Why a Boy?, You Might Ask...

With the lengthening wait for a healthy baby girl projected to be many, many years away (4-8?), we changed our mindset from what we believed we wanted, to what we know a child needs.
There are hundreds of children on lists of Waiting Children from China. These are already identified children, most with medical conditions (some correctable such as cleft lip, club feet, minor heart defects; others with chronic conditions), and many who are healthy, but are toddler age and older - and harder to place due to their age. The majority of Americans logged in to adopt from China are seeking "healthy baby girl, as young as possible." Interestingly, though people continue to think of only girls being available to adopt from China, looking over these lists for many months, the truth is that there are many, many more boys available on these lists. On the most recent list of approximately 600 children, over 450 were BOYS. (And when girls with minor health conditions do appear on these lists, they are chosen immediately. There is intense competition to adopt these baby girls.) It is very positive for China that less baby girls are being abandoned; the Chinese culture is finally beginning to change and accept the value of baby girls more, and due to this, there are less baby girls available for international adoption. And yet, there is still a One Child Policy, and in some provinces, along with that is a minimum age a woman must be to have a child (even if married), and so, even healthy baby boys are abandoned. Even slower to change (than the acceptance of the value of girls), is the view of children born with birth defects and medical conditions; deep in the Chinese culture is the belief that these babies bring bad luck and shame to a family, and of course, then there is the inability to provide the costly medical care within a communist country with a government run healthcare system. So, while we like most others were waiting for a healthy baby girl, as young as possible,the reality is that the great majority of children waiting in China right now are boys...and after searching these lists for months and months I suddenly realized my mindset of what I wanted needed to change...it needed to change for a child and what that child needed most of all.
And so I began to wonder,

What kind of person takes a complete leap of faith? Apparently, we do.

What does it take to make a choice to parent a child that is not a baby and has lived in an orphanage for several years and/or has a chronic medical condition? Love, and the belief that every child deserves a family, and knowing that child is YOUR child…

How does “healthy girl 0-12 months” turn into “boy, believed to be almost 3 years old?” By just one photo, that’s how… (The photo in our photo header at the top of our blog is the first one we saw...and instantly we knew...)

Some people have asked us, “Why?” Why? Because we know he’s our son… It’s as simple as that!