Re: New to this forum

[Sandy]

Congrats on your bundle of joy

[B-Bat]

Welcome, congrats on your son.

[reluctantmom]

Hi there "Hopeful "

Lovely to see your journey has had your son join you. May I ask why you adopted from Cambodia .. I am always interested in how different journeys took people to their places, would you mind telling yours?

RM x

[Hopeful]

Hi there "Hopeful "

Lovely to see your journey has had your son join you. May I ask why you adopted from Cambodia .. I am always interested in how different journeys took people to their places, would you mind telling yours?

RM x

Hi there Reluctantmom,

We cannot have children biologically (believe me we tried everything). We lived abroad for many years, and then decided that we want to adopt, and tried to adopt from SA, but we were not allowed, due to the fact that we lived overseas and the country that we lived in was not party to the Hague Convention, so it also meant that we were not allowed an inter-country adoption from South Africa (very frustrating!!) I then started investigating the possibility to adopt internationally, and what a difficult route this was... as all the organisations/agencies referred us back to SA, as they did not know what to do with a South African couple. For almost 2 years, it felt like we were ping-pong balls, being hit from one side to the other.... Finally, a miracle... as I received feedback from an agency in America who came back to say that they were not sure, but will confirm with the Cambodian authorities if we would be allowed to adopt from there... that was the first time we received any form of hope! We received word that we would be allowed and immediately started with the adoptin process. We adopted our son in 2007 at the age of 16 months. It is an absolute miracle that he is with us today and that we are a family!!

[reluctantmom]

Thanks so much for telling your story.

It does seem incredible to me how many children there are that are desperate for a loving home, but at the same time how many road blocks there seem to be that makes it so difficult to adopt. It is as if parents/potential parents are being tested constantly as to whether they really want to adopt, because the hurdles are so many and the walls so high to get to the end.

I am thrilled you found your son - I can't imagine the adrenaline that must have got your clothes thrown in a bag, your bums on an seat in an airplane and en-route to a foreign country, without looking at each other and wondering "what the hell are we doing here??"

Incredible story.

[Kerryw]

That is incredible.

[SupaMum]

Welcome and thanks for sharing our story! Congrats on your boy!

[Kgaladi]

welcome to opm. The support here is amazing.