Four years ago today - October 27, 2002 - Carmi and I landed in Beijing aboard United Airlines to begin the process of bringing Eliana home. As I recently pondered about that day, I wanted to give you 10 reasons why I was ready to go to China (planting tongue firmly in cheek):

10 - I wanted another deduction on my paycheck.
9 - It was far too quiet around our house.
8 - Carmi didn’t ask “Why?” nearly enough.
7 - I needed someone to watch The Wiggles with me.
6 - We needed a reason to talk about poop.
5 - There was a severe shortage of pink in the house.
4 - Carmi needed to justify a third cat.
3 - We didn’t have enough stuff in the house that was made in China.
2 - I was considering stock in Kimberly-Clark, the parent company of Huggies.
1 - There was a little girl that needed to be loved.

Every child deserves a goodnight kiss and a mom and dad to say “I love you”.