Our Decision

Deciding to adopt has been the easiest thing for us. It is something I, Chelsea, have always known I have wanted to do. When I asked David what he thought of adopting he was very open to the idea and excited, due to his own background. I thought I knew right away that I wanted a little girl from China but as I looked into China's process I was not thrilled to say the least. You had to be 30 and we were far from it. The country soon became popular because they typically only adopt out girls and the waiting list grew into 1-2 year processes. Heartbroken I looked into the other countries. Vietnam was closed when I started looking due to baby trafficking. So we searched for information on Russia and Ukraine. We were pretty excited about that but the cost was by far too much for us. Guatemala and Korea were looked at but never seriously considered. Then I found out Vietnam had re-opened and was ecstatic. I began searching sites on who was and was not licensed to work in Vietnam. I quickly requested information packets and began researching. I became upset again b/c a lot of the agencies would not let you pick a boy or a girl. You were automatically placed with a boy and I wanted a girl. I found a few places that let you pick boy or girl but it was hard to tell if they were credible agencies.

Earlier this year at our nieces’ birthday party a family member told us more about Ethiopia b/c that is where they are adopting from. We had never considered an African country mostly due to aids, etc. She started telling me how most of the boys don't get adopted out and a lot of them die in the orphanages before they are 10 years old. She showed me blogs of people who have adopted from there. I began researching Ethiopia and sharing my findings with David. We fell in love with the people and the country. We loved how happy the babies are and how well taken care of they are (with Gladney). We loved that Ethiopia was one of the Christian countries in Africa. It was very exciting b/c David became the most involved I have seen him. Our hearts were touched by these people. Out of all of the information packets we had received Gladney's stood out to us the most. Now the decision was between Ethiopia and Vietnam. We looked over everything and decided that Ethiopia was a better fit for us for now (we still plan on adopting through Vietnam in the very distant future). We never could overlook the fact of how poor this country was. I asked a Gladney representative one day when I was calling to ask some questions I had between Vietnam and Ethiopia- which had the greatest need? Of course she said they both had a great need but then confirmed what was said about the Ethiopian boys often not being adopted and them dying in orphanages. She said that Ethiopia did have a greater need and that people were more apt to adopting from Vietnam. I told her right then that we wanted to adopt from Ethiopia and we were ready to begin the process (I knew David was already leaning toward Ethiopia). As far as Gladney is concerned, we loved the fact that our child could get free counseling all throughout his/her life if need be. We also loved that they provide their own home studies. Many organizations left that up to the families. There were tons of "little" perks that Gladney offered that most other groups did not. So after much thinking, talking, praying, hair pulling, etc. we sent in our first check and packet. David was working and not able to attend our orientation phone meeting so I read the packet we received by e-mail before the orientation. I think the lady that called was surprised that I printed out the whole document and how prepared I was. When she would mention what she was going to go to next and was searching for a page number I often gave it to her before she told me what number it was. My packet was extremely highlighted and was covered in multi-colored page markers labeled by what each section contained (not at all ocd). I was able to ask some questions about some conflicting information about our I-600 A. I just wanted to be ready since David was going to be unable to attend. Also, I was excited and needed something to do with the nervous energy. The orientation went well and we were mailed a second packet of information. We completed a lot of this over the Thanksgiving holiday. It was a LOT of work and took HOURS. We still have a couple more "things" to get together but luckily they don't have to be sent in just yet. We also decided when we were filling out our child preference profile to put either, as far as, “do you want a boy or a girl?” I said earlier we decided on a boy - however we decided to leave this decision to God. We also know that we are the MOST likely to get a boy b/c almost everyone requests a girl.

So here we go… Our journey has already been long, time consuming, and tedious but we know it will be well worth it.