First Step

That's adoption paperwork. Our adoption paperwork.

It's a huge first step to a lifelong dream of mine to provide a home and family for an orphan. Scott and I have been talking about adoption for years now and we decided that now is the time to move forward.

And now to start answering the questions that I'm sure people will want to know...

Where are you adopting from?
E*******!

Why E*******?
E******* has a great program right now. You can adopt a child under 12 months old without waiting years and years. Also, they have no in-country formal adoption system. If a child is orphaned, they are generally an orphan for life if there is no immediate family to take them in. Unfortunately, their lifespan is also quite short in that case. There just isn't the kind of structure needed to provide for orphaned children. They rely on international adoption right now to help care for these babies.

What agency are you using?
Children's Hope International. They are based out of St. Louis, but have a Kansas City representative that we are able to work with and meet in person.

What age child will you adopt?
We will request a baby under 12 months old, and in all likelihood, the child we bring home will be around 6 months old.

Will you request a boy or a girl?
We won't request a certain gender, but boys tend to be more available so it is more likely that we will end up with a son.

How long until you bring the baby home?
It will be about 18-24 months from now that we will return from our second trip to Ethiopia with our child.

What's the next step?
Once we finish our application to our agency (which may take a little bit because we have to request doctor's letters and such) we will set up our home study and begin parent education (we have complete 10 hours of it). During this time we will also begin fund-raising.

How much will it cost?
All said and done, including our homestudy, agency fees, referral fees, travel, visas and such, it will be approximately $24,000.

What will you do to pay for it?
Besides saving every spare penny we can find in the budget, I plan on having a garage sale, selling some homemade things, raffling off some services that friends are willing to donate, etc. I will also be applying for any grants I can find that we qualify for.