Here goes nothing. I still don't really know what I am doing of how to "blog" but I have felt compelled to do so ever since I began my latest adventure. So for years now I've heard people talk about blogging and having a blog and blog this and blog that. I had no idea what they were talking about. I tried once or twice to read some of my sisters and friends who blogged, but still nothing clicked(no offense to all y'alls(like that grammar huh, been living in the south too long), although at least I kinda got the idea of what these blogs were. Anyways, this awesome adventure called international adoption took over my world, and suddenly it all made sense. This is why I need to blog. I finally have a reason and an audience, that is of course assuming that anyone besides my mother reads this.
We love to read, we love books, we love reasons to buy books(I know this may come a bit as a shock to those of you who grew up in the same house as me, but alas it is true) yet we did not buy or read any actual books about adoption. I stressed about that for a while in the beginning. I mean we got a book about breastfeeding before that happened, there was one (read ten)about how to get your baby to sleep through the night, and seriously, we bought one about how to save money when buying crap for your baby. So, why would we not buy and read one when embarking on one of the biggest journeys of our life? I don't know, at least I didn't know. Then the paper work got done, we had signed with a great agency, and I found my self explaining to friends and family all about the adoption process I realized that I must have read some book about "how to adopt" or "adopting parent guide" or certainly an "Idiots guide to adoption." Nope. I read blogs. Thats it. These wonderful families who are going through what we are going through have written it all down, step by step for me. They have made this all way more real than any book could have. So thank you bloggers, escpecially IAN (internation adoption net) families for getting us where we are now. I hope this may help new families who don't even know where to begin.
Now onto the good stuff.
We are adopting for the sole reason of why not. We were blessed with fertile eggs, we have a beautiful daughter, we could probably and may, have many more beautiful daughters and sons with these fertile eggs. But we chose adoption for now. And I would never do it any other way.
When beginning the process we were not sure if we should be sex specific. We have a daughter, so should we get a son? We have a daughter so should she have a sister? When it came down to it, we couldn't make that decision. There was a child somewhere who needed a mommy and daddy, and they will find us. What was even harder for us was knowing that there are so many older children,waiting for a family . But we have a 2 year old who is very much an "oldest" child and in our hearts felt that she should stay the oldest. That put us in a narrower box. We then waited for a boy or girl 0-2 for 5 months before getting our referral. Last monday night, after a grueling day, we got this beautiful picture of a little 7 month old boy. WOW. it was love. Just like how you love your baby as soon as they come out of the womb. He was our son. He had been born right as we started the processes and was waiting for us.
So now we wait. And just like all those blogs I read 5 months ago that said it was even harder to wait once you had a name and a face, it is. I didn't believe it, and I still would rather know who he is,but the waiting doesn't get any easier. I won't bore anyone with the details (which I don't even really know, guess I should go back to some of those previous posts)of court dates and MOWA approvals. We hope to travel in may or june to bring little brother home.