Questions ask away

A few questions that I have been asked are;

Why didn't we adopted in the US (domestic adoption).

The raw answer, well raw for me, was fear and not knowing all the facts. I personally witnessed the heart ache of a domestic adoption not proceeding because the birthmother changed her mind and no longer wanted to to have an adoption plan for her baby. I thought that can't happen with International adoption. And usually it doesn't but what I have learned since then is that ALL birthmother's should have the choice to parent or not. There was a time when I was fearful of a birthmother changing her mind. Then I go and chose the only International Adoption country I know of that gives the birthmother the choice up to the moment the plane and baby leave South Korea to change her mind. I now feel and know in my heart that my child is mine because her birthmother could not parent. Not being able to parent is not the same as Not being able to Love. In fact I think that to suffer the heart break that each birthmother suffers when she chooses to make an adoption plan for her child is the ultimate choice of LOVE.

If a birthmother chooses to parent then that child is where s/he is meant to be. When we receive our referral we will know that this face we are looking at is meant to be in our family.

Were we given the option of adopting a girl?

We were. In our particular agency you are only able to adopt from Korea if you have no more than four children currently in the home. Families may also request a girl if they have two or more boys in the family and no girls. Originally we were open to either gender. However, mid 2009 we switch to what is known as the GIRLS ONLY line for many, many reasons. Want to know just ask.

How long will this process take?

With International Adoption my best answer is you never can tell. It's like a roller coaster ride, you go up, up, up and then D-O-W-N and then you hit a bump and then there is a sharp corner and then you go around a loop-de-loop, and turn and then a tunnel and then another turn ... You know somewhere there has to be an end, a place to get off. It has too because there are other's WaITinG tO GeT oN... HOWEVER, we hope and pray to get our referral next year, secretly praying by at least summer. We are ready to go from man-on-man defense to a ZONE defense. Once we get our referral then another batch of paper work starts to bring our daughter home. The estimated time frame for the Emigrations Papers (EP's) and the VISA is anywhere from three months to six months. We promise when we know YOU will know too.

If you have a question - ask IT.