It's that time again...

The blog is back, and that means the search is on for another future O'Donnell. Here's what we know so far.

Guatemala has closed its international adoption program while it reformats it to conform to the Hague regulations. With no idea how long that will take (it will probably take a lot of work to remake the program to fit into the new framework), we aren't holding our breath, and had to choose another country.

We have chosen China, and specifically the Waiting Child program which includes children with medical needs. That's the short answer. Here's the long one.

As recently as five years ago, abandonments of girls was high due to the combination of the one-child policy and the long-standing cultural preference for boys. Parents around the world responded in a big way, and tens of thousands of adoptive parents made homes for those little girls. However, in five years a lot has changed. Rights for women are advancing in China, abandonments are way down, and domestic adoption is up. These are all great things, but the result is that there are many fewer children available to be adopted by those tens of thousands of potential adoptive parents. Practically this situation has meant a very long wait for young children without medical needs, and because orphanages receive money from the international adoption process to help run their facility, it has also unfortunately resulted in some degree of child trafficking. We do not feel comfortable being part of the demand which creates this situation (it is still quite unclear how widespread it is).

However, the increasing pollution in China has resulted in an increased percentage of children born with congenital defects, and a combination of medical expenses and social discrimination against people with disabilities has left many children with medical needs in need of second homes. We are currently doing our homework researching some of these needs.

Boy or girl? Don't know yet. Won't know until we get the specific file for our child. However, because the children in need of adoption have been girls for so long, many families come into the adoption process with a "girl-only" mindset, meaning that there are many little boys waiting. We'll see!

We took our first official step today, attending an organizational meeting for a potential agency. We have chosen a new agency, not because the old one wasn't great to us and acting ethically in Guatemala, but because we learned post-adoption that they financially support an organization with which we vehemently disagree (maybe I'll rant more on this another time) called the National Council for Adoption (it sounds nice, but it's not). We just couldn't give money to an agency which would in some degree end up funding this organization which makes me so angry it gives me the shivers. We have already started the process somewhat, of course, researching this agency and starting homework on medical needs. Next step is to do more homework into those needs, talk with local families who have worked with this agency and handled some of the needs we are considering, and then file our formal application. We'll keep you posted!

Oh, and please do not talk with Gus about the adoption. We are not planning to discuss it with him until the process is much closer to completion--it's just too long for a small person to wait for something to happen.