That Age Old Question.....Why China???

Why China? It seems that we have been asked this question countless times. To be honest I think that it is an odd question. I think for some it is a very personal question. What happens if the answer isn't one you expected? What if the answer is a painful one to recount? Our answer has a complicated part that I won’t share, but a pretty natural progression otherwise. So as promised to Connie, here I go.

Wanting to adopt from China first entered the realm of possibility for us back in 1995 while we were living in Prague. I was in our apartment with Ben, and I was watching a report from the World Health Organization on the health and wellness of women and girls in China. Part of their story focused on the number of girls in China's orphanages. The report was not inflammatory or sensationalized but an account of the current situation. I called Chris at work and asked him if we could please adopt a little girl from China. He response was "no, we are pretty busy right now with Ben", who at the time was two months old! I would have to agree that at that time "no" was an appropriate answer. So I tucked this request away for another time. In 1996 Hannah was born, in the following years Chris worked at building his business I went back to school and eventually back to work, Ben and Hannah got bigger........and busier. Life happened. We were blessed to have two great kids, jobs we loved and our own home, but something was missing. More accurately someone was missing.

In 2005 Chris traveled to China on business. He had a great trip, and could not stop talking about the little Chinese girls with their new families on the airplane back to the United States. We talked about how when Ben was little I called him asking if we could adopt. Our conversations were definitely heading towards adding a new member to the TBG gang; it was just a matter of how we would do that. Chris asked me if I wanted to have another baby. I said no, I just turned 40 and having a baby did not seem like a good idea to me! I looked into foster care and adoption through the foster care system and that wasn't a good fit for us either. We never considered any other country even though we had family who had adopted from Russia and a friend who was waiting to complete her adoption in Guatemala. It has always been China. So we continued to talk about the possibility of China. We were not overly concerned about being conspicuous family, part of my ethnic background is Indonesian (my mom is Indonesian, dad is Irish). I grew up beinga part of a conspicuous family! We talked with Ben and Hannah about having a new sister. Hannah was excited at the possibility, Ben had a few questions. After some discussion and time to think things over the TBG kids gave their stamp of approval and we were off to find an adoption agency.

So the answer to the question for us is really quite simple. We chose China because that IS where Sophie is and this is the right time for our family. So we wait, we would never change programs. China has always been in our hearts.


So it's come down to this> Omega Mom>Letters from the Zoo> The Singing Bird>Elsie Elsewhere>Chicago Mama>Sopapilla>Are we There yet?>Hope Springs>Jiaozi>Figlet>Bionic Valentine>Hao Bao Bao>Mortimers Mom>Jazzie & Tahlia>Ruby In her Own Time> hey ho, hey ho>Love Made Real>The Moon is Always Female>Buttercup>Waiting for Sprout>Somewhere in China...> TBG Happenings

***this is the second time I have written this post. The first one, and of course in my opinion the better one, was deleted by me and forever lost. I cried, I mean tried to find the first post. And for those of you that this has happend to know that the you just can't replicate what you wrote the first time...ugh!