Why Korea?

We have been asked several times in the course of the past 4 months, "Why did you choose Korea?"

For us, simply put, it was a good fit.

One of the first things we noticed was the short trip requirement.  We do have Ethan at home and we do have to consider him in all of this.  The thoughts of taking two long, unpredictable trips with a 4 year old in tow or leaving him behind was hard for us to swallow.  As of now, Korea is one trip and it will take about 3-5 days. 

Another thing was the short wait time (in terms of international adoption).  At our first interview, we were told that after the homestudy is complete, they were seeing wait times of 6-9 months for a referral and travel times 3-4 months after that.  In terms of adding a baby to our family, we knew it would be at least this long for us in any way we add to our family.

Something else that really drew our attention to Korea is the stability and the history of the program.  The Korea adoption program is one of the oldest international adoption programs.  The relationship between the US and South Korea is stable and this means the likelihood of unexpected problems or delays due to governmental issues is low.

We also like that the majority of children that can be adopted from South Korea are infants (12 months or younger).  Since we already have Ethan at home, it was our desire to adopt a child younger than he.  He has been begging for a baby sibling for a while and when we talked about adoption, we knew, for us, for right now, younger is better for our family.

Another thing we really thought was a positive was the fact that children in South Korea are in foster homes instead of large, institutionalized orphanages.  Again, for us, for right now, this was a positive because these children have less attachment disorders and other things associated with orphanages.  Again, with a 4 year old at home, this transition is going to be stressful enough for him without knowingly adding possible complications.

Someday we can see ourselves adopting an older child or even from a different country, but for our family, for right now, South Korea is where our hearts are led.