Welcome to the new blog!

Hi and welcome to Thea and John's little blog about our journey into the world of international adoption. Sitting here now on Feb 9, 2011 I imagine this blog is going to run for awhile since this is not a quick process. If I set this thing up correctly, both Thea and I should have the ability to post. We'll see if that pans out.

A little background, cliff's notes style: Thea and I met in NJ on 9-11-05, married on 5-26-07, moved to Grand Rapids MI on 8-1-08 and welcomed our son Rhys to our family on 12-6-08. Our long term goal is to have 2 of our own children and adopt. Since we're not in our 20's, we've decided to start the adoption process now in an attempt to avoid welcoming a new member of our family when we're in our 40's (we're in our mid-30's now). Also, different countries have different requirements for the adoptive parents, age being one of the variables. There are cutoffs we don't want to run into.

I guess the 'official' start to this process was our talks about the idea of adopting children. We both agreed that there are children in this world that need homes and, although hectic just like everyone else's, we'd like to open our home up to a child in need. I think one of the most difficult parts of the decision was Rhys. On some level, this decision has more to do with him than Thea or I. There are stories out there about families that adopted children with unknown preexisting issues. We were partially concerned about what that could mean for Rhys. In the end, even if Rhys' future bro/sis was one of our own children, he/she could be born with some unknown issue that would preeminently impact our family.

I don't want to speak for Thea here, but for me - I've always wanted to do this. For as long as the idea of having children was in my brain (early 20's?) the idea of adoption was there. I'm a little concerned about how long this is going to take, how much it's going to cost and after all the work and money if it's even going to happen - which is an unfortunate possibly.

I'm also concerned about making a connection with an adopted child. To be honest, I had a hard time bonding with Rhys at times. Don't get me wrong, I love my son more than anything in the world.. but when he was an infant that dude was all work! At times, it can get to be a strain on your emotions - your life revolves around another person that only eats, poops, cries or sleeps. So, all that in mind, I have no idea what it's going to be like to bond with a child who meets me when s/he is 6, 12 maybe even 24 months old and has spent their life is less than idea circumstances and might not even be happy they're being adopted.

This is a big step. But, I have a lot of faith in my wife and my family. I believe in my heart that this is going to be one of the best decisions we've ever made.

More to come...