More questions...

Why do you want to adopt?
While adoption is the perfect example of Christ's love for us and our own adoption into His family, that's honestly not what drove us to adoption. Before I ever met Ryan, I had a dear friend that went through a very difficult time in her life. As I stood next to her and watched her heart-wrenching journey, I knew it would someday become my own. My friend selflessly gave her child a family and a life that she knew she couldn't at the time. The strength dignity with which she carried herself moved me so that I just cannot forget. I know she didn't feel strong and I know she certainly didn't feel dignified. But she showed me a side of adoption that very few get to see (and I know I only saw the tip of the iceberg). I remember watching her child being driven away and right then the Lord told me I would adopt. Since then, the idea of adopting is just as natural for me as the idea of getting pregnant. It's not a child out of condolence or pity or an attempt to "rescue" anyone. It really is a perfectly natural way to have children.

Why Taiwan?
We didn't have a specific reason for Taiwan. We were really leaning to Asia for various reasons and we just thought "hmm...Taiwan...you don't hear about that often. I wonder what that's about." As we looked into it a little more we just decided to pursue it and found a precious little guy whose smile made us smile.

Why an "older" child?
We have never been opposed to adopting an infant. If that's what the Lord had planned for us then we were ok with that. But when we talked about adoption or whenever it came up, the conversation always lended itself to an "older" child. Really anywhere from 3 years old on up to the age of our oldest child. (And in the adoption world, an "older" child is anywhere from 4 or 5 on up.) When we started looking at international adoption, we thought we would find a child that was actually closer to the 5 year old mark but apparently that's not what the Lord thought. :)

Why did you change from domestic adoption to international adoption?
This feels like it could be the longest answer ever to a question but to sum it up, I'll put it this way: When we decided to start the adoption process, we were open to both domestic and international. However, we had heard so much about the thousands of children in the foster system that were ready and waiting for adoption that we thought we would just start right in our own backyard. The Lord closed door after door after door - for years. We still very much felt like this was something God wanted for our family so we decided to look at the international options and here we are.