Why China?

That is an easy one. Because that is where our daughter is.
Coming to the decision to adopt from China was an easy one. When we decided in 2002 that we were ready to try adoption as a way to build our family, I did tons of research. We wanted a baby, boy, girl, purple or green, it didn't matter to us, we just wanted a child. China was one of the first places I looked into because I had heard for years about China's once child policy, and how baby girls were abandoned by the tens of thousands every year. At the time I was only 27, and was considered too young by the China Center for Adoption Affairs to adopt a Chinese baby. So, for our first child we decided to go domestic, expecting a two year wait and a long and bumpy road. Much to our surprise, we were matched with a birth mom right away, and on July 6, 2002, our son was born. In January of 2006, we decided we were ready to adopt another child. We immediately turned to China. We had known through our research that the process was straightforward, the costs regulated, and the children were fairly healthy. We wouldn't be competing with other families for a baby, and more than likely we would get a girl. While we had an easy time with the adoption of our son, it was EXPENSIVE (well worth every penny, but it felt wrong, like we were buying a baby), and there was always the lingering thought that someone would try to take him away from us (I mean, who wouldn't want him). My cousin and some very good friends of ours had had horrible experiences trying to adopt domestically, and we knew that the second time around we wanted to try an international adoption. When I started the paper work for an adoption from China, there was a 9 month wait from LID to referral. While that time frame has increased significantly, we are still comfortable with our decision to adopt from China. We feel we were led to China for a reason..... because that is where our daughter is.