Questions

Ok- so this is my attempt at clarifying some questions that we often get asked. I will, in no way, be able to cover them all in one post, but here are some that we get asked the most….I’m sure I’ll have posts down the road to cover more :)

Why Adoption? I could go on and on with this question with statistics, the Bible, etc…and get really in-depth, but I think simply put: There are millions (147 million to be exact) of orphans in this world that need good, loving, caring homes and families. We have a house, food, and can provide this…so I think the better question is “Why Not?” I don’t get offended when people ask this, but at the same time if you just took a little time out of your day and did some research this wouldn’t even be a question. I think by now everybody knows the demand for orphans to be adopted. Once your eyes are open to this, you can hardly turn your back.

Can’t you get pregnant? I’m sure we can, but we don’t care to…at least not until we do what’s been put on our hearts.

Why Ethiopia? Again. Why not? If you read the statistics on my blog you will get more clarity, but a big reason is we have huge hearts for Africa...Ethiopia specifically. I have always had a heart for Africa ever since I was little. So, for us, it’s a no brainer. It’s an amazing country, beautiful people, and a wonderful culture. We really feel like the lucky ones here. Also- we don’t qualify for all countries…marriage, age, etc…so that also limits us as well, but even before we knew that we had already chosen ET! We considered Rwanda, Ghana…maybe our next adoption :)

Do you get to pick health, gender, age…? Yes. They don’t particularly care for you to pick gender with your first child. We are open to both gender and hoping for an infant 0-6 months at referral time. Infant girls are more sought after for some reason so we will probably get a baby boy. We are hoping to get them home less than 12 months old. Also, when you fill out forms they ask about if you willing to accept about any medical condition you can possibly imagine. We put down healthy infant. We will get whatever baby is ours.

How long, how much…? Right now we are hoping from start to finish it will be around 12 months. MOWA (Ministry of Womens Affairs) used to see 40 adoptions a day and have now cut it down to processing 5 a day. We are hoping they bump it back to 40 otherwise this could delay our first trip quite a bit! Adoption seems expensive because you’re seeing it all up front unlike biological children. It’s roughly (2 trips) $25,000-$30,000. However, there are credits, grants, etc along the way. It’s NOT as scary as it seems. Trust me...if we can do it, so can you! :)

Do you travel to ET? Yes!!! There is now a two trip requirement (different post :) So we will make our first trip to meet our baby, appear in court, and accept our referral in person (this never used to be a requirement) We can arrive the day before court and leave the day after, but I’m sure we will want to stay longer and do some sight seeing and hang with our baby! 2nd trip we pick up our baby, embassy appt, finalized up all the paperwork, baby’s visa, etc…that trip is about 5-7 days. The flights over and back are 20 hours each way! Yikes! We are really looking forward to these trips. It’s not every day you get to go somewhere as cool as Africa!!!!

How do you know your baby is healthy? Well, how do you know any baby is healthy? They do the best they can…again…3rd world country. They run tests, height, weight, etc…and then they recommend you have the referral evaluated by a International Pediatrician here in the U.S. to confirm everything and read over all the information that is given to us. The information is very minimal. We will get some blood tests, measurements, pictures, and that is about it. After that you just have to have faith that this is your baby and you deal with whatever comes after that!

Do you get to meet birth parents? Maybe. With the new rules in place we will have court the same day that the birth parents (if still living) have their court to relinquish their rights. We have talked with our agency about this and they don’t particularly care for the families to meet, but if we really want to do it and they agree to it. They will try to make it work under their supervision.

Do you pick birth parents? Do they pick you? No, this is not like domestic adoptions. Our agency matches us with the baby they think best fits what we put on our application. We are free to turn down a referral and wait for the next one if we just don’t feel it’s our baby.

So, this is a quick (if you can believe it) way to answer some questions. I LOVE questions and teaching people more about adoption so feel free to ask away!! :) As you can see I could talk adoption all day long!

Until my next post...

Tasha