Why adopt...and why from China???

When Mark and I got married, we decided to try to have children right away. We had already known each other for about 14 years, we were best friends who REALLY TALKED to each other and we had a long engagement of 13 months, so we thought "why wait...let's start right after we're married". We both had always known we wanted to be parents. I knew I had some issues, but didn't know what it was at the time. Since I was about 13, I had not had normal monthly menstrual cycles. I would go years sometimes without one, but then would have one for 2 - 3 months in a row non-stop. I even had cysts a couple of times and went to the emergency room in major pain. Years ago my doctor put me on birth control pills to regulate my abnormal cycle. Well, I went off the birth control pills and of course my cycle still wasn't normal, so I was put on Provera to "jump start" it. We had tried for about a year and my doctor recommended that Mark have a sperm count as well. We waited what seemed like forever (in reality it was only a few days) and when I called my doctor, he read the results over the phone. All was well...just have patience. Then my doctor decided to have me try Clomid. Clomid was a mild fertility drug that had helped many people conceive, so I was very excited. Every month I bought pregnancy tests...I would buy the ones that had 2 or 3 in the box because I just knew that Clomid was the answer to our prayer. Every test was negative. My doctor then sent us to a fertility specialist. I had my medical records copied and sent to the new doctor. When we got there, the fertility specialist (Dr. H.) read our medical records and didn't understand why we were even there. I was so confused. I told him that we had been trying for a couple of years to have a child and that my doctor (whom had referred him to us) had said all seemed to be okay physically with us...so he sent us to Dr. H. to see what was wrong. Dr. H. then showed us the results from Mark's sperm count. There were no live sperm...there was no motility. My doctor has misread the results. We had never even seen the results as they were read to us over the phone by him. There would be no baby. Month after month of heartache for nothing. We spent money on fertility drugs, a couple of ultrasounds, doctor visits, etc. that the insurance company wouldn't pay for...all to find out my doctor had made an honest mistake and misread the results. I later was diagnosed with PCOS (Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome). It explained exactly what I had been going through physically for all of these years. We then were sent to another specialist...a urologist/fertility doctor to see what our options were. A couple of months and another sperm count later, we were told that exploratory surgery (at $9,000.00 each attempt...that our insurance wouldn't cover) would be an option...then he also gave us a couple sheets of paper that contained information about 2 sperm banks in California. There was a conversation that Mark and I had had before we were married where we were discussing children and he asked then..."what if we can't have kids"...my answer then was "we'll adopt". I started researching international and domestic adoption immediately. I didn't think domestic adoption was the route that I could mentally deal with. You basically pay the agency for the living expenses of the birthmother. If she needs her rent paid, medical bills paid, etc. then that is what that money is for. I also learned that if the birth mother decides not to allow you to parent her child, then you are out that money...you don't get it back. We're not wealthy an will probably only get one chance at this, so I knew international was the right path for us. In 2004 we went to an adoption seminar and learned all about the different countries that allow international adoption. China was the most stable and had clear rules and regulations...they were the safest. We started saving all our money so we could start the adoption process in May 2005...That's how we decided adoption was our miracle answer.