Some thoughts and statistics

Its official...my summer vacation has come to an end. Today and tomorrow are meetings and then next Monday, I am officially back on duty. It's kinda surreal to think that there is a chance that we could have a child as early as next summer and, if it falls right, an amazing blessing to know that I will have the time to get to know our child over that break. Anyway, today at the meeting the associate superintendent over my department was talking to us and at the end of her time with us she asked if anyone had any announcements they wanted to make/celebrations to share and I could not help myself. Part of me feels ridiculous at this point telling everyone I see that Lindsay and I are "working towards adopting" because it is such a far off thing but yet I truly am so excited to think of us having a kid that I cannot contain it. Several people talked to me about it throughout the day and I received several questions including:

1) Do you and your wife have kids now?-- For those reading this that don't know us all that well the answer is no.

2) Are you adopting international or domestic?-- We are working towards domestic. In particular, within the state. From what we have read and heard this is the "easiest" route to go. Once you start adding in other state's politics, not to mention other countries, there are a lot more hoops you have to jump through.

3) Are you adopting a baby?-- As much as we would love to have a baby, we have talked and prayed about it a lot and have decided that we are desiring a child birth to 5 years old. There are multiple reasons why we have chosen this age range. One reason being that our nieces, who we see on a regular basis, are 11/2 and 4. Our thought is that we want our child to be able to grow up close to their cousins just as I grew up close to mine. Another reason we are open to an age range this large goes back to our desire for a child with a mild-moderate physical disability. We feel that these are the children that are "in the system" longer, and therefore would be older and even more difficult to find a home for.

4) Are you looking for just 1 child?-- Well the answer to this is "it depends." Lindsay and I have talked and prayed at length on this particular question because from what we hear over and over is that there is a very large need for families that will take sibling groups. Obviously, since we have never raised a child of our own we don't feel equipped to bring in 7 kids all at once; however, we have come to the consensus that we feel we could handle 2 at one time.

I know there had to be many more questions asked and I could probably spend all day listing/answering them but I will leave it here for now.

Statistics
I was talking to Lindsay on her drive home today and she mentioned a few statistics about adoption that she read. After a short trip on google I was able to find some of the things she mentioned at this link: http://nathancreitz.net/10-surprising-adoption-statistics/. I think 2 most interesting statistics were:

I feel that the second statistic in particular is the saddest. To think, if only 1 couple from every 3 churches adopted a child, there would be no child in the US in need of a home. Part of me cannot help be question the accuracy of this statistic. However, true or not it gives food for thought.