Frequently Asked Question No. 2 "Why China?"

This question is often posed to us when people wonder why we didn't choose domestic (U.S) adoption.  Again, we didn't really choose, it was more like we were lead by God.  We didn't all of a sudden wake to make the decision, "Let's fly half way around the world so we can become parents".  It was a little more gradual than that!    We had completed fertility treatments in late 2004  and decided that we were not comfortable with doing more invasive procedures.  We made peace with the idea that we may never be parents.   We just figured that's how it was gonna be, the two of us and our new found furry child, Meeka-dog.  We cycled through acceptance, grief, bitterness, anger, confusion and times of detachment,  then finally peace.  Then in late April 2006,  we realized that maybe we weren't so "at peace" as we thought.   It became very apparent that we had a big empty house and our hearts were even more empty. After much prayer we decided to explore adoption and began lots of research.  Over the next several months we began making phone calls, making local connections with adoptive families, and gleaning knowledge from any source we could get our hands on.  We received informational packets from agencies and dvd's to view.  We were not comfortable with domestic adoption for various reasons, mostly because we personally didn't like the idea of being "marketed" to birth mothers and the potential risks involved regarding parental rights and rights of extended family.  Some people are very comfortable with open adoption but personally we were not.  So we figured we would look into international adoption.  We are not world travelers and my hubby has never been on a plane!  So we knew right there, Someone bigger than us was putting the pieces in order.  I thought initially, "only rich people adopt" or "only people that travel the globe in business suits adopt" or "only doctors/lawyers/missionaries adopt"  Folks, I now know many people who have adopted and none of them hold these professions- they're ordinary people.  Ordinary people who  responded to a tug at their hearts.  So, "Why China?"  Once we decided we weren't comfy with domestic adoption we started to focus on which country we might pursue to find our child.  The feelings got stronger and we truly started to believe that God had a plan for us to be parents and now we just had to step out in faith, fully trust and let Him guide us.  We prayed for clarity and direction and for God to change our hearts or even set up road blocks if this is not what we were supposed to do.  We were already emotionally invested but needed to be sure we weren't doing this for selfish reasons or to somehow fill a void.  It became real clear, real quick.  So we researched different countries and made multiple contacts, and searched endlessly on the web for info.  One night we were watching a dvd which featured multiple countries and children of various races and ethnic backgrounds.  We had already talked about what we thought would be "best" for our family and had "chosen" a country.  The video depicted children in orphanages and their caretakers and the the political and socio-economic factors that created the need for orphan care.  We were touched by all of it and our hearts broke for what we saw- but we watched in silence and made no comments.  The last country to be featured was the People's Republic of China- the tears flowed poured, we had our answer, we were goin' to China!  More specifically, goin' to China to get our daughter.  To be continued . . . .