Change is the very nature of adoption!

"Please remember that change is the very nature of adoption. Families that have the best adoption experience are flexible and understanding of the changes that will inevitably occur."

These were the words given to us by our first adoption agency - while I believed they were true, there is a sense of irony (ok maybe coincidence) in that their closing made us look again at our options.

We were not sure where to start once we found out that our agency was closing. We were still pretty sure that we wanted to adopt an infant from Colombia. Our agency that did close was helpful enough to give us a list of accredited adoption agencies in Wisconsin and she recommended three different agencies. Bethany Christian Services was one of them. We actually had planned on investigating them earlier, but our other agency seemed like a good fit and we were scared by the high price tag (Go figure).

We looked at all three agencies and Bethany just seemed to fit for us. A second agency, which will remain nameless, wanted us to sign on the dotted line right away. We needed to get started on May 17th or wait until August, which wouldn't work for either of us. If I am one thing - it is that I don't really rush into anything. Some people call it procrastination, my wife just thinks I am slow - not mentally but it just takes me a long time to do things - I like to think that I am just analytical and practical about things. Either way - the agency wasn't the best fit. The third agency, while nothing really wrong with them, didn't really impress me like Bethany did. So we decided to go to an informational meeting at Bethany.

This is where things get interesting. Of course, driving up to the meeting we get lost. I learned the hard way that Google maps aint so reliable. Thanks to a timely placed call to my Mom, some patience and new directions we were able to arrive at the meeting 20 - 25 minutes late. Nothing like making a first impression. Good thing we've been to a few of these otherwise we would of been lost. We did get there in time to go over the international adoption options.

I should say that at this point we had filled an initial online application just to make sure that we could be accepted. Pretty basic stuff there. We still felt that Colombia was our first option for an infant, but we also knew that South Korea was an option as was Ethiopia.

The one concern we had with Colombia was that it was a long wait. 3 Years! We weren't sure we could handle that. The more we looked at it the more South Korea felt right. So we decided to take a little bit different road in our adoption journey....Hello South Korea.

The next step was pre-clearance and being placed on the waiting list. All went well and we are now officially on the waiting list. That means we will be submitting our application to South Korea in Jan. 09 and we should get our referral (baby) 12 - 18 months latter. If you are doing the math that is about 18 - 24 months from now. I gotta tell you Pre-Approval never felt so good.....