| China adoption diary: Join the odyssey to adopt Madeleine – Fertility ... Jul 4th 2012, 18:10 International adoptions by Americans have dramatically dropped because of safeguards that make them more difficult to do and longer to accomplish. The Belsie family waited five years for their second adoption in China and Mom Gretchen begins her China adoption diary here in Modern Parenthood. When you talk to adoptive parents, you often hear about that moment when you know. Some call it divine, some call it psychological but its that moment of certainty when you lock on and the child is yours, no question. Senior editor Clara Germani is a senior editor for the Monitor, based in Boston. She handles in-depth projects, or cover stories, for the weekly print magazine and is the editor of the Monitor's parenting blog, "Modern Parenthood." For me, that moment came quickly. In the half-light of a Pennsylvania motel room where we took our daughter the night after she was born and her birth mother handed her to me. Out of the flannel bundle in my arms, her eyes twinkled and demanded my gaze we stared at each other, and I knew. Mine; beyond DNA, beyond any relinquishments or court proceedings, my child. This moment happens every day with adoptions all over the world. And, Im here to tell you its the antidote to the adoption angst that media and popular psychology seem to focus on, such as infertility grief, bureaucratic tangles, and the uncertainties of timing. Most adoption goes right, just like most births go right. And thats what stands out to me in every adoption the beauty of a family morphing into new and enduring shapes that bring love and, yes, the challenges that burnish that love. When Monitor business editor Laurent Belsie made the rounds of the newsroom in May with a photo of a little dark-haired girl his family was setting off to adopt in China I knew we were all going to be fortunate witnesses. Laurents newsroom rounds more typically involve his 10-year-old daughter Grace, a prodigy of poise and vocabulary (not to mention an adorable smile) who carries a basket of homemade cookies or leftover Halloween candy from desk to desk, melting hearts and deadlines. Everyone here in the newsroom has watched Grace grow since Laurent and his wife Gretchen brought her home from China in 2003. So when many in the newsroom started receiving Gretchens rich and funny e-mail reports as they made their way to and across China last month, to meet and adopt their second child, Madeleine, there were suggestions that the missives be turned into a Modern Parenthood serial. Tomorrow we join the Belsie family all three in Gretchens first blog as they fly north over the pole to the other side of the world where they would become four. The series will run for two weeks and, I promise, itll be a short daily uplift for you. Its in keeping with the Monitors strong coverage of adoption: See our popular long-running series on Hannah Rocklein, adopted in 1999 from Russia; and Robert Kloses essays about his adopted Russian sons on our Home Forum page; as well as our recurring coverage of families who have taken in AIDS orphans in South Africa. Read more:
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