Why addendum.

It was brought to my attention that I forgot a reason I like to blog. (thanks Jen) I am competing with my wife, ***blink, blink***, Angie for hits. I have gained a much higher quantity of hits, but hers are much more diverse and widespread. She has many more countries and several more states than I do.

I also forgot that one of the other primary reasons for my blogging is to promote adoption. Many of my posts reference the adoption of my daughter from China. I want to take a moment to talk about adoption.

When we started the process of international adoption the first thing many people would ask us was, "why not a child from here?" From some people this question was not offensive. One of our best friends, Diana, was adopted. Another one of our fiends, Steve, was also adopted. From them and a few others this was an acceptable question, but from others it was delivered with an acidic tone that required struggling for grace in order to answer calmly. The answer, or should I say answers, vary wildly. First off is scripture, we are told to take care of the widows and orphans. No where in the scripture does it say to take care of orphans that look like you and live near you. Secondly, the domestic adoptions have garnered a bad reputation for taking a long time without giving good reasons, and not always being final when you thought they were final. My wifes cousin adopted and had her daughter for 10 months and then the courts came and took her away. This is not something we wanted to risk trying to survive. Thirdly, we just wanted to do something about the situation in China. Just a bit of background, due to cultural influences and government regulations, there is a huge need for people to adopt girls from China. China is a wonderful place and by and large the people there understood why we were there and although they were sad for the need of us to come, they were glad that we were doing this and appreciated our presence. As a general cultural norm, adoption is not overly common in the orient.

The second most common question we received was, "how much did she cost?" Yes, people really do ask this. There is a tactful way to do this and many not so tactful ways. We have gotten accustomed to Gracie being the center of attention in public and such not always so subtle questions. We have learned to take into account the person asking the question and we are usually more than willing to provide answers. If the person asking is interested in adopting we will usually give them the name of the agencies we used ( a link to Children's Hope is provided with links to my friends blogs) We tell them some of what they can expect and about how much it might cost. ($16 to $20 grand as an estimate if someone reading this needs to know)

Sometimes we run into the question, "Is she yours?" To this there is but one short answer.
YES. Sometimes we will clarify and say something like, "we went to China to get her when she was 15 months old, but she has always been ours."

Adoption is the most rewarding experience I can even imagine. Yes it was long and full of hurdles, yes it was expensive and risky, yes it was an exceptionally long gestation period, but the rewards are simply indescribable. I can not put into words the adventure that results from making the decision, taking the trip, and then living the new life that results from it. It only takes a moment to make the decision to do it, but the adventure that begins in that moment goes on for the rest of your life. As I write this blog it occurs to me that gotcha day is coming up in only six or so weeks. January tenth is gotcha day.

If I don't know you and you happen to land here because you googled something or linked in from somebody else. let me make you an offer. Leave me a comment with your email address in it and I will answer any questions you might have about adopting from China. If your already in the process and have questions about what happens next, I can handle that too. If you want to learn more but dont necessarily want to ask me, click on the Children's Hope link. If you email one of them, I guarantee you will here from them shortly. They are awesome at what they do.