Too young in the eyes of many...

The beautiful little baby girl who inspired this post today...
She is waiting at Maria's Big House of Hope in China for
her forever family to come and get her.
 If I could I would, sweetheart!
http://showhope.org/november-prayer-focus-marleigh/

I am 24 years old (25 in December... and something about that 5 on the end is REALLY freaking me out... just saying!). My Love is 6 months younger than I am. We have been married for 17 months tomorrow. And while we are not planning to start our family just yet (we are wanting to finish paying off my student loan debt and get him a little further through his Masters program before starting our family), thoughts about mommy-hood and adoption frequently cross my mind. Especially when I read some of my favorite blogs and see pictures of beautiful little kiddos who are just waiting for their forever families. However, we are too young or have not been married long enough (and won't be for a few years) to even start the long process and paperwork trail that adoption involves. Most countries that we have mentioned interest in adopting from have age and marriage requirements that we are still years away from. For instance:

• China: both parents have to be at least 30 years old and married for at least 2 years 
• South Korea: both parents have to be at least 25 years old and married for at least 3 years 
• Ethiopia: both parents have to be at least 25 years old and married for at least 5 years
• Peru: depends on the age of the child you are wanting to adopt... but both for the most part have to be at least 25 years old with no marriage requirement 
• Honduras: has nothing specified and is done case by case from what I have been able to find and understand 

 these requirements were taken from the InterCountry Adoption 

website through the Department of Defense

http://adoption.state.gov/

It's hard to look at those facts and know that my heart longs to adopt as soon as possible and know that even though we may be ready in the next year or two, we will still have to await even longer before we meet some of those requirements. I know that I am not quite ready to give up my time living life with just Spencer, but my heart aches knowing that there are 143 million+ children in the world tonight without a home, without a mommy and daddy. And while I may not be 100% ready to move into mommy-hood, I can't help but ache knowing the fact that we have a spare bedroom, we have good jobs and are in a good place financially and yet, we can't start the process because we are too young in the eyes of so many.

People are always asking about when we will start our family. My Love and I crack jokes about it sometimes. But we know that it won't be for a little while yet. But we both look forward to that day. To celebrating birthdays and Gotcha Days. To going on family vacations and having family movie nights. We both look forward to those things.

And I have to say that I know My Love will be a great daddy. I love watching him with the kiddos at work or church. He smiles and laughs with them. And when he holds baby Claire, my heart melts because he takes such good care of her (despite drawing on her with a marker a few weeks ago to irritate her mommy and grandma). He will be a great daddy. And I so look forward to the day when we begin our family. Whether it's with a pregnancy or an adoption. It'll be a good day. But for now, we grow older. We wait and we work. And we enjoy life with just the two of us while loving on the kiddos we are blessed to care for at work.

So, here's to being too young, trying to endure the wait and enjoying this time of life as a family of 2.