In my last post I wrote about how we found and chose the right adoption program for our family for our first transracial adoption.

Once we got Maggie home from Vietnam, I thought for a short while that our family was complete. Three boys and one girl was perfect, right? It was a big family without being “too” big, we had sons and a daughter, we still had a hand for each child and it all seemed to be just right.

But it didn’t take long for me to start to feel the desire to adopt again. I had been deeply affected by seeing the hundreds of children that lived in that one orphanage in Vietnam, and I knew that the world was full of such places. I also did not want our Maggie to grow up as the only adopted child in our family and the only Asian person in our family.

After getting through the adoption process once, we realized how “doable” it was, and we knew that we enjoyed being parents and could afford emotionally and financially to add another child to our family.

So we started looking into the possibility of adopting another child. This time, we wanted another Asian child, since we already had our Maggie from Vietnam. Our requirements were similar, although we needed a program that would allow a family with four children in the home to adopt. Once again, we were really strapped for money (even more so, since we took on some debt to pay for Maggie’s adoption).

The logical choice would have been Vietnam again, however the program was not a stable one. Cambodia had been shut down during our Vietnam adoption, and there were many rumors that Vietnam was going to shut down as well (which it did). So we researched other options that would allow us to adopt an Asian child.

We were still too young and too poor to adopt from China, and Korea was the next big program that we looked into. We were leaning towards choosing Korea, when as I was researching online one night I came across a photolisting of waiting children in Korea. I saw the picture of our Amanda, who was a special needs toddler, and knew we would be going to Korea.

We were a bit concerned about adding another culture and country to our family mix, especially since we had developed a deep affection for the Vietnamese culture, but we quickly found that we also enjoyed the Korean culture, and were grateful to be able to incorporate it into our family.

Our adoption from Korea went quickly and smoothly, and we were once again happy and feeling like our family was “perfect” and complete, at least for a little while. :)

More reading on adding a second adopted child to your family:

The importance (or lack thereof) of having a same-race sibling

When adopting again is right (or not)

Korea Adoption Blog