Beginnings

Well, here it is...our first adoption blog posting!

Let's cover the basics first:

Why are you blogging?
It seems like this is the best way to educate our friends and family about adoption and International adoption and keep everyone informed about where we are in the process. If by sharing this information we can help others along the way, that will be the icing!

Why now?
No single reason, but if I *had* to pick one, I'd have to say it was the arrival of our 171H. That is adoption-techno-speak for "it's real now!" and there's nothing like learning you're expecting to scare you into action.

Where?
Kazakhstan. No, China! No, Taiwan! We had good reasons to go with Kazakhstan. After all, it was 1/2 way between Europe (my family's origins) and China (my husband's family's homeland) and the kids are adorable and might actually look a lot like they could be ours (meaning hapa...that's Hawaiian for "mixed" for those of you thinking, "huh?"). We completed our entire dossier for Kazakhstan (more on that later) which was no small feat and somehow, even after all that work, it just didn't feel right. Instead, we realized that with all the cultural heritage we already have between us, it just didn't make sense to us to add yet another multidimensional background. Not only that, but the wait time to referral for Kaz just got extended and the travel time went from an already daunting six weeks to seven yes, SEVEN weeks in country (or two trips just a few weeks apart - equally difficult!)! Yikes! China felt good, but the wait times there are long and we kind of like the idea of having an older brother around to take care of his little sister. It's a bit rare to find a healthy boy available in China for adoption, so...Taiwan it is!! The care is good; healthy boys are available; and we have a cultural connection. Sign us up!

When?
We've been thinking about adoption for a while and started working on it seriously in June. We'll be posting our detailed timeline soon, but at this point we are simply waiting for a homestudy update - at least we think that's all we're waiting for. After that, we should have a referral (i.e. picture of our child, along with details about his health) within around 3 months and we will travel to pick him up 3-6 months after that. Wow.