Rewind to 2003.  Amid many other life-changing events in both of our lives, one topic that surfaced was our openness to adoption. We knew we wanted to spend the rest of our lives together. We knew we wanted a family.  And thanks to a conversation during a very long car ride between Kansas City and Peoria one summer afternoon, we realized that we were both on board and enthusiastic if adoption was a option for our future family.

Fast-forward to 2012. A lot of life can happen in nine years! Job loss, job gains, deaths and births, and lots of medical appointments for us.  After what we considered a reasonable amount of effort, we decided that it was time to turn our hearts to that discussion back in 2003. It was always in the back of our minds, and discerning what type of adoption we were open to was surprisingly easy.

After checking out several agencies, programs, and international regulations, we settled on China’s Waiting Child Program, which is a program directed to find families for children with identified medical or developmental needs. In future posts, we’ll be sharing more of what “special needs” encompasses in the adoption world.

Although we began our adventure in international adoption several months ago, we have quite a long journey in front of us. We invite you to share in our joy, frustration, and wonder as we progress to build our family across a wide sea.