Saturday, February 6, 2010

How Our Journey Began


Interestingly, our journey to adoption began in an unusual place……..on a blog. Because of that, we have decided to share our story with you in the same manner, in an effort to keep you up to date of our progress and allow others to discover the joy of adoption.

After a long period of thought and discussion about our options for adoption, we had run into a wall. Cheryl had known since her time living there that adopting a child from Japan was difficult, if not impossible. We had discussed a variety of options, we asked our Japanese friends including a long-time social worker of the possibilities, we talked to a foster parent in Japan that takes care of orphans awaiting domestic adoption, we pondered other countries and the long waits and even considered domestic adoption.

Deep down though, we knew that our true desire was to adopt a child from Japan, a country we are both familiar with and a people and culture we could both easily embrace. We couldn’t help thinking that it would be the perfect match, if only Japan would open its doors to international adoption.

One night in May 2009, Cheryl decided to do one last online search for anyone that had adopted from Japan. The search returned many familiar sites – all dead ends – but then out of the blue we came across a blog. Really, a blog. It detailed the journey of a couple from Arizona to their little Japanese baby. We were encouraged that someone had done it! Late that night on May 7, 2009, Cheryl decided to send an email to this couple – these two friendly faces in the blogosphere – and that’s where our journey began.

3 comments:

  1. Woo Hoo!!! I'm all signed up and ready to follow your BLOG!! I'm so excited for you. I can't wait to follow your journey. Cheryl, you're going to be such a super Momma!...and there's no doubt in my mind you were meant to have a Japanese baby!!! I'm tingly with excitement for you. Love and hugs...maybe I can get Jeff to finally let me come visit... :)

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  2. I cryed...no joking...!!! Having my kids has been the most rewarding of all things in my life. I can't wait to see the future updates. I guess I better get my passport so I can come visit!!

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  3. Dear Andy and Cheryl: I came across your blog this morning, and it has given me hope. I was hoping perhaps you might be able to shed some light as we are looking into adopting a child from Japan as well. We've been disappointed however, based on what our research findings. My email is ann.lichti@gmail.com
    Thank you!

    Ann

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