Trying to be a Positive Resource

As always, my friends are so thoughtful to ask about the adoption process when they see me.  And I feel guilty because not only do I rarely have any news to share, (Still working on...Still waiting on...fill in the blank) but I'm usually voicing some source of frustration.  I worry about not being a positive resource for others thinking about pursuing adoption.  I hope others thinking about adopting or just starting the process hear my stories and read my blog and feel more prepared, but I also fear my words could turn them off all at the same time.  Because what this world doesn't need is fewer adoptive parents. 

Maybe when we've brought our child home, I'll look back and not think the frustration and long wait were so bad.  But I don't have that perspective now.  Right now I honestly wonder why there are so many roadblocks and delays in adoption.  We can't control how the process transpires in the sending countries, but we haven't even finished our dossier so that we even have the opportunity to ask China to consider us as adoptive parents, and I think, "There's got to be a better way."  I don't think the adoption process (speaking for international adoption) is getting easier.  I'm afraid more barriers are going up, whether it's long wait times, financial or more bureaucratic hoops (which always results in longer wait time and more money).

The financial cost is also a concern.  If I panic about making it financially through this adoption, can you imagine the foreboding feeling I have thinking about a subsequent adoption, something Chris and I have also talked about?

Despite how frustrated I feel right now, I do hope that our story is a testament to the fact that normal families pursue adoption.  We're not Madonna or Angelina Jolie.  Chris and I are like the thousands of Americans who adopt each year.  They persevered through the process and we will too.