Korea Details

We have been trying to decide between Holt, the agency Zach was adopted through, and Adoption Assistance Inc/AAIA.

We met with Julie at Adoption Assistance Inc., here in Louisville, yesterday. Her agency works closely with AAIA, an agency in Michigan, for Korean adoptions. They are a much smaller agency than Holt so the process would be faster if we go with them.  It would also be faster if we are willing to accept a child with mild special needs.  Sometime in the near future we will have to fill out a medical checklist saying what we would consider. So many medical conditions that they would consider serious in Korea are very minor to us.  Luckily Korea is a country where the moms generally choose to put their child up for adoption and give a full medical history, unlike China where many are abandoned. Korea also does foster care instead of orphanages, so there are a lot of positives in that as far as child development and health.

A home study can take 4-6 weeks and we don't have to wait for our anniversary to get started. So sometime in September, we can get started on the home study. Guess we can wait til then to clean ;)

Most likely we will get a boy, but we will not request a specific gender.  There are a lot of requests for girls, so it is a much longer wait for a girl. I'd love a girl someday but I know Zach wants a boy first.  :)

The days of having a 3 month old show up at the airport are definitely long gone.  Korean babies are not even eligible for international adoption until they are 5 months old, because they want to encourage domestic adoption within their own country. After that we may get a referral but it could take up to a year or so to be cleared for travel.  Overall, the process once we start our home study, could take about 12-18 months. We may come home with a 10-24 month old child!  We may even have to take 2 trips to Korea- one for a court date and the other to pick up our child.  Luckily they have discounted adoption travel!

One thing I was glad to hear is that you pay the fees before you go to Korea, so we won't have to strap large amounts of cash to our bodies. Believe it or not that was one of my big worries!

How are we gonna pay for this? Well... There will be some fundraising for sure. But we are so happy the adoption tax credit was made permanent this year, so we can get a large chunk back later. Zach also gets adoption assistance from his employer, so that's a huge blessing. Plus, I recently started a new job and the extra money should help significantly.  God has just lined things up for us.

So the name of the game is waiting...and we are waiting. Right now we are waiting for our doctors letters.  The next step will be picking an agency and completing an application. In the meantime, we'll enjoy our sleep (what little the puppy allows us), work on our house, save money, and pray for the mom who is making one of the hardest decisions any mom can make.

Please pray with us!

Step 1... Hundred

My mom called this step one, but really the adoption journey started a long time ago for us. 

Zach was adopted at 3 months, from South Korea, so it began at birth for him.  His 2 younger brothers were also adopted from Korea. Coincidentally, Zach and I met on the 25th anniversary of his gotcha day. 

I'm not sure where it all began for me but I'm sure it had something to do with being raised in an adoptive family. My parents adopted my brother 2 years before they had me. It was not exactly a smooth ride for our family, but I always admired my parents for their choice. I know some people view adopted kids as different, but I fought with my brother just like biological siblings do! ;)

I think I became more conscious of what I believe to be a God-given desire to adopt, when I was in college. I went on 3 mission trips to orphanages in Mexico and Guatemala, where I repeatedly fell in love with sweet orphaned kids.  I couldn't understand how they could possibly be unwanted and treated so badly. I remember one little boy in Guatemala in particular.  His name was Sammy and he was as adorable as they get.  He loved being hugged and I was happy to oblige. 

At some point it just became clear to me that I couldn't fathom bringing more kids into the world when there are so many who have no family. There is a statistic floating around that says "if 6% of the born again Christians in the world adopted, we could care for all of the adoptable orphans in the world." 6%?! Holy cow! I understand that people want the experience of having their own flesh and blood form a life inside them. It truly is a miracle to experience that. But to me, there are millions of miracles out there that no one has acknowledged.

Some people know this, but I had decided I would adopt, single or married, long before I met Zach. That was also long before some of my health issues showed up. I'm not a big fan of sharing my health issues with people, but close friends and family know. I am comfortable sharing that I probably COULD have biological children, but I probably SHOULD NOT. One of my many health issues is that I have arthritis in my back and hips. This means pregnancy would be very very uncomfortable for me, and I would not be able to give birth naturally.  Many women would have a hard time with hearing that type of news from their doctor, but for me it was just more confirmation of what I already knew in my heart, that I should be an adoptive mom. 

So what have we been waiting for? Well... Korea requires that adoptive parents be married for 3 years. Plus Zach just finished graduate school. 

As I said, this is not step one. This has been in our hearts for a long time. We have been doing research on countries, adoption agencies, the difference between domestic and international, etc. We're just finally at the point where we can get some things started officially. 

So here we go...