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...