Here We Go Again!

In the spring of 2016, my husband Adam and I decided to adopt again.  Our first adoption started in July of 2013 and we brought our beautiful daughter Anjali who was 3 years old at the time home in October 2015 from India (You can read about her adoption here).  Given the 2 year time frame of our first adoption, we decided that if we wanted a second child, we should get started.  The adoption process is timely and costly, but we felt in our hearts that a second adoption was something we wanted to take on.  When deciding to adopt there are a lot of considerations.  We feel especially pulled towards international adoption, because we love the travel and adventure that it entails.  We also decided we were most interested in adopting a boy that was about the same age as Anjali when we adopted her.  Although, we chose India the first time, because I was born in India and have family there, we didn't necessarily feel that it was the right fit for our second child.  Conditions for adopting are in a constant flux from country to country with changes in policy happening all the time.  Although India continues to be a stable place for Americans to adopt from, we were drawn to the program in the Dominican Republic for a number of reasons.  Adam was born in the Dominican Republic and lived their until he was 5 years old.     In fact, Adam still has his Dominican passport with a baby picture of him in it!

Adam's family moved to the Dominican Republic in the Fall of 1970 for his father to serve as a priest for the Church of Epiphany in Santo Domingo.

  According an old newspaper clipping saved by Adam's mother:

The Church of the Epiphany has a bi-lingual and bi-cultural ministry in the heart of the capital city of Santo Domingo.  The church ministers to the foreign colony living there from all over the world, to a Dominican congregation and has recently started a ministry to university students, a number of whom live at a center recently built on the church property.  The church also has a bilingual nursery as part of its program. 


Adam was born in the the Dominican Republic in April of 1972 and enjoyed his first years of life there.  Although Adam has not been back since he was a teenager, he still has family friends there and feels a connection to the country. 

Adam with sister and mom 20 hours after his birth

family photo

Adam and sister Alexandra with pet turkey Ana Maria

Adam's 4th birthday party in Santo Domingo

The adoption program in the Dominican Republic met all of our criteria and we liked the fact that you get to spend a significant time in country with the child within weeks after being matched.  The political climate in the DR seems stable and although I am sure it will seem a world apart from where we live now, it is relatively close, so travel there will be reasonable.

Once we decided to adopt from the Dominican Republic, we had to choose an international adoption agency to work with.  Our first adoption was through EAC and although they were wonderful, the Dominican Republic, is not a country that they deal with so instead we chose a small agency out of Indiana called KidsFirst Adoption Services.  When choosing an international agency, it is important to shop around.  You should feel the agency representatives are knowledgeable, responsive, and most of all care about the families and children that they serve.  After speaking with Inna Pecar, the director of KidsFirst, I had no doubt that this was the agency I would like to work with.  You also need to work with an agency within your state and we were lucky to be able to continue to work with Family Services here in North Carolina and our wonderful social worker, Amy who helped us with our first adoption.

I am starting this blog now for our son to document and share the journey and adventure that we will take, so that he knows where he is from and all that happened to bring us together as a family.  Within the next week or so we should be submitting our dossier to KidsFirst.  We are excited and humbled to begin this process again!