Our Decision to Adopt-Part 1

Well, we have gone "facebook public" with our news of adding a princess to the Country Castle.  So, it is pretty much out there now.  :)  I don't pretend to think that most people didn't already know but there is something about putting it on facebook that makes news travel faster. 

The decision to adopt did not come lightly to our family.  It is something the King and I have discussed every now and again since the Page was about a year old.  After he was born, we knew we wouldn't have any more biological children.  Not for any medical reasons...we had no struggles getting pregnant, pregnancies were easy for me, no difficulties in delivery (apart from what one would expect).  I actually enjoyed most of pregnancy.  The "problem" was that 3 active boys are all this stay at home mom can handle.  And apparently, the King doesn't make Princesses.  ;)  So, that decision was made.  But it didn't change my selfish desire for a girl in our house. 

That's why we started talking about adoption.  It was just a little thing that popped up every now and again.  We never got really far in our discussions...but the desire never went away either.  Last November, it came up again.  And we kinda said, ok this is it.  We either have to do this or forget about it altogether.  We (and by "we" I mean "I") really started doing research and checking into agencies and laws (as best I could) and costs.  By Christmas, we had decided to go for it and told my family.  They were shocked at first.  And worried.  The unknown is never easy and there were a lot of questions we could not yet answer (still are for that matter).  In January 2011, we spent time researching options and I talked to social workers and agency representatives and gathered more information.

Deciding to adopt is such a teeny, tiny part of the process.  We had so many other things to consider.  But we had crossed the first hurdle, stepped out in faith (because we still really knew nothing about what we were doing or how we were going to pay for it), and made the decision to give a girl a home and a forever family. 
The rest, although important and necessary, was really just ironing out the details...and I'll save that for another post.