First step: finding an agency!

Apparently the first step to adoption is inquiring and researching, and we are definitely in that first step! We are currently trying to find a good adoption agency that is a good fit for us. One thing that makes this part of the process extremely difficult is that the agency we choose needs to be able to conduct a home study for us here in China and there are not many agencies that offer this service. We also need to decide on a country that would fit us. We may be able to adopt from within the USA, but we are still waiting for the details of domestic adoption from abroad. We are trying to look for a country that is close to where we live now so that we might be able to cut down on expenses of one of the few things we can control. And we can can control travel costs more than anything else.You may be thinking, “Why don’t they just adopt from China? I mean after all they live there now, and the need is still so great!” The answer to that is that we looked there first, however one of the spouses must be 30 years old or older. Those of you that know us well know that we would have to wait longer than we would want to start our family to adopt from China. We would love to add to our family from China someday though! We have also looked into South Korea, but the reasons we cannot pursue SK are too funny. We are too fat and we do not make a quarter of a million dollars a year! Sad to say that their priorities are just a little off… A loving family would be better than being an orphan… anyway, don’t get me started! We have also looked into many different countries, but we just haven’t decided yet. (also, one point I need to add: we cannot adopt from Africa at this point because of the bias and prejudice against black skin in China. We do not want to subject a child to blatant racism right after being adopted).For now I am contenting myself in trying to get our apartment “home study ready” by fixing and cleaning and planning. My Our goals are to sand and paint the walls, to buy a kitchen table, to fix a broken glass shelf in the bathroom, clean up all the metal fixtures in our apartment, and to figure out what to do about the ledge in our living room and some sort of gate for the stairs.We intend to have these things finished by spring, and hopefully have our adoption agency selected and our home study scheduled. I’ll keep you up to date on where we are in the process! So for now I’m doing a lot of digging on the web and emailing agencies. If you know of an agency that might meet our needs, please do tell! I have not gotten much feedback in many areas of our adoption thus far, and it is encouraging to hear from you!