Monday, August 1, 2011

Many people ask, "Why China?"

We know we were first introduced to the China program years ago through friends of ours who attended an informational meeting on adopting from China. At the time, the process to adopt from China was fast, less than one year from start to finish for a non-special needs baby girl under the age of one year. Fast. We tucked away that knowledge and went about our daily lives.
We did not consider domestic. We believe in domestic adoption and certainly support domestic adoption, but it was not to be for our family. I have spent numerous hours volunteering for child advocacy groups and childrens shelters. I spent a year working with a little girl at a local childrens home. Some say, "Why go to another country to adopt when there are children here waiting?" To fully grasp why one would choose to go to another country over the United States is just too much to get into - there are many factors and when discussing this topic, one has to be willing to accept that adopting domestically is not for every family. In our world of adoption, we hear a lot of families state that they chose to adopt from a specific country because that is where their heart was. I find this, for our family, to be true. China just felt right. It was easy to picture. I saw this perfect little olive-skinned, dark brown eyed, pigtail baring little girl in my dreams. I wanted the dream. And Ryan agreed.