Adoption update

Okay time to spill the beans on what we are up too.

First let me say that it is with a heavy heart that we have decided to leave to Ethiopia program. It was all becoming just too much. The corruption, the changing timelines, the lack of timelines....it was not settling well with us to just sit at the bottom of this long waiting list. We were waiting for an orphan to be made. We had no end in sight to how long that wait might be and given the current vibe of adoption from Ethiopia we couldn't be sure it would be in the next 2 years or so. That and all the talk of corruption and massive slow downs, etc. It just didn't feel right anymore.

It breaks my heart to leave behind a culture and country that gave me my beautiful daughter. We know we will visist but it does sadden me that my children will not share this beautiful heritage. I know a piece of my heart will always belong in Ethiopia.

And it will also now belong in South Korea.

We are officially making the switch. We have sent in all the updated paperwork to both our local agency and CHS. Why Korea? Well, there are orphans that need families. There are kids in the system waiting for a forever family. We searched our hearts and truly feel we can be a family for one of those little ones.

The other big change is that we are likely adopting a toddler. Given how the timelines work in Korea our child will likely be over 1 year and possibly even as old as two at homecoming. We are excited about our new journey.

Our Little Man may turn out to be a girl which we are fine with as well.

This was not an easy decision for us. We truly wanted to adopt from Ethiopia. We were excited by the two trip rule as that meant we could spend more time in this country that we love.  I am sure some will say we are jumping ship because Korea is faster. And to that I say mind your own business. We shed tears about this decision. We second guessed ourselves. Long before we settled in and found Korea we were looking at national domestic adoption agencies and other countries. Korea hadn't even been brought up but was mentioned to us as a possibility.

We did some research. We did some soul searching. We talked. We thought. We talked some more. It felt right. It made sense. We envisioned our future son or daughter. We couldn't stop talking about Korea. About learning about a new culture about traveling to Asia and Africa with our kids. It fit into our future.

So there you have it. There is the news. We should hopefully fingers crossed be officially in the Korea program before the end of April. We are waiting on Adam Walsh paperwork to come back from California and yet another fingerprint check.  And then we settle in to wait with the news of our future child. We don't know how long that will take. It could be a month, it could be 6 months, it could be 8 months. From there we could wait for as many as 11-12 more months before we would travel to Korea.  Either way our hearts our open and we are anxiously awaiting the arrival of our child.