It’s official! Stephen and I have decided to adopt a child from South Korea. We have already filed a pre-application and have met with the director of our chosen adoption agency! We are excited as well as nervous to take our first step. Since many people have expressed interest and curiosity in our decision, we decided to announce this decision from the proverbial roof tops otherwise known as social media.
Some of the people we have spoken with have expressed interest in adopting themselves. Others have been curious about the decision and how it all works. Everyone has had an opinion. Therefore, I am taking another growing leap and opening up and possibly starting a conversation to share our journey and hopefully inspire great conversations.
The most common question asked is why are we adopting? And why South Korea?
The idea of adoption was placed on my heart from an early age. Chills set in as I think there could be a young woman sitting across the world just coming to terms with the idea she is pregnant as we sit at Starbucks discussing the fate of that unborn child. We believe that God creates the plans for our lives before we are born and that right now, he is busy weaving that young mother’s life and our lives together to help raise this child. I want to adopt because without us, this child will not know a family.
And why South Korea when there are so many children in the state of Colorado that do not have homes. So true. The need is too great to even imagine. The story of the boy who throws the starfish back into the sea after a storm comes to my mind when I think of how we choose who to help. The Star Thrower story by Loren Eiseley describes a man who comes along a young boy who was throwing starfish back into the sea after a big storm had stranded them on the sand. When asked why he was doing that and how could he possibly help them all, the young boy picked up one and threw it into the sea. As he threw it, he responded to the old man, I made a difference to that one. No, we cannot help all, but we can help one.
And we feel so strongly that one we can help is to be born in Korea. Stephen and I met in part because of South Korea. South Korea brought us together so it is only fitting that Korea becomes another chapter in our family. He was returning from living in Seoul for a number of years, and I was about to leave to Daegu. The country holds a special place in our hearts. We are travelers and global people. We want Lydia to be raised in a global setting. It seems to me, and I could be wrong, that adopted children can struggle with the unknown part of their story. Where did they come from? How did their lives start? While we may not be able to answer this completely, our love and passion for the Korean culture and language can help this child begin to understand his original roots and help him build his story the way he would like to tell it.
So this gets us started. Things won’t get fully rolling until January. It’s all about timing with Lydia’s birthday and our wedding anniversary. But the momentum is building so when 2019 comes, we hit the ground running because our baby is waiting for us!
