Our Red Thread

I will be using this blog to record some of my feelings and will save it as a journal of sorts to share with Leah when she gets older. As the top of our blog mentions - there is a chinese belief that there is an invisible red thread that connects a child with people who are important to them.

I totally buy in to this - we have felt a pull to Leah since last summer. She is a huge part of our lives already - even though she may not even have been born yet. When Vince and I went to the adoption seminar in May of 2005 with our agency to find out more about adoption - they talked about Russia, Guatemala, etc - but all we were interested in was China. We hadn't totally made the decision to adopt at that seminar, but China was the only country we even considered.

When we were answering the questions for our homestudy, there was a question about why we chose China. It was interesting to try to answer that question - and I know it sounds wierd - but it's like we just knew that China was where our daughter was. So, I had to think about how to answer the question - other than just - 'cause that's what we are supposed to do - or 'cause that's where our daughter is. China is a country rich in culture and heritage, and we admire and respect where our daughter will come from. But talking about the red thread - we've felt it all along in a very powerful way.

I found out last week that a family I know of that was planning on adopting from China has now switched to the Guatemala program b/c the China wait has gotten so long. I think that is wonderful for them and I am very happy that they are doing what is right for their family. Having said that, for Vince and I, we could never imagine switching countries - because of the reasons I mentioned earlier - our Red Thread. I saw a t-shirt on someone's website that said - Why China? Because that's where my daughter is. - that about sums it up! I need to get that shirt!

Speaking of shirts - I found a t-shirt that has the word BABY and an arrow and then a picure of the country of China - it's a really cute shirt - it's my maternity shirt!

I'll post more later!