I was in the Navy years ago living in the Phillipines. So many of my friends were adoptioning, we thought why not. Years of infertility was getting us both down. Within a week word of that got to the right people and he approached me with a pregant woman wanting to put her child up for adoptin. It seems the sailor who got her pregant gave her $40 when he next came into port and washed his hands of her. She was 7 to 8 months along. I did not feel a part of the process in case the rug was pulled out from under me. I was at the hopital out in Subic Bay, went home and was called back to see my DD. She was larger than the other two babies in the ward, she was almost 7lbs. We had her in our hands the very next day. It took nearly a year for the legal paperwork, passport and everything. We had some good times and bad. When she was little and talking baby talk, someone asked if she was speaking Tagollic (spelling-native tongue), I said no it is just baby talk. Another time at a yard sale a lady looked at me then my DD (we look alike back then) and looked at my then DH who was red hair blue eyes and freckles. The lady looked at me and asked if I played around on my DH? I promptly said "Yes and I had a good time too". She was later diagnosed with ADHD, which I still do not know how to handle very well, except TOUGH LOVE which is very hard. So yes you have to weigh the pros and cons. It is a life long commitment that you will regret at times but the good far out weighs the bad. By the way for the shock value, I adopted in the early 80's and the total bill was about $1,100.00 for legal fees, hospital and passport and misc.