Because He/She doesn't have the same ring to it

When we first started talking about adoption I always imagined us bringing home one little Ethiopian baby to be part of our family. Cale had a different idea. From the start he has wanted to adopt a sibling group. Initially that made me laugh because he couldn't possibly be serious. Then I started to think about it more and realized it would be wonderful in many different ways. We weren't 100% sure that is what we were supposed to do, but wanted to be open to it if that is what the Lord had in mind. So for the last several months we've planned on saying that we're open to a sibling group, but one is fine too. Kind of a "leave it up to the Lord so we don't have to make a definitive decision" thing.

Only a few weeks into the process and we feel like there is some clarification about this. Ethiopia recently passed a law that there must be 24 months between and adopted child and a child already in the home. We weren't totally surprised as we had heard this might be happening, but it started to clarify things for us. To continue to be open to a sibling group the children would have to be approximately 15 months and younger. That is very, very rare. Not impossible, but doesn't happen ever really. The reason that this is an issue is because we have to start filling out paperwork and stating how many children we plan to adopt. To put one child down and then get referred two would mean a whole lot of backpedalling, extra money and agony as we tried to get our paperwork changed. It isn't such a big deal to put that we hope to adopt two and then only get one, but we are feeling like we just need to make a decision here and now. To move forward saying maybe siblings, maybe not when it's not really a possibility seems like it will only bring confusion.

So, we are going to apply for only one child. We certainly believe that the Lord can do anything He wants and if He wants us to adopt two kids then He'll make it happen. But we feel like we need to look at this realistically and set aside our hopes of a sibling group (for now.)

Which brings me to the title of our little blog--Bringing Them Home. I realize using the word them infers more than one and since we are only going to (probably) adopt one child right now, it doesn't really fit. But neither does Bringing He/She Home. So we're sticking with Bringing Them Home and calling it a day.

-kate-