This past year, Jacob and I have done a lot of research on where to adopt from and different agencies. We talked to everyone we knew who had adopted, from many different countries including the US. We prayed a lot too.
At first I was paralyzed. How could we choose a direction? Any criteria would mean there would be children we excluded. That was a very hard concept. My pediatrician is head of the international adoption clinic here and gave me just what I needed to hear to move on. She told me its about finding a child that is right for our family. Not in snobbish way, but practically, not just any child would benefit from our particular family structure, dynamic, or resources. That really helped us move forward. We finally decided to pursue adoption from Nepal. I could list the top ten reasons if you really wanted, but I'll spare you unless you just have to know. One of the reasons we chose Nepal is that my father-in-law goes every year to help this local man who runs an orphange there. But I'll return to this fact later.
Now that we've begun sharing this decision more, its suprising to me how many people have simply question or even taken issue with our decision to pursue adoption internationally. I am definately aware that there are concerns about child trafficing and such, but looking into it more brought up some interesting objections to international adoption. All-in-all I'm glad to be more aware of the issues so that we can be sure to be as ethical as possible and truly help a child that is in need.
So any of you interested in adoption, but unaware of some of the criticisms, I do think its a good idea to educate yourself on some of the corruption and downfalls of international adoption. We are still pursuing Nepal, mostly because our heart is there and I can't imagine finding our daughter anywhere else. If it is God's will that she come to us from elsewhere, I trust that he will change my heart for that as well. But with this new information I still feel confident because we have some one there who we feel we can trust. Hopefully we will find an agency who takes our concerns seriously and will help us adopt a child who is truly an orphan and will benefit from a life in America with our family.
So anyone concerned about our pursuits, I ask you to first pray for us. We are trusting that God will give us wisdom in all decisions and guide us to our daughter.
and knick knacks, but also some bigger furniture items. We have also decided to use merchandise from 147 million orphans to raise 
money as well. I am so excited about this organization and there work to reach orphans. You can give me an order or buy at the sale (images below are the only items I've ordered so far). Just look at what they have under 147 gear.
