One of the most frequently asked questions when I'm out with the girls is "where are they from?" It's a very good question, given that it's very obvious we are a trans-racial family and most people are used to hearing about adoptions from Ethiopia, Haiti, or the like.
Once we say that they are not just from the States, but in fact this very town, we are then usually asked how and why we chose to adopt domestically.
So in case anyone is wondering, I thought I would tell you how we came to our decision.
When we officially started to pursue adoption, in October 2008, we knew the first step was deciding whether we were going to adopt locally or internationally. If you knew me, you would know that once I need to find out information, I can research it like nobody's business. One might say I have a one track mind.
The big factor influencing our decision about adopting internationally was the necessary travel to that country. While I love travelling to other countries, my husband does not. But that actually didn't matter, he would have anyway.
It was my job. I had just started a brand new job in a brand new career in May of 08 (five months previous). I had accrued zero paid time off (although that doesn't matter because I would have done it without getting paid). I didn't feel comfortable telling my new boss, thank you for hiring me, now give me a bunch of time off so I can travel (possibly multiple times) to adopt a kid and then I would like three more months off maternity leave.
So we figured we would stay local, at least for the first one and then we'll take it from there. I guess our decision was more logistical than anything else.
Then we had to pick agencies. I, again, researched the heck out of that. We met with a lady who used to work for the agency we ended up deciding on (Lutheran Social Services (LSSI)) who gave us lots of (overwhelming) details about adoption. Which, at the time, seemed like a huge mountain to climb and I think we both felt like we had a ton of work in front of us (which we did). We (Matt) decided on LSSI. I was against it because another agency I had heard of in Indianapolis was known for matching families within six months of the homestudy. I wanted a baby yesterday so I was impatient when I was told that we would probably wait 18 months at LSSI.
However, the upside to our agency is that we could take our homestudy anywhere (and you can't with the other agency). So we figured if the wait got too long we would just take our homestudy and submit it to other agencies around the state. I had already picked out four or five that we would submit it to if we approached the one year mark.
I submitted to my husband (yay submission) on this one, as badly as I didn't want to and we went with LSSI.
Then Hannah and then Olivia. And maybe baby #3 sometime. Yay submission.
International adoption is not off the table. Praise the Lord that He inspires some to take care of those orphans too.
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