Exciting News: We’re Adopting!!!

Our family has been keeping a secret for a long time, and we are so excited to finally share- We’re adopting!!! We have been in the process of adopting the most precious little boy from Vietnam for almost 10 months now. We feel SO ready to bring him home, but still have steps in the adoption process to take that will take about 6 months (at least), so we are hoping to travel to Vietnam to go get him in 2019!

We have gotten a lot of questions about the why/how/details so I’m going to answer some of the frequently asked questions below, but feel free to ask more in the comments or email me! We are absolutely happy to share about our story and adoption. It was the example that others set for us that helped us to realize that this is how we wanted to grow our family, so we are so happy to share our story with others!

Frequently Asked Questions:

Why are you adopting? Do you have fertility issues? This has been the number one most asked question, and so I am going to take the time to answer it in length in a nice long post later this week because the full answer is so long, but in short: no, we didn’t have fertility problems, but we chose to adopt because we both had a heart for adoption and we really felt like God was leading us to adopt internationally.

Will you have more biological children in the future? We don’t know! Right now, we are focused on bringing our little son home. We do know that we really want to adopt again someday, but we’re going to let the Lord lead us on how to grow our family when it comes time.

Are you matched with a specific child? Yes! We found him on the waiting children list and officially started the process when we found him on there. We have wanted to adopt for seven years now but had been waiting until we met the eligibility rules (there are rules for each country based on age of parents, income, number of children already in the home, etc).

How old is he? He is 2 years old but will be 3 by the time we travel to go get him!

Will you keep his name? Yes, we do plan on keeping his name but giving him our last name and giving him a family/American middle name in case he ever wants to go by that instead.

Is this a special needs adoption? Yes, it is. We’ll talk more about what makes our little guy so special in the future.

Is he in an orphanage? Yes, in Vietnam.

Have you met him? No, we have only seen pictures and a few videos in addition to a few pages of medical paperwork.

Where are his pictures? We can’t share his pictures online yet, sorry! If you know me in real life, I can show you on my phone. I can tell you that he is 100% the most adorable little boy you’ve ever seen!

Why is he an orphan/Why was he given up for adoption/How old was he when he was given up? We do not know the details about why he was given up or orphaned, and might not ever know. If we do find out, we will not share that information as that is part of his story and we’ll allow him to decide to share (or not share) that information when he is old enough to decide for himself. We want to respect his story and his privacy as much as possible.

Does he speak English? No, just Vietnamese (I mean, we’ve never been told that, but we can safely assume he does not speak English).

When exactly will you travel? There is not a set timeline, but based on other adoptive families who’ve adopted in the past few years from Vietnam, we expect and hope to travel in Spring/Summer of 2019.

Isn’t adoption expensive? It is. We are no where near being rich, but we have been able to work hard saving to pay for our adoption expenses so far. There are also grants available for adoption that we are applying for and we will be fundraising some as well. If you are considering adoption but are discouraged by the financial aspect, just know that there are so many resources out there for families who want to adopt but are deterred by finances. So many amazing children wait for families, if it’s something you have in your heart and have questions about, email me (goodmorningloretta@gmail.com) ! I’m so happy to chat adoption and help answer them or help you find answers.

….and….the big question people keep saying they were afraid to ask but want to know….

Why are you adopting a boy???Why aren’t you adopting a girl??? This question makes me laugh a little, and I’m so happy to answer it because I love my boys so much. When I was pregnant with my 2nd and 3rd boys, I had many conversations like this one:
Person: “You’re boys are so cute and you’re pregnant! What are you having?”
Me: (happily) “Another boy!”
Person: (making a pitiful face at me) “I’m so sorry, maybe next time” or “Good luck when they’re teenagers” or some other apologetic or terrifying statement.

I love my boys! Would I love to have a daughter? Sure, but I wasn’t disappointed when I found out babies #2 and #3 would be boys, and we did not go into adoption hoping for a girl, in fact, we planned all along to adopt a boy. Why? Simply, because boys don’t get adopted. The statistics surrounding adoptive parents preferences for girls are startling. 90% of families adopting want a girl. That means that while girls are being adopted quickly and prospective adoptive parents are waiting years for a little girl, boys who are available for adoption can wait for years, and that’s if they even get adopted. There is SO much more I could say on this subject, but if you really want to know more, This Blog (Mine in China) nails the subject on the head.

I think I answered most of the questions that we have been asked a lot lately, but feel free to keep asking if you have more! We’ve been so grateful for the awesome, positive responses that we’ve gotten from everyone about our adoption.