Step 1 of probably 100 million

As any reader of this blog or anyone who has ever met us knows, our dream is to adopt a baby here in China. We finally took that first step and submitted our initial application, which was approved last week! Yay!

That was probably the easiest step, though. I was immediately given about 50 more forms to fill out before we can start our home study, which is a whole other thing. But we are just taking it one step at a time.

Adoption, especially international adoption, is an expensive way to grow a family. And we have additional hurdles and costs to face because we live abroad. We have set up two crowdfunding campaigns, one at IndieGogo and one at GoFundMe (because I know different people prefer different platforms). I am offering copies of Crazy Dumplings (digital copies and physical copies) and the amazing crazy dumpling dumplinger as Thank You gifts for supporters, so if you missed out on our Kickstarter campaign or want more books or dumplingers as gifts, this is your chance!

Also, adoption is a very personal journey. I am a pretty open person, and I am looking forward to sharing our journey with readers, but I have already been struggling with how much to share with readers. How can I tell my story without overstepping the boundaries of what is our child’s story and her right to keep her story private or share when she is ready? As a writer, this is something I will probably always struggle with as my kids grow. But in light of that, there are some things about the adoption journey I won’t be sharing publicly on the blog, but might be more willing to share with our supporters, people who I know care about us, our child, and our story. So I will be setting up a separate mailing list just for supporters to get more “behind the scenes” information about our journey.