It's scary to move forward sometimes. Jeff and I have been thinking seriously about adoption for about 10 years now. I mean, really seriously- all of the time. I think life just kept getting in the way. If you have ever looked into adoption yourself, you'd see that it is a completely overwhelming process. Hundreds of pages to fill out, forms to notarize, more governmental red tape than I know what to do about, money to come up with. . . Then there are our current children to think about, and making sure our home is "ready" (whatever that means to a child who doesn't currently have one)!
Finally, we just decided to do it. Now. Today. Well, actually we decided last April. However, deciding is a little different than actually getting started. So the biggest question for us was, where should we adopt from? You can adopt privately, from the foster care system and internationally and each one has a different process. Something I read recently from the grandson of Jacques Cousteau, Fabien Cousteau, went like this; "It's funny how so many people think of the world as countries- these political lines on a map. Nature doesn't care about these invisible lines on a piece of paper. Everything that goes on in nature affects everybody regardless of where you live. .. " Now, he was referring to ocean restoration, but we think that it is equally as powerful in regards to international adoption. So for a variety of reasons, we chose Ethiopia. This is a proud country that is known around the world as the birthplace of civilization, for their discovery of coffee (thank goodness!), home of the Queen of Sheba, and the only country in Africa that was never under colonial rule. However, they are not without serious problems, some of which are out of their control. This is a country almost twice as big as Texas with 4.7 million orphans. Most children are available to be adopted due to the Aids epidemic, malnutrition/starvation, lack of basic needs like clean water, and other communicable diseases that would be easily treated in the United States. This is a country that children are born into without things we take for granted every single minute of every single day. Water. Food. Medicine. Shelter. Education.
Maybe we can make a small difference. A one child difference. She probably won't care that we're forgoing granite countertops or a new car. So I guess our home is ready. I know we're ready for her!
you've been talking with savages, haven't you? :)
ReplyDeleteSo very excited for you all. So, this is the first reference to a gender. I take it you have decided you'd like to have a little girl?! That's thrilling! I don't envy the mountain of paperwork, home visits, etc., that you're having to do. We can't wait to hear more on what's happening.
ReplyDeleteHa! Yes, I have been talking to Amy (also borrowed the pic. from her blog), but this was on my mind way before I knew what they were up to!! It has been really helpful though, to know someone who has just completed the process. When we first started checking out Ethiopia she was the only one I knew who had made that decision, so it was very helpful to hear what she and Ben had to do. Now it seems like every time I turn around, I meet someone else who has done the same thing. Thanks!!
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