Bloggers and the Internet

As I sift through emails and voicemails, read up on agencies and weigh the plusses and minuses, I am reminded of how wonderful it is to have this blogging community for support. I think my family doesn't really believe this adoption will ever happen (can you blame 'em?) but even if they called me every day, they don't know anywhere near what my fellow adoption community knows about what to look for in an agency, wait times, etc.

And, boy, let me tell you, am I happy to have their input. Each agency has different take on the 'singles' issue and each has a different process. Two of the agencies have a 4-6 month referral time, two shorter. Three are Hague-approved, one is not. Two don't mind if I get pregnant during the process, two will put me on hold for a year. Two came with personal recommendations, two did not. One has a domestic program I can switch to if Ethiopia doesn't work out, three do not. Two have a long(er) history with Ethiopian adoptions and two have relatively new programs. All will let me choose gender, one will allow me to adopt two unrelated children at once, the fees vary.

It's so hard to know what the future holds, hence what exactly to focus on. But come on, this is international adoption! Even with careful planning and decision-making anything can happen at any time that would make all that planning go out the window! This weekend I will spend a few hours checking out the CDs and brochures they mailed me and then ready or not I am making a choice on Sunday night and sending in my application on Monday!

I am so thankful today for the support of the blogging adoption community and the ease and access of the world wide web. What would I do without conversations with virtual strangers, Yahoo groups and websites?! Thankfully that is not the case.

NaBloPoMo #12 theme:thankful