We have been in the adoption process with China for over 2.5 years.  It was supposed to take 18 months.  This has been VERY hard on both of us to say the least.  The most frustrating part is that there is no “good” explanation from the Chinese government on why they have slowed the number of children they release to families for international adoption.  After much research and discussion we have decided to adopt from Korea.  What does this mean for our China adoption?  Nothing really.  Our paperwork will stay there and when China decides they want to speed things up, or simply catch up, we will have to evaluate whether we want to expand our family once again. 

The wait time for a Korean adoption depends a lot on if you want a boy or a girl.  If you don’t have any kids yet, you don’t get to specify gender.  The time-line for boys right now is 1-5 months and for girls it is 9-12 months.  We haven’t decided on gender yet.  We met last week with the social worker at our adoption agency for our home study.  It was a great meeting that lasted a little under 3 hours.  When we went through this process with China, it was a little different….this meeting was much more detailed and felt more emotional.  We have one more meeting and then we get put on the waiting list.  Oh wait…one more small detail…I need to lose another 20 pounds.  Korea has some very strict health guidelines and for my height, I need to be under 214 pounds.  I can do this.  No problem!  I have already lost 22 pounds since late July!  I have an emergency call into my trainer for a new workout program for maximum fat burn. I have been consistently exercising and it is really paying off.  I feel so much better, just think how I will feel and look when I get to my goal weight (which is just below 200).

So wish us luck. Send words of encouragement and if you put a cake or donut in front of me, I’ll hurt you.  I will update the blog as much as I can regarding the process.