the next step.

so, after we were in a place where we were emotionally healthier and at peace, we decided to pursue adoption. adoption was something that we had always envisioned for our family because we feel it is such a real life extension and picture of God's grace and love for us. we had always wanted to adopt, we just didn't know we would come to place where it was our only option. we came to grips with that reality and went forward, optimistic about growing our family through adoption.

we chose to adopt internationally from korea. being korean-american, it seemed like the right choice to adopt from the motherland :), and we had heard many great things about the adoption program in korea. part of us wanted to adopt a child in foster care here in the DC area, but after thinking about it, we felt that living as an adopted child is often challenging enough and to throw interracial and cross-cultural adoption into the mix would just make things harder.

we knew that the adoption process would be a long and arduous one, and as we started our adoption journey, the road ahead of us seemed daunting and overwhelming. we pushed ahead with our application; getting clearance upon clearance, getting fingerprinted, writing personal statements, asking for references, copying documents, writing checks, etc, etc, etc. when all was said and done, we printed and compiled everything to find that our application was 85 (yes, 85!) pages long. we submitted it to our agency, signed up for a pre-adoption class and waited to hear from our social worker.

because we are korean-american, our adoption process became a part of the korean heritage program, a program that places children from korea in homes where one or both of the adoptive parents are of korean heritage. it has a bit of a faster timeline than the traditional timeline because the korean governtment gives some preference to korean-americans adopting from korea.

we were assigned to and worked with a great social worker who completed our home study (a document that gives our background and information -- pretty much a check to make sure we would be fit parents) and was a wonderful support. our koream heritage liaison gave us some great information and was also a valuable resource.

after our home study was complete, we entered into our waiting period to be matched with a child, which is where we still are today. along the way, our social worker and our liaison left the agency, which was a bit disheartening because we were then passed on to others who didn't know our background as well. but, 'tis the way of the wait, right? as we wait, we are faced with more unexpected obstacles that continue to test our perseverance and shape our character...

at this point, we are expecting to be matched with a child sometime this spring...it may be sooner, it may be later (of course, we're hoping for sooner!), but regardless, we will continue to wait with hopeful and excited hearts.