A new adventure

Almost 6 years ago, I married the man of my dreams and since then, life has been one adventure after another.  From the beginning we wanted children, aside from our 4 "fur" kids we wanted a bigger family team! After years of fertility treatments and one miscarriage we are heading in a new direction in finding the rest of our family. 

About 8 months ago we decided Foster/Adopt was what we would do.  We figured it would be a great way to find our child.  Early on the doubts started creeping in and we began to have more and more questions about the "system".  We started talking to people who had adopted through the foster system and heard about all kinds of experiences.  Some people had a great experience and they were able to go through the process and live happily ever after.  More people than that had horrific experiences.  One family had a child for 10 years (from birth) and after 10 years of being a family a distant cousin of the birth family came in and the courts sided with the birth family.  It blows my mind, the number of times this happens.  After much prayer and conversation, we decided we couldn't risk that happening to us.  

So, What next? We still want a family, we know there's more to our life together, but how?  We started looking and looking and talking about every option.  I can probably tell you the requirements for adoption from just about any avenue you can think of.  I spent months researching.  We looked at domestic adoption which can be relatively fast and you can take home a beautiful newborn straight from the hospital.  The catch is...  it's high risk.  Birth mothers change their minds sometimes.  We wouldn't know for sure, so it wasn't all that different than foster/adopt.  In addition to the risk, almost all agencies ONLY do "open" adoption.  Neither one of us was comfortable with that.  I know it works great for many families but it just wasn't ideal for us.  Long story short...we've made a decision.  (Shocker, i know, for those of you that know me! haha)  Rob was sold long before I was.  It was the first time i'd seen him get really excited about it.  It took me a couple weeks of research and prayer and talking to probably 30 adoptive mom's at length, but i decided too. :-)  

We have decided to adopt from China.  

We are so excited to get our paperwork finished and get our dossier finished 

(dossier=big pile of paperwork that goes to China)

So, When? We don't know.  We think it will take about a year in total.  Maybe a little longer, maybe a little less.  Right now we are in the "paperchase"or what they call in the adoption world "paper pregnant" :-) .  There's a tremendous amount of paperwork and a thousand hoops to jump through but we are busy jumping! signing our name and sending paperwork from here to there.

So there you have it... the latest news in Taylor-ville.  We are excited.  So.  Very.  Excited.  

This will be the avenue I keep you updated on our process. I've read so many blogs and love reading about the journey's of families that have gone through it already.  I also want a record of our process for our little one to be able to read one day. 

We hope you'll join us in this new adventure!

With Love and Excitement

-Jenn