Time to get a passport.

No, no referral yet. Just another post. Don't get excited.

Escort vs. Travel

There are pros and cons to both. One of the things that we found attractive about adopting from South Korea is the option of having the baby escorted to the U.S. We liked the idea of going to Dulles and heading to baggage claim as a family of 4 and leaving the airport a couple of hours later as a family of 5. No passports, no 19 hour plane rides, no jet lag, no eating strange food for 5 days, and no having to make last minute child care arrangements for the big kids. And the cost, with an escort you basically pay the same amount you would pay for 1 plane fare.

However, as time has passed we have begun to see the benefits of traveling to our child's birth country (this I believe is one of God's little gifts he gives you for waiting). I am drawn to go there, South Korea, this place where my child has been born. I want to see it. I want to interact with the people of my child's birth place. I want to be able to give my personal experiences of South Korea to him/her, not just pictures and words in a book. I want to meet his foster family and maybe get to see where they live. I want to see how his foster mother comforts him, and glean bits of knowledge about my child that I can from her. Where and how he likes to sleep, eat, play, and be held. Things an escort could not know, these are things only his foster mother can tell and show me.

And then I also think of my "big kids". Will they feel abandoned if I go get this new child a world away. I hope not. I will do everything in my power to not betray or abandon them. So Raymond will stay here with them. And they will all meet us at the airport when I bring their brother or sister home. In essence that is the way it would happen if I gave birth do another child. We would come home together from the hospital, this way it will just be the airport instead. And I will explain to them, if it were one of them, alone in another country being taken care of by another family, I would go get them and bring them home myself. I would not wait for someone to bring them to me.

But just because Raymond is staying home dose not mean I will be traveling alone. My sister, Erin, will be coming with me. I can not tell you how thankful I am that I will have her with me. She will be a huge support, getting me on the right planes, to places on time, taking pictures of the first meetings, and helping me find diapers and formula in a foreign place. I would not trade either of my siblings for anything. It is my fervent prayer that my kids will one day feel the same way about each other, all 3 of them.