Our Adoption Dream.

Lets get serious for a moment.
Auston and I are planning on getting married in September. It is going to be a small intimate back yard affair, surrounded by our closets friends and family. I am so excited.
But that is is not what today's post is about. Being that we are getting married we have started talking about the more important things in life. Like children.

Now this year I have been having some health problems with my lady parts. I don't really want to get into the nitty gritty with you all, but it has caused me to re-evaluate whether to have my own or not. In the past six months we have sat down and really talked about adoption. There are a lot of children in this world who need a home. We have decided we want to adopt. 1.) because I realy don't believe my body can have children. 2.) It is a wonderful thing to help a child in need. 3.) Even if I could have children, I don't see a point, because there are already so many out there.

Now came the important questions, Who to adopt? Do we stay in our own ethnicity? Our own country? How old do we want them to be, open or close? Special need, or not? Do we want to go through an agency or through a foster program? So many Questions!
They are important questions though.

Here is what we have decided thus far -
We want to adopt within the US, there are plenty of children right here in our own country looking for a loving home. Ethnicity was a tricky one, I think we'll let the fates decide. If we love them, we love them, and thats all there is to it.

I want a child preferably under 2, but 3 is the oldest. I want to raise them as our own. Also, we are young ourselves, I don't want a 10 year old when I am old 22.

Closed adoption is mandatory. My Aunt was the first open adoption in the country. Mom say that this has really helped them in understanding why they were given up, and who they come from. From that stand point I could understand why a person would choose an open adoption, but I really don't feel it is for us. Honestly, I'm just not good at sharing. I'm the momma, and thats that.

Now came the daunting question over whether or not to adopt special needs. We talked, and talked, and talked about this. We came to a decision. Yes. But with restrictions. I want to adopt either blind, or deaf. Thats it. Those children need a home just as badly as every other child. There were several reasons behind us choosing to not adopt other needs such as Autistic or Down Syndrom children. I will go into that in a later post.

And lastly did we want an agency or a foster program? This one is still a little back and fourth with us, but I do believe we are going to go through a foster program. This means the costs of adopting will be significantly lower, and we can see if the child is a right fit for our home. When children are in foster care they don't expect to be adopted, they hope for it, but they know that it could very easily just be a temporary home. So when you do decide they are right for you, and you want to keep them its just a bonus.

We are going to start the process next year, when I turn 21. Hopefully by the time I hit 22 we will have our own little addition. I AM SO EXCITED.
Seriously, this is all I think about day and night any more.

We are setting up a fund, completely seperate from all of our money to help finance the process. As well as help us pay to take sign language courses. Which is abviously going to be mandatory to adopt a deaf child. And I have decided that every penny I make off of this blog will go towards that fund. As well as any money I make selling crafts this year. I have set up a page on Discovering adulthood where you can find out about ways to help support us. Shortly, once we are settled in NH I will begin the process of crafting, and if you find anything you like feel free to purchase it, knowing you are helping give a child in need a home!

If you could share that page with as many people as possible I couldn't begin to tell you how much we would apppreciate it. Adoption is an extreamly expensive process and I would hate to have a lack of funds hinder our decision.