Why China?

Well, here's the semi-quick answer to that question.

it was evident that international adoption would be the right path for our family and China clearly stood out.  There were several reasons why our hearts were drawn to a China adoption.

We desired to adopt a child with special needs and China's Waiting Child/Special Needs program appeared to be the most stable. 

We had a heart for China long before we began our adoption journey...

Four years ago, through Holt International, we began sponsoring a very special girl in China named Xiao Yun.  This bright girl is two years older than Olivia and really enjoys sports, especially badminton.  She loves to read, is a hard-worker, gets along well with her teachers and is a leader at her school.  (Can you tell I'm very proud of her.)

Through regular updates given to us by Holt, we've been able to follow our sponsored "daughter's" progress through the years as she's grown into a beautiful young lady.

So you see, our hearts were already in China long before we began our adoption.

But you're adopting a boy, right?  Don't most people adopt girls from China?

During the 1990's this was absolutely true. 

At that time the children were primarily healthy, infant girls.  However, several factors changed the adoption process in China.  

China's economy improved, which enabled more children to join adoptive families in their birth country.  At the same time, the number of applications to adopt dramatically increased.  Children with special needs began to outnumber other available children and the timeframe to adopt lengthened.

Today, couples who would like to adopt a healthy, infant girl from China will have about a six year wait or longer.  At the same time, it has become much quicker to adopt a child with special needs.  The timeframe is usually between 9-12 months.  And now, more boys need homes than girls.

Check out some of these cuties on Holt's China adoption photolisting!