A big decision for the New Year

We made a big decision this weekend. After meeting with the SW and all the questions she asked us, we have decided to go for a straight adoption instead of fost/adopt, for several reasons:

1. I really want a newborn
2. I really want 100% surety that once the baby is mine, it's mine. I decided even a 5% chance I could give them back, after up to a year, would be too heartbreaking.
3. David feels very badly about mothers being forced to give up their rights to their children rather than voluntarily signing.
4. We can afford it.
5. We can stay with my same agency, who has a reasonably priced ($11K to $23K max) maternity program for domestic adoption.

We're still going to use Homes of St. Mark and the facilitator (in-state initially), and see who finds a match first. We're open racially up to full hispanic but decided no black (that was primarily family pressure and some personal choice). I feel very relieved about this decision, and I can't even tell you how thrilled my mom is. I am going to call HSM today and see what we need to do. I think all we have to do is an adoption seminar, and pony up some cash. All our paperwork and home study should still be completely valid.

I don't know if this will cause a lot of delays, but for now, this is where we're going and it feels like the right decision.