Almost a flip flop

When we went to meet our social worker last week she told us about Bellefaires infant adoption program. The program they have is one of only a couple in the state of Ohio and is different from the programs I found when I was initially researching domestic adoptions. If you are a pregnant woman you can go to Bellefaire for counseling and they will help you come up with a plan. They give you a realistic overview of life with a baby--expenses, lack of personal life etc. If you don't feel you can raise the baby they explore family adoptions and then look at outsiders adopting the baby as a last resort. They only do 6-10 infant adoptions a year and are very proud of the low number. They believe it is best for the baby to be with the mother, even if conditions aren't perfect. If public adoption is the right choice, they show the mom profiles of waiting families and the moms pick a family. The adoptions are open so you go and meet the mom. After she gives birth, she has a waiting period of 72hours before she can sign over the baby. Once she does, they baby is yours. 3 days old, fresh from the hospital. Jon and I have been seriously considering switching to this program for the past week. Their are a ton of pros and cons in this situation. The waiting list is pretty small right now, so its very likely we could have a newborn before the end of the year, but about 50% of moms change their mind in that 72hour waiting period. The list of pros and cons is long, but the biggest con is they don't rely on ultrasounds (what if it was wrong). You need to be open to either gender. If you wait for a girl, you would have to wait for a mom who has already given birth, decided she didn't want the baby, called Bellefaire, received counseling and then signed over the baby. It could take two months or two years for that situation to come up. I love my boys, but I would still like to bring a baby girl into our family. As much as I would love to bring a baby home before the end of the year, we are committed to Ethiopia. We are excited to bring home a baby girl from Africa. It was fun (but ridiculously stressful) to think about some other "what ifs" this week, but I'm so grateful to be back on track with our original plan. Maybe I'll finally get some sleep tonight!