One of the questions that I'm (Scott) asked frequently is "Why did you decide to adopt?" Well, in 2004, I was channel surfing as I often do, and stumbled upon a National Geographic Special called "China's Lost Girls". It discussed China's one child policy, and how it has resulted in children being hidden, abandoned, aborted, and even killed. The large majority of these children are girls, as boys are deemed more valuable, for a variety of reasons. These girls end up in China's orphanges, or with foster families, if they're lucky. It also followed a family as they traveled from the U.S. to China to pick up the girl whom they had adopted. This was the most interesting part of the program, as well as the most moving. I was literally questioning my purpose in life, before the program had even finished. You can watch it for free here: http://www.snagfilms.com/films/title/chinas_lost_girls
Up until that point in our lives, Jen and I had not seriously considered having children. I was so moved by the plight of these children, however, and the joy on the parents faces as they were united with their children, that it literally made me question my purpose in life, and I brought it up to Jen later that day. If I recall, I presented my "new purpose" as a "half-joke", as I wasn't fully convinced myself. To my surprise, Jen was open to the idea (remember, we had pretty much decided that children were not part of our future) and stated that she would be fully supportive if it was something that I really wanted to do.
I don't recall the actual point that we said "Let's do this", but at some point we got the paperwork going, and on April 23, 2006, we were officially "logged in" with the China Center of Adoption Affairs. At the time, the typical wait from log in date to travel to pick up your child was 8-10 months, and so we fully expected to meet our child in early 2007. But 2007 passed, and the expected wait time grew and grew, and it soon became evident that we would have to wait years, not months, for our daughter.
At some point (again, I don't remember exactly when) the talk turned to having a child of our own. We were fearful that the China Adoption program would shut down completely, as the Russian program had, and we were now determined to welcome a child into our family. Of course, there was always the possibility that we wouldn't be able to conceive, but we'd give it a try and "see what happens".
What happened - on January 24, 2009 - was Bella. We couldn't have imagined the joy that she brings to our lives. It's been amazing and fascinating to watch her grow. She is beautiful, and funny, and now that we have a little parenting experience under our belts, we are that much more prepared to welcome a second child into our lives. Bella is going to get a little sister!
