How We Began

My husband Tripp and I have been married for five years. Once we decided we both wanted children, we agreed that we wanted to adopt. We are very environmentally conscious and concerned with overpopulation. Neither of us felt, in good conscience, that we could contribute to this epidemic. Furthermore, I was adopted as an infant, so I was completely comfortable with the idea.

Soon after our wedding, I began researching adoption. Very quickly I rejected the domestic route in favor of the international one. I just wasn't comfortable with the concept of open adoptions, and the high risk of one or more adoptions falling through before we could truly call a child our own was not at all appealing.

At first I was attracted to Russia and Ukraine, because I hadn't yet come to terms with adopting a child that didn't resemble us physically. I soon discovered that the programs in these two countries were quite unstable and unreliable. You may or may not come home with a child in the end! That was just unacceptable.

I have several Chinese friends, and so China was a natural place to investigate next. The more I learned about the Chinese adoption program, the more excited I became. Soon there was no doubt that this was where our child would come from. I cannot remember actually arriving at that decision, as it has been years. I cannot remember the conversation I had with Tripp about it. But it must have happened!

Before we adopted, however, we did want to have one biological child. Our eco-selves felt some guilt about this selfish decision, but there it was. It's what we wanted.

We had no idea whether we'd be able to have a biological child, but after yet more research I learned that at my age (30) I should allow a year to try to conceive. We were very lucky and had no trouble conceiving. Our beautiful, healthy son Sebastian was born in 2006. So our adoption plans were put on the back burner, and I lost track of what was happening in China.

When "Baz" was five months old we happened to attend a birthday party for a little girl on our street who was turning two. That party just happened to also be attended by another little two year-old who had been adopted from China. I eagerly struck up a conversation with her mom, and found out that the wait for a child from China had increased far beyond what I had expected. Tripp and I wanted our children to be about 2 years apart in age, and it turned out that we would have to start the adoption process immediately in order for that to be a possibility.

Thankfully I had already decided on an agency, but, as my information was a couple of years old, I requested packets from the agency I thought I wanted (Chinese Children Adoption International), and the "runner-up" from my research. I still felt best about CCAI, so we sent in our application within weeks of that fateful birthday party!