we live in Australia).

Friends of ours put us on to an adoption agency just down the road from where Angie grew up. She had passed the building many times, never knowing the significant role it would later play in her becoming a mother.

After visiting Florida, we were making the two-day road trip “home” to the Mid-West, when we decided to phone this adoption agency to find out more. At the end of a short conversation, they told us to come in first thing Monday.

At our appointment, we explained our rather complicated situation. Angie was a US citizen; I was an Australian. We lived in Australia but would be willing to relocate here temporarily if we were matched with an expecting mother. Oh and another thing: we were in the process of preparing for a long-term placement volunteering with a humanitarian mission in South East Asia.

Given all these parameters, we were honestly expecting a closed door. Instead, the agency worker declared, “God is all over this! Let’s make it happen!”

Over the next two weeks, our case worker cleared her schedule to fast-track our application, which would normally have taken several months.

Back in Australia, we followed up with the remainder of our paperwork. Not long after, we were officially on the waiting list.

Our Relocation to South-East Asia

What followed was a long silence. We knew it could be months or even years before hearing from the agency, so we busied ourselves in preparation for our move to South-East Asia.

Just before departing, we checked with the adoption agency whether there was anything was on the horizon. They had seen very few expecting mothers come through their doors since we applied, the agency told us. And we knew we were only one of many families waiting.

So we packed up our lives and moved to the jungle.

Our journey from Australia to such a remote part of the world involved four flights spread over many days. At 5 o’clock in the morning of our final flight, as we were packing up to leave the hotel for the airport, Angie got an email. It was the adoption agency: they were wondering if they could show our profile book to a mother.

What timing! The day we were finally set to arrive in South East Asia, after years of preparation, we had to consider the possibility that we would be soon moving countries again!

We told the agency yes, while being well aware there would be many other profile books for the mother to choose from.

A few days later, we heard back from the agency: the mother would like to meet us on a video call.

Though we were nervous, our meeting went better than we expected. We connected immediately. There were many “coincidences” between our life stories that had all of us amazed.

Again, we knew this mother could choose another family, and we expected to wait days before hearing an answer.

Ten minutes after the call ended, the adoption agency messaged us: “She wants to go ahead with you as the parents for her child.”

They were words that changed our lives forever.

Our Relocation to the United States

Our world was spinning — there was so much to consider, so much to do.

First, we reached out to our family, our friends, our church, and those who were supporting financially in our volunteer work. Everyone was supportive of the adoption.

Next, we had to book flights. The mother was due in three months and she hoped that we could arrive in town a month early. That gave us two months to secure an apartment in the US and buy all that we needed to furnish it — two big tasks we were only able to achieve with the help of Angie’s parents.

As you can imagine, all of these decisions — including the adoption itself — came with a big price tag. Scarier still, our second international relocation for the year came with the possibility that the pregnancy or birth could result in complications or the mother could change her mind.

It was the riskiest decision of our lives. We felt like we were walking out on to a rickety drawbridge over a steep ravine — with months of waiting before we reached the other side.

In the meantime, we had work to do on the ground in South East Asia. We had spent four years fundraising to build and open an Early Learning Centre. The building was now very close to being finished — but we had to recruit and train staff, furnish the centre, write policies and procedures, and meet prospective families.

By the grace of God, all of this we were able to accomplish in those two months. Angie is now directing the centre remotely, with help from national leadership. We plan to return to South East Asia once Squish’s adoption is finalised.

A month after we arrived in the United States, Squish was born. The day of her birth is another suspenseful story that will have to wait for another time — though you can read a little more about her arrival here.

I told you our adoption story was crazy.

Fortunately, the crazy start to our year has given way to a little more stability and predictability. No more living out of suitcases — at least for a while.

We are thankful to be settled in one place, learning how to be parents, and enjoying lots of snuggles from our newborn.

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Photo by Arina Krasnikova.