Why Domestic Infant Adoption? Part 1

Our adoption journey started not long ago with the decision to get a baby boy from South Korea.  Pasture and I had talked about this off and on for many years.  Now that the girls are getting older and more independent, we decided to investigate it.

Oh my! Was I in for a big surprise.  I guess I kind of thought you went to one adoption agency, did a bunch of paperwork and a home study, and eventually went and got your baby.  I don't think I was delusional about the amount of time and effort involved in the actual process.  What I was very surprised about was the amount of research you have to do before even picking a country or an agency.  There is so much to learn and every country is different and every agency is different.

What I found out very quickly is that South Korea has some very difficult rules.  You can't just go to an agency, or an agency that works with SK for that matter.  Only 3 agencies in the country are allowed to place child in Georgia homes.  Bethany (as I'm sure most of you have heard of) was our first choice.  I contacted them.  Nope! They have shut down their healthy infant adoptions for now as some new laws in SK get worked out.  The only children available have severe health issues.  So I tried the 2nd agency. Nope! Under no circumstances will the agency they work with in SK allow parents to have ever taken psychotropic drugs, which means medicines for anxiety, depression, ADHD, etc.  And unfortunately I am taking paxil and have off and on for about 12 years.  I called the 3rd agency.  Nope! They work with the same SK agency and say no to drugs!  By the way, a lot of them say no to counseling too.  They want "normal" parents or those that haven't admitted they are crazy yet.


At this point, I was devastated.  I felt like our dreams were ruined.  I wondered if God was saying, "You have enough kids!" Not really, but I did wonder if God was saying no to adoption because I do ask him to guide my steps. And when doors are closed that sometimes means "No."

After much thinking about why we wanted to adopt, (Did we just like the idea of a cute little Asian kid?) and much prayer about what to do, we decided adoption was still in our future.  But you do have to admit, this is an irresistibly cute face.

Stay tuned for more of the story...