[sarajean]

When I was twelve years old I found out that my best friend was adopted (domestic) and another really good friend welcomed a younger sister from India the same year. I knew then that adoption was going to be a part of my life, but like many people I thought I would have a biological child first. When I met my dh he embraced my dreams of adopting, but we decided to try for a pregnancy first. We had stopped using birth control, and after 3 1/2 years without it we knew something was up. We had been moving a lot for his career (mostly optional moves, but it kept us on sort of a tour of New England) and we were terrible about going to doctors of any sort during that time. When we relocated back to our home state of NY we finally decided it was time to see a reproductive expert.

Before going to the RE we talked about how far we wanted to go to have a biological child...we decided that more than anything we wanted to be parents, and since adoption was always a part of the 'grand plan' we would not do IVF. We were both diagnosed with infertility, so IVF turned out not to even be an option. We started researching adoption avenues and quickly ruled out domestic (like Millie we feared the birthparents might have a change of heart, and open adoption, although it can be wonderful, was just not for us).

After the disappointments of infertility we wanted a program with a predictable timeline (and preferrably a short one), an escort option (dh is terrified of flying), and something we could afford. Korea seemed to be the safest and surest way to bring home a child in a reasonable amount of time. The more we reasearched about Korea the more we liked the history, culture, food, and geography...I love to travel and hope to make it to Korea one day. We liked that our child would be loved by a foster family before coming home, and that he'd receive wonderful health care as well.

For us the choice to adopt from Korea wasn't based on one or two strong points, rather it was a hundred little things that made the program a perfect fit. When we decide to add to our family it will be through adoption from Korea again.