A Mommy's Journey

Just wanted to mention that I've added a link on the right, called Mommy's Adoption Journey. It's my friend Steph blogging as she and her husband go through the adoption process to bring home their son. Steph doesn't post every day (a lot of the process is big flurries of activity punctuated with long waits) but it's a good way to get an idea of what goes into an international adoption. It's not nearly as easy as Angelina Jolie makes it seem. Many people assume that you sign up with an agency and then you're on the waiting list, sometime later, you get a call and poof- you adopt a baby. Any adoption, domestic or international, is a long emotional process, rife with setbacks and frustration, and dealing with one of life's most emotional issues - becoming a parent. Your life is scruntized top to bottom, you have to produce documents about yourself you didn't even know existed, get fingerprinted, answer personal questions and have a stranger inspect your home. It costs tens of thousands of dollars for most adoptions and can take years. So why do people embark on this journey? Why put yourself through all that? We do it for love of a child. And it's worth every cent, every tear, every day you were sure it was never going to happen, every sleepless night. Anyway, check in now and then on Steph, and if you feel so moved, why not drop her an encouraging comment?