Why Vietnam?

YEAH! Doctor appointments and forms are filled out, we are ready to get the homestudy rolling.

Ok, next question many of you ask is "why Vietnam?" Aren't there many children here in the U.S. waiting to be adopted? Yes, there are. However, the process of foster/adopt you go through here in the states is a bit unnerving to us. The thought of having children thinking they could within the next year or two be our own only to be taken away and put back with the parents who have already caused them such pain and then given back to us when it doesn't work out, and so on and so forth....it just isn't something we think we can deal with. Now I am sure there are cases out there where this doesn't happen, however you choose a route you are comfortable with, and this is not something we would handle well. I find it upsetting that most of the children placed into "the system" in the U.S. are usually there due to emotional, physical, or sexual abuse. Our society, it seems, has lost it's value on life, particularly the life and innocence of a child. It takes a special person to be able to care for a child that has to deal with that. I don't think I am that person, and neither does Brian.

So back to why Vietnam:

• Vietnamese culture protects their orphans, a child is a treasure to them. Most of the children in these Orphanages have caretakers that love them dearly, family that had to make the most difficult decision of their life to give them up (due to poverty or death of one of the parents usually) I can't imagine loving my child so much that I give them up, hoping that the life they get will be better than starving with them!
• Cost was a factor as well. Anyone who knows us, knows Brian has school loans (yes we are paying for all those beautiful pots of flowers they rotate it seems daily at ONU and will be for the next 10 years..but I am not bitter.) So cost was a BIG factor in where we chose to go. The idea of spending $60-70,000 in Russia, most of it in the form of handoffs of cash was very unnerving to us and simply not possible with our finances. For two children we will be looking at about $34-36,000 depending on if we take our girls with us or not.
• Time away from our girls should we leave them here was another factor. Some countries require you be there for 5 weeks or more. Not possible due to jobs, for one thing, but more importantly our girls. Should we leave them behind for the trip, we don't want to be gone from them for weeks on end. The travel to Vietnam right now is running about 2-3 weeks. We are hoping by the time we travel it will be closer to 2 than 3 weeks.
• The last factor I'll adress for now is the availability of older children. We aren't looking to adopt babies...ages 1-5 are what we are specifying. Due to the shut-down of adoptions there for 3 years we are hoping older children will be needing homes and that we can find a good fit

That is it for now...we appreciate all prays in this process and we'll keep updating you as we go!

Jenn