After 4 1/2 years of trying to start a family naturally and through IVF John and Paige have decided to bring a child in to their hearts and lives though the wonderful gift of Adoption.  Our journey to have a family started the day we got married September 20, 2003.  We had been together for 5 years when we got married and wanted to start having a family right away.  Unfortunately it was that easy as we are amongst the "One in four couples in the US have to go through some sort of treatment to have a baby" and so after one year of naturally trying, though how natural can it get when you are taking your temperature and counting days, and well that's enough our parents are reading this :o)  and 3 1/2 years of IVF treatments we have realized that Adoption is what we supposed to do.  It has been years of heartaches but it has only made us stronger and I truly believe that our child is out there waiting for us to bring him or her home.  So after a lot of soul searching and discussing the different options of adoption first domestic or international.  We choose international, then you have to decide from which country you would like to apply for and our choice is Korea, when we picture ourselves with an adopted child the child has always been of Asian decent.  And it just so happens that Paige's sisters-in-law, sister is adopted from Korea.   Korea and Vietnam are the longest running programs in the US; at the time of our decision Vietnam was on hold and not accepting new applications.   

Friday June 20, 2008   Today we put the application in the mail.  It took us over a month to find the right agency to use.  After talking and emailing families we finally decided on using Carolina Adoption Services.  They are based in Raleigh, NC and have an office in Roanoke, VA called ABC Adoptions.  I knew right from the beginning of finding an agency that they would be the one we went with but I had to make sure.  Every family that I was in contact with who used CAS spoke very highly of them, one family adopted 2 children from Russia with them and she said if they had the money to do it again they would in a heartbeat!   I thought that spoke very well of them.    

Monday June 23, 2008 We received confirmation today that CAS received our application and it is being reviewed and that we will be contacted in 2-3 weeks.  

Tuesday June 24, 2008 It has only been one day since the confirmation and Paige is already going CRAZY!!! Here starts paperwork/wait/paperwork/wait and so our lives will be as we continue this journey.  

Monday June 30 2008 One week down!  1-2 more weeks to go to find out if we get accepted in to the Korea program.