Ok I have to hold up my end of the bargain and begin answering some of our "top 10" questions we get from people. How did we decide between international vs. domestic adoption...and how did we decide on Ethiopia? Well first, I personally don't think there is a right or wrong on domestic or international. (I'm sure there are people who disagree)
I took my first trip outside my comfortable safe bubble of the U.S. in 1996. I went to Russia and helped with a camp for over 200 orphans. I spent 19 days there. I came home and knew my life was changed forever. I continued to travel back to Russia each summer and spend time with these kids, who are beautiful and wonderful. When Adam and I started dating, I told him pretty early on that I knew that when I was a mom, I didn't just want to be a mom of biological children. I knew that I wanted to adopt. Luckily, the talk of adoption with Adam while we dated, didn't make him turn around and run. He was on board. I was in love already! When we got married, we knew that adoption would always be "PLAN A" for our family. We've been able to travel to different countries together and spend time with orphans, work with them. It was very obvious that we knew we'd adopt from another country. I love to travel. I love different cultures. I love getting new stamps in my passport...
When we really started researching adoption, we honestly looked at both international and domestic. I don't know a lot about domestic adoption, but we are fully supportive of it. We have friends who have adopted (and are in the process) of adopting domestically. We have friends who are foster parents. We think we might do that as well at some point. Our church is very active in foster adoptions. Our pastor has 2 children they are adopting from foster care. In my opinion each child needs a home whether they are from the U.S. or China, or India, or Africa.
Once we decided on international...how did we pick Ethiopia? As we were looking at different adoption agencies and which countries they work in, we told ourselves "Be open to any country." Each country has their own set of adoption requirements. It actually made it pretty easy. We were considering China as our first option. Well, we don't meet their requirements. Some countries, you have to meet a certain income level. Or you can't have more than 1 child already..Or you can only have boys. Or you can only have girls, etc. So as we were looking at each country, those requirements narrowed our selection. Like I said, it made it pretty "easy".
Africa has always been on our hearts. Children's HopeChest (where I work) had opened up doing work in African countries, including Ethiopia. Friends of ours have adopted from there. It made sense. Not because "everyone else is doing it". Not because we wanted to copy our friends or be like Angelina Jolie or Brad Pitt (PUH-LEASE! Gag). But we met their country requirements, they are a very open country, and we knew we'd have a good community of friends with their children who would be like our son. That is important to us.
Did you know that there are about 5 million orphans in Ethiopia? That's 5 million too many for one country. Ethiopia is a proud country. They are a very old country. A lot of history. I'm excited to bring our son home from such a wonderful country with such a rich heritage.
I took my first trip outside my comfortable safe bubble of the U.S. in 1996. I went to Russia and helped with a camp for over 200 orphans. I spent 19 days there. I came home and knew my life was changed forever. I continued to travel back to Russia each summer and spend time with these kids, who are beautiful and wonderful. When Adam and I started dating, I told him pretty early on that I knew that when I was a mom, I didn't just want to be a mom of biological children. I knew that I wanted to adopt. Luckily, the talk of adoption with Adam while we dated, didn't make him turn around and run. He was on board. I was in love already! When we got married, we knew that adoption would always be "PLAN A" for our family. We've been able to travel to different countries together and spend time with orphans, work with them. It was very obvious that we knew we'd adopt from another country. I love to travel. I love different cultures. I love getting new stamps in my passport...
When we really started researching adoption, we honestly looked at both international and domestic. I don't know a lot about domestic adoption, but we are fully supportive of it. We have friends who have adopted (and are in the process) of adopting domestically. We have friends who are foster parents. We think we might do that as well at some point. Our church is very active in foster adoptions. Our pastor has 2 children they are adopting from foster care. In my opinion each child needs a home whether they are from the U.S. or China, or India, or Africa.
Once we decided on international...how did we pick Ethiopia? As we were looking at different adoption agencies and which countries they work in, we told ourselves "Be open to any country." Each country has their own set of adoption requirements. It actually made it pretty easy. We were considering China as our first option. Well, we don't meet their requirements. Some countries, you have to meet a certain income level. Or you can't have more than 1 child already..Or you can only have boys. Or you can only have girls, etc. So as we were looking at each country, those requirements narrowed our selection. Like I said, it made it pretty "easy".
Africa has always been on our hearts. Children's HopeChest (where I work) had opened up doing work in African countries, including Ethiopia. Friends of ours have adopted from there. It made sense. Not because "everyone else is doing it". Not because we wanted to copy our friends or be like Angelina Jolie or Brad Pitt (PUH-LEASE! Gag). But we met their country requirements, they are a very open country, and we knew we'd have a good community of friends with their children who would be like our son. That is important to us.
Did you know that there are about 5 million orphans in Ethiopia? That's 5 million too many for one country. Ethiopia is a proud country. They are a very old country. A lot of history. I'm excited to bring our son home from such a wonderful country with such a rich heritage.
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