The "Why" Questions

I still often get questioned about "why" and "how" we chose Bulgaria. I also get a lot of questions about "why" we're not adopting domestically or why we don't foster adopt. Most people are genuinely curious, but I have had a few people that were genuinely offended that we chose to go with international adoption. All I can say to those people is we are here because this is where we feel like God has placed us.

I'm going to try to explain how we got here a little more so maybe it will help some people understand. When we first started exploring adoption almost three years ago, we knew without a doubt that we would go the route of international adoption. But all we knew of international adoption was Russia and China. We kind of assumed that we would just go with China, which at the time was a three year wait, but we were too young (you have to be 30 for China). That, along with the fact that we had a one year old, were both working full time jobs, and were worn out new parents, made us decide that we would put it on the back burner for a while.

Fast forward to last February, two years later. We felt ready and were almost 30 so we could start the process if we wanted. But by then the wait in China was (and still is) upwards of five years, and the paperwork was (and still is) astounding. So we decided to apply for Taiwan. I don't know if I've ever told y'all that we applied for Taiwan first. But we did. I hesitate to even put it in the blog, because I don't want our daughter to ever think that we "settled" for Bulgaria. The truth is that it just wasn't on our radar. It ended up that our agency's program in Taiwan wasn't accepting new applications until they processed all of their current applications so our adoption agency sent us info on all their other countries. And this is when Bulgaria first came into view on the radar. At first, I wasn't sure because it requires two trips instead of one. The total time out of country is only slightly over two weeks, but the fact that it is broken up into two trips brings the cost up substantially.

Anyway, one afternoon I was sorting through all the countries trying to make a decision. We had even discussed going with a different agency to broaden our country options, but we really liked and felt drawn to our agency, AGCI, and didn't want to switch. My sister came to pick up my nephew from our house, and I showed her the brochure from Bulgaria. I told her it was a possibility, but I wasn't sure yet. And she asked, "Why not?". So when Patrick got home, I asked him to look at it, and he asked the same question. We decided to take a few days to pray about it. Typically when Patrick and I make a decision we follow through on it rather quickly. We bought our house and both of our cars that way, but this wasn't a house or a car. This was a life we were talking about, and I didn't want to be impulsive.

In the end, we never heard a loud booming voice from Heaven saying "Bulgaria". There weren't any neon signs or flashing lights. In all honesty, it just felt like the right choice to make, and so, we did.

We are just now entering the "waiting" phase, and we have a long wait ahead of us. Some people wonder how we can stand to wait so long. I'm not going to say that it's going to easy, but it's not as if it's going to be a huge surprise to us. We know that God has the right little girl for our family, and that He'll bring her to us at just the right time for her and for us. And there is no questioning that.