Big News...

Written by Kate...

I must admit, I thought I would never say this, but I'm a blogger. It almost feels like I should be saying something to the affect of, "Hi my name is Kate, and I am a blogger." Alright, so maybe it isn't that dramatic of a step, but I never thought I would be committing to an online version of a diary. That being said, we have a very exciting journey ahead of us that we thought we would share with family and friends.

I titled our blog, "Chad & Kate, Our Family Story" because that will be, in most cases our topic of choice to journal. Some of you may know the inner details of our desire to have a family (sorry about that) and how hard we have tried for the last three years to make that happen. At first it was easy because we were so optimistic about the possibilities of getting pregnant, full of hope and anxiousness....then a year passes, and another year, and oh yeah, another year. Before you know it, we were a combination of anger, sadness, and stress, sick of hoping and wondering why its everyone else and not us.

On December 26, 2007, Chad and I put all that behind us and decided to move forward with the adoption process. In September of 2007, we started to research the possibility of adoption and attended an informal meeting at Children's Home Society & Family Services. We decided to start doing research on which country to adopt from and soon realized that Ethiopia was it.

"Why Ethiopia?" It just so happens that we get this question from just about anyone and everyone that we have talk to about our decision to adopt from Ethiopia. Our decision was based on a number of factors ranging from, wanting to give a child from a third world country a chance to thrive in a loving family that can take care of his/hers needs, to meeting the requirements of the agency such as age, length of marriage and income. There is so much that factors into a decision like this that its hard to explain to people all of the things that have gone through our heads while moving forward with this decision. Just know that its the right decision for us, we are proud to be moving forward with the prospects of finally having a family and hope that you will share in the excitement by showing us your support. Over the next year or year and a half, hopefully you'll start to understand why we fell in love with Ethiopia and its children.

As we invite you to share with us in this experience, please feel free to bookmark our page so you can check in and see how the process is going.

Love, Kate