Well, as most of you may know, we have decided to adopt! Errr....we've known since our first date that we would one day adopt - now we're officially beginning the process. We have evaluated over the years where we might adopt from (India, Mexico, Russia...) and we've decided to find our family's new addition in the earthquake ravaged country of Haiti. We know it might seem nouveau but we have better reasons than it may seem. J & I have long been a supporters of major fundraisers several times yearly to provide the much needed staple essentials for the people of Haiti.
Long before we even thought we could possibly adopt our Haitian child, we found a deep love and appreciation for the culture and the country. In addition, my minor studies focused on Afro-Latino/Caribbean Dance and Religious Studies and Culture (that's the long way of saying that I have some serious knowledge on slave dances and redemption songs as well as the history of the region). I also took four years of french and am beginning to teach the kids and J Haitian Creole, which is a French dialect. We have a LONG way to go on this, but we also have a very LONG wait to ultimately be placed with our child.
We started the process a few weeks back by hiring our adoption specialist. Yesterday was our first hurdle. We retained and met our home study team. They seems to like us and LOVE Leo - "Oh, he's so cute" - WORK IT!!! We are expediting this part of the process, so we have been in paperwork up to our ears. We want to try to establish as much as we can and get through a lot of the requirements before we relocate, as this will help us with an earlier placement. Once we are in Pennsylvania we will repeat part of the process and hopefully inside of a year and a half, we will be bringing our sweet child home.
In the meantime, we need all the good feelings anyone can muster - send them into the universe for our child in Haiti as well as our children here. We want to maintain the amazing balance that we have with our family currently, and open our hearts, our minds, and our loving family home to a child who needs us - because we all need him too.
For now, here are some pic's!
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