Waiting to be Adopted in Korea

 The first thing we love about Korea is that they have a very good system set up for their orphans. Most children are in foster care and the guidelines to become foster parents are rigid. Adults wanting to foster must be at least 30, they must be married and the wife must be a stay at home mom and if the couple has children the youngest must be at least five. Babies that are put up for adoption typically go into a lage nursery type setting where they are given excellent round the clock care until they are adopted domestically or put into a foster home. We were told it is not unusual for a baby or child in the foster system to have a record of being hospitiliazed, multiple times, and not to be concerned about this. If a child contacts something as simple as a cold or other viral condition they will let the ailment run its course in the hospital. We are told this is done to help combat the spread of illness.

Most babies are put up for adoption because of unwed mothers. The Korean culture greatly frowns upon single mothers raising their children. Fortunately most "referrals" (this is what they call the picture and info you receive on a child) come with information about the birth parents and why the child was placed up for adoption. Although we were warned sometimes information is very limited,  whatever they have on the child we will get. We feels this is such a blessing to be able to give our child some type of information about who they came from. Our adoption agency requires that we write a letter and make a photo album for the birth parents. We were ovejoyed to do this!!! I really cannot imagine the pain that comes with putting a child up for adoption but hope that the letter and pictures might help reassure and heal the parents.

When we decided to adopt we agreed on a girl since we already have a little boy. Since learning more about Korea we have had to change our mindset. Korea is really pushing for an increase in domestic adoption and because of that 85% of children up for international adoption are boys. The reason for this is because in the Korean culture blood line is very important. It is not such a big deal to adopt a girl if you are Korean but to adopt a boy means someone from another blood line will carry your name and that does not settle well with most traditions. Either way we cannot wait to add to your family!

Since Korea is promoting more domestic adoption, eventually the country's goal is to close down international adoption completely. Unfortunately that is a big bummer for the families waiting for their children to come home. Each year Korea will decrease the number of Visa's they give out to families adopting internationally, this in turn makes the wait even longer. We were just informed that the average wait for a referral has gone up from 9 - 12 months to 12-15. I can't lie and say I wasn't sad about this but with my sadness came peace. God is in control, He has a baby for us and He will make it happen. Might take some time but eventaully we will get our little one. How Exciting!!!