So this is how it happened for us...
We had always thought about adopting. I think it's been in my head because i wanted to have a sibling when i was a kid, and i wanted my folks to adopt. This never happened - I remained an only child.
When David and I had our first kid, it put in our heads all the kids in the world that need to be in families. We began to do some research on domestic adoptions. After having Henry 2 years later, it became clear that we'd have a longer wait than we thought. Henry is a terrific boy, but not an easy boy. So we waited.
As our boys grew, we became aware of the needs internationally in countries like Liberia and Ethiopia. We looked at an international adoption, but just didn't know how we'd make it happen financially and logistically. We'd have to stay in country for weeks - and Liberia is an unpredictable country. We just didn't have it in us to make it work at that time.
Meanwhile, we had been going through a purposeful change in our lives: we decided to take a simpler path in our lives. We moved from the suburbs to a little home downtown where we could live life on feet and bicycles, and have a little more financial freedom. David changed his employment to work form home, and we now have a life as a family together. It suits us well, but it is a daily battle to say "no" to things and not take on too much.
Fast forward a few years to July 2008. We saw a line item in the church announcements that there were school aged children in Boise through a program of adoption advocacy. We decided to find out more.
We connected to the group and went to an event held as kind of a family mixer - a low pressure way to see all the kids interacting. I know this sounds a little gross: like auditioning kids, but when you think about it, these kids are school aged, and it is as important that their opinions are respected on their potential families as it is that ours are.
This is where we met Rey - he was so great - he "clicked" with us right away. I don't think he had ever seen a balding man (ummmm, sorry David...) because he wanted to rub his head. We went home that night knowing that we couldn't let Rey stay in Manila in an orphanage any more. Even though we didn't have all the money readily available, even though it might take an entire year, even though he'd be going back to Manila to wait...we decided to go forward.
