While Maggie was a wonderful baby and she was well worth the challenges of her adoption, the process was still a lot more difficult than I expected it to be. As a first time adoptive parent, I was not prepared for the range of emotions we experienced in bringing our baby girl home.

The trip was hard on me. There were a lot of stressful things going on with immigration and adoption in Vietnam at that time and I was very worried about being stuck in Vietnam for an extended period of time. Emotionally and physically I was very tired since I did not have any help or anyone to talk to and it was the first time I had ever left my boys. But overall I did well, and once we got home things were great.

All in all, I would say that some aspects of her adoption were more challenging than I expected. The travel was a lot more stressful than I anticipated. Going on the first trip and leaving her there was unexplainably more difficult than I had been prepared for. Having her get sick in between trips was very hard and left me feeling horribly helpless and worried. And all of the immigration troubles going on made the whole experience very stressful until the day we finally got her visa.

On the flip side, other aspects of the process were much better than I could have guessed. Having her in my arms was the amazing, joyful moment I had dreamed about. We had been prepared for a sick baby, but she was in excellent health and has been ever since (with the exception of a bum appendix last winter). She slept well and ate well from the beginning. We had read a lot about attachment issues, but she bonded to us quickly and became securely attached very easily.

There were many ups and downs, and at the end of it all, while I was thrilled to have our daughter and knew that the challenges were well worth the rewards, I swore up and down that I would NEVER go through an adoption again. Ha! Isn't life funny sometimes?

In my next few posts I will share some of our other experiences involving receiving our children.