Yet another segment in the series about our journey to Cj ...

One day, when Sam had been home almost two years, I got a phone call out of the blue from a social worker here in Seychelles.

We had originally started the process for local adoption. I'd contacted Social Services, jumped through all the hoops, we were inspected and evaluated ... all the stuff one does when wanting to adopt ... but got nothing but discouragement from the professionals.

"It NEVER happens in Seychelles."

I've written before about the abysmal adoption climate here, and have been working to change the system, but at the time I was not willing to wait years for a child.

With nothing bound to happen, we turned to international adoption and eventually to Cambodia ... which was perfect since that's where Sam was.

Apparently, however, since we'd never told Social Services we were done with adopting we were still top of the list for a domestic adoption. Now a pregnant girl was two weeks from delivery and wanted her child to be adopted. Where we interested?

Hokey Smokes! That sure got the brain gears greased and spinning.

A call to Mark at work threw him for a loop the size of an Orange County freeway onramp, but I wanted him to start thinking on the subject of a second child before he got home.

I spent the next hours running everything I could think of around my head: money, room, Sam, time, my age, Mark, grandparents, travel, health. The idea of a newborn thrilled me to my bones. The thought of double tuition in private school scared me. I worried that we'd be pushing our luck ... with Sam being so perfect in every way, could we really get that twice?

Here's a note from my journal at the time:

All the concerns are there—money problems, my health, my age, the future, etc., etc., ect.,--but none have added up to us saying no to taking this baby. There are some nervous moments ahead as things happen and get finalized, but we are letting ourselves get excited about this new addition.

The saga continues in my next post ...