Why India?

By far the question I have been asked the most since our adoption announcement has been "Why India?" so I thought I would divulge...

It would be oversimplifying our journey to say that 'we were called to India' when in reality our decision has been a conscious culmination of life vision, love of culture, spirit of adventure, and desire adopt a child that may not have a chance otherwise as well as that divine direction that inexplicably nudges one towards a certain path.

When Mark and  I have talked abstractly about our individual ten-year-plans we have always seemed to have a certain cohesion including some sort of humanitarian work focused on women and children and up until recently we have kept this general direction but have lacked in the specifics department. Once we began the process of looking at all the different adoption options the specifics began to slowly reveal themselves to us and we can now say that our future work will focus on the women and children of India as well as the needs of the families adopting from there. Our trip to pick up our little girl will not be our last time in country in fact, it will likely be the first of many.

So what does our ten-year-plan have to do with our adoption country of choice?

Well, we felt very strongly about adopting from a part of the world that we want to and already have incorporate aspects of into our every day life. We wanted Petal to know about where she came from and to be connected to the people and culture that she was born into. We wanted to find a country that we connect with on multiple levels and we have fallen in love with the wonderful culture of India.

We also feel that our previous adoption experience has prepared us to deal with the trauma and attachment issues that often come with international adoption. Our eldest, who was adopted from the foster system, has given us such incite into the adopted mind and has helped us not only become better parents to him and to our biological children but has also taught us to research, hoard information, and parent proactively instead of reactively. Over the years we have collected knowledge on numerous topics and are much better prepared to love all of our children through the difficult times ahead no matter their origin.

I hope that this  helps others to understand our path but if anyone has questions about India or adoption in general please ask! We would love to share and look forward to helping others understand adoption.

And to end...