Hey, dad can blog!

Hey "ya'll" - I've been in Texas 15 years and still no one believes me when I say "ya'll". Well, I wanted to put a note out here as well. Jamie, Madeline, and I are doing well. The "buzz" around here is pretty much on our adoption so I thought I would talk about how that happened to be something we pursued and where we are at.

Perhaps for a year the topic of adoption was something we had discussed in a very casual way. Many of you have told us that we had even brought the idea up in past conversations which I don't remember doing and I find very interesting. Jamie had a tough first pregnancy (she was sick for 9 months) so that was the genesis of the earliest musings on this topic but adoption was a big step and it brings challenges and fears with it. So, we needed a lot more than fear of Jamie having a possible 9 more months of morning sickness to move us anywhere near adoption.

We had been able to have a pregnancy and birth experience of our own which really was a wonderful and fulfilling time for both of us therefore, in early-to-mid 2004 we began to think more freely about the needs in the world in the area of adoption. As we discussed our evolving feelings on this matter we shared several points. We both agreed that it was possible we could be willing to adopt and we both agreed the need in the world for this was something that touched our hearts.

If we said in the early stages that we were "interested" (which might be too strong of a statement) Jamie was "interested" more in international adoption than domestic because of the possibility in domestic adoption the birth mother changing her mind and other items related to a more open-adoption type environment. I was exclusively interested in international adoption because of the much worse need in other countries- its kind of a mindset of investing yourself in an area with the most need possible. Additionally, neither one of us had challenges with adopting from a different race or culture so it made international more interesting to us. Also, international to be honest for me is a heck of a lot more interesting because I'm kind of the wild one around here... (I mean I "have" to go to Guatemala, Russia, China, oh darn- that is so up my alley)

So, again the thought process took months of thinking about and talking about- and yes praying about....more later..