Deciding to Adopt

Now that we had decided this is what we knew we were supposed to do we took the next step to determine where our child would come from. While we weren't opposed to a domestic adoption our hearts were drawn to the situation in China. There they have a one child policy (at least have had and do have in many areas). As a result of the policy and other cultural norms girls aren't as valued as boys. As a result both girls and boys with deformities or disabilities are either aborted, killed after birth or abandoned. Girls are often abandoned for just being girls. We read a book called the Lost Daughters of China. This book shared one families journey into adoption from China and a perspecitve on why so many girls are unwanted there. We also began to ask our three boys what they thought about the idea of adding a girl to our family. It was challenging for them to grasp the idea that we were going to request the ability to adopt but they wouldn't have a sister for more than a year. This was especially challenging for our younger two boys. We'll tell you more about that in the next post.