Positives.

Some (of the many, I'm sure) positives of traveling twice.

• We won't have to deal with culture shock AND "You’re Now a Full Time Parent Shock" on the same trip.

• We’ll be able to get in that ‘last vacation’ before having kids ;-). We’ll be visiting our kid, but we won’t be able to go out and do anything with him yet. I’m sure most of our time will be spent at the orphanage, but I’m sure we’ll find plenty of time to sneak out and get some pictures, souvenirs, and hopefully explore the area a bit…

• We’ll have the chance to take a bunch of pictures of the area, and get that out of the way. I hope to come back with a TON of pictures, I plan on getting a big ole book together to show him some day. I want him to be proud of where he came from.

• We can use some of those pictures (and souvenirs) to put up in his room, and have that all figured out and set before his arrival.

• We’ll be able to meet the little guy, and will have an idea of what he’s like. We’ll be able to fall in love with HIM instead of just pictures of him that we’re sent. That will be so nice.

• We’ll have an idea on size, so if we had a baby shower in between trips, that might be helpful. Would also be fun to have a picture of him to show everyone. And we can show them other pictures we took and better explain/show them everything that’s going on. Maybe open other’s eyes a bit to the world around them.

• Aside from the money aspect, I’m looking forward to this. And who knows, when the time comes for us to travel (the 2nd time) our agency may have some sort of escort service in place – where they escort the little guy home to us. But that’s a long way off, so who knows.