Random thought about Adoption...

My sister and I were both adopted. I'm watching the Hope for Haiti telethon and seeing so many of these orphans. It was bad enough before the devastating earthquake but now...
The sad part is that there is so much red tape involved with adoption. This, I speak of from the perspective  of my parents.  After you get through the red tape, you have to be able to afford all of the legal fees involved with adoption. I'd adopt in a heartbeat--any child! But why can't they make it more affordable for the "average" American. "Average" Americans raise great kids you know!

I am grateful for the sacrifices that my parents made for us.  I can't say that my life in the Philippines would've been destitute. In fact, another couple wanted to adopt us and they happened to be University Professors, as the story goes. But I can say that I am grateful for the opportunities I have been afforded as an American citizen thanks to my parents!

Okay, so here are a few photos. The black and white photo is my twin sister, Hilary and I (our names had changed 3 times by the age of 5!) in our adoption announcement photo. I'm on the right. The others are from our days growing up in OKC. My mom was pregnant w/ my baby sister and we were foster family to Wendy and Michele Coates---they were sisters in the OK 'system'. (They are the youngest in the photos. Wendy is the older of the 2) And in every sense of the word, they were our sisters. We wanted to adopt them. We really loved them. I really wonder about where life has taken them.  Unfortunately, we couldn't adopt them because they are 1/2 Native American . The requirement (at the time) was that you had to have at least 1/4 Native American blood to adopt them. Admittedly, the other wrench was that we were being stationed in Germany and there just wasn't time for evaluations, etc... Crazy. They went back into the system, but I can honestly tell you that they've never left my heart. I do hope life has been good to them!

So...yep, we'd adopt. No DOUBT!