It's already been three weeks, so where's our baby?

When we started this process we thought that the decision to adopt was the difficult part. We just made one of the biggest decisions of our life now let's just go get out and get one, right? There is just a big list somewhere of kids that are waiting for a home, right?

The great world of adoption is a complicated and sometimes very confusing culture that has many options. Each comes with it's own set of issues, demands, and challenges. But in God's perfect plan and in His timing, the end result is loving parents welcoming a beautiful child into their world to take care of forever.

Questions we had to ask ourselves...

Domestic: Did we prefer a closed adoption, in which the birth parents remain anonymous, or would we be comfortable with the increasingly common open adoption process? In an open adoption we would meet and stay in touch with the birth parents. Would we rather use an adoption agency or a private adoption lawyer, or seek a child through advertisements you place on your own?

The US adoption system is different itself from other countries in that it does not use a orphanage system, but rather relies on foster families to provide ongoing care. Therefore there are not thousands of babies laying in shared cribs waiting for their forever families to bring them home. Thank goodness!

International: Would we consider adopting a child from another country? Could we parent a child whose racial or cultural background is different from ours? How about an older child?