The decision to adopt is a big one and a very personal one. Everyone has their reasons for the country they chose, the age of the children they would prefer to adopt, some may not wish to share .... I will share our reasons ..... it's part of the reason I am starting this blog :)
I have 2 wonderful, adventurous, smart boys that are 9 & 10 (nearly 11). I had very difficult pregnancies; my oldest son was born at 32 weeks due to preeclampsia. After having a placenta abruption .... put on hospital bed rest , preterm labor ... not serious but found out when I was admitted, preeclampsia .... after 5 days of hospital bed rest , going temporarily blind because of the preeclampsia, having 2 seizures (while in the hospital) .... my preeclampsia became eclampsia, my son was delivered via EMERGENCY c-section while I was under general anesthetic. He was 3 lbs 11 oz ... he stayed in the NICU for 25 days and then we brought home our 4 lb baby home.
18 months later my younger son was born, full term 7 lbs 6 oz, after a high risk pregnancy that required a lot of monitoring and some unpleasant medication for 11 months.
We have 2 healthy boys and for that we feel blessed. We talked about adopting a little girl ... someday.
The boys kept us very busy for years ......
In 2007 I was called to go volunteer in Kenya at an orphanage for 3 weeks.
It changed my life .... it changed our family's life :)
after I was there for a couple days I knew we were going to adopt from Kenya ... I just didn't know how, or what the rules were, I knew it was a difficult process and I needed to find out more.
By the end of the 3 weeks my heart was full of love and pain, I had to leave all of the children I had just spent every day with .... I knew my family at home was fine without me, We missed each other, but what was going to happen to all these children? I knew I would be back.
The moment I got home and had a spare moment I was researching adoption. I found an agency that had a Kenya program. I continued to research. In December 2007 I went back to visit. To find out more information about Kenya adoption and to visit all the children and friends that I had met.
Kenya held elections Dec 27, 2007 ....... after the elections there was terrible violence resulting from the outcome of the election results. A couple months later in 2008 our agency stopped their Kenya Adoption Program. Later in 2008 the US State Department closed adoption in Kenya.
I made a few more visits back to Kenya. In late 2010 we went with the family. We didn't know adoptions were still closed at the time and we weren't really thinking about it when we went to visit.
This was my husbands first visit with me. After that visit we started talking about adoption again.
We started researching in November and December 2010. In January 2011 we called the US Embassy in Kenya and they told us the moratorium was being lifted ... WOOO HOOOO!!!
We signed up with our home study agency , we contacted the ONE agency that had a Kenya Adoption Program at the time - Lutheran Social Services of Wisconsin and away we go .... One year ago today .... February 1st 2011 .... we mailed our home study application. Our first interview was February 14, 2011.
