We decided to take a step back from surrogacy and research adoption. This was a really hard decision to make, but after many conversations and reading as much as possible we felt a South Korean child was meant to be for us. After being burned by our surrogacy agency we were more than guarded when we began our research on adoption agencies. There is a big difference between the two when it comes to the government’s involvement. Anyone can open an agency, but there are criteria for gov't approval for some adoption agencies, this is not the case for surrogacy agencies. We first began to work with Lutheran Social Services, they were so helpful in working with us to find the right country to embrace. We attended a wonderful 2 day training class where we learned alot about becoming adoptive parents. It never occurred to me that our child might not attach to us at first. We are so excited to welcome our child into our lives, but we are up rooting the child from their life and culture. This was eye opening to me and I have been reading alot about how to deal with this since.
We decided on Lifelink as our international adoption agency, filled out our paperwork and waiting for the next step. After several months we were informed in Nov. 2009 that we could not adopt from South Korea due to my RA...WHAT?? Seriously??? I was really hurt by this, because I may have a chronic illness, but I have every right to be a Mom and I will be an amazing one!! :)
So after doing more research we decided to attend Bethany Christian Services informational meeting on adoption. We were planning to shift gears to domestic adoption. At the meeting they talked about their international programs and at the end of the meeting we asked if they have restrictions on ppl adopting that have RA. She thought not, but would call their corporate office and ask. I was thrilled when I received her call saying that we could adopt from South Korea. Yeah! This was truly were our hearts were and I felt so blessed we had attended the meeting! So our homestudy was approved in April 2010 and we are officially on the waiting list. This could be anywhere from 12-18 months. Marcio and I have been reading up on South Korea and leaning a few words too. I have found a few yahoo groups to join and love receiving the "posts" from other adoptive parents.
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