So a while back, I promised you a post about adoption. Interestingly enough, the content has completely changed since that time. But first, some background.

As most of you probably know, I've been wanting to have another little hatchling (which I have already named, in the blogosphere at least, H2. Clever, don't you think?) for a while now. L and I have reached a compromise to start trying in the spring. He wants 4 years betwixt our children, I wanted 2, so we settled on 3.

Before we even got married, we talked about how cool it would be to adopt a child from another country. We then did nothing about it and really didn't even think about it anymore. When we went to Mexico last year and especially this year, I was struck by the conditions some of the children are living in. Some kids work in the middle of busy intersections doing circus tricks so people will throw change at them. I'm talking about kids that are maybe six years old. It is absolutely heart- wrenching.

Then a few weeks ago, I was over at Ellen's (who you need to go and vote for, by the way)and I clicked on the link to Bethany Christian Services. I started looking at international adoptions, and I was horrified to see how expensive they were. I mean, I knew adoption was expensive, but I didn't know it was THAT expensive. Even then, I really wasn't feeling like that had anything to do with me.

And then a few days ago, I read Hillary's post about orphans in China. If you haven't already, you NEED to read this. I thought to myself, we should get one of those kids. I have no desire to weigh 200 lbs, have terrible sciatica, or swell to size of Vermont again, so I wouldn't be "cheated" out of anything. And aside from gaining a precious child for our family, we would be a family for a precious child which would otherwise maybe not meet such a good ending.

I've spent a good part of the last few days surfing the internet, finding out all I could about international adoption. We talked to a guy at church yesterday who has two girls from China, and after the holidays we would like to get together with he and his wife to hear all about their experience (he says he would do it again in a second).

So woohoo, that is all well and good, but what about the money? L and I have committed to only having house debt, and the adoption will cost about $20,000. About half of it is taken care of by some tax incentives, but we would still need to come up with 8-10 thousand dollars. I don't know about you, but we don't have that much money stuck under the mattress. If we had been planning on this, we probably wouldn't have moved into a new house, or bought new furniture. Now I am looking back at all the money we spent on frivolous things and thinking, 'that would have been a third of the money we needed!'

I know that I can't blame myself for having furnished our house. For starters, we weren't even thinking about adopting at the time. And if it is God's plan for our family, I am sure He will open up a way for it happen. I trust Him, but I wish He would send me an itinerary of how my life is supposed to work out. I feel I could really do a better job of the whole thing that way. =)

So, dear readers, what do you think? Do you have any stories to tell or advice to give? Any ideas on how to make a bunch of money (legally, of course)? Am I just crazy to even be considering this? Also, if you have any spare prayers, I feel like we could use them right now.