My wife and I always knew that we wanted to have a kid or two. We also were pretty certain that we didn't want to increase the surface population. We knew that there were lots of kids both here in the United States and abroad who were without parents for one reason or another.

We bought a book on adopting in Colorado which covered everything from adopting internationally to adopting locally. This started our journey.

People have asked us why we chose to adopt locally from social services rather than adopting from Russia or China. Lots of people take this route and in the case of China kids even come with a "warrantee" of sorts. The fees involved with adopting internationally were prohibitively high. Even though we are solidly middle - class we would have had to dip heavily into our savings. The book that we bought had information on local agencies including social services. We attended an information session at the local social services office and we realised that the pond of children that needed parents right in our backyard was large. The need was great. We found out about so many children - some who were older - who needed people willing to raise them. These were children from awful circumstances who, through no fault of their own, became wards of the state. The stories were heartbreaking.

We adopted because we wanted to be parents. We adopted locally because there were children right here that needed us.

If you are thinking about being an adoptive parent-particularly from local social services, look at your life and think about the following.

• Can you make commitments?
• Are you ready to parent the unpredictable?
• Are you patient?
• Do you have a sense of humour?
• Are you ready to grow in ways you can't even imagine?
• Can you take risks?

If you are ready, being the parent of a Child of Trauma can be one of the most transforming and rewarding things you can ever do. At the same time, it can be one of the most frustrating and vexing experiences as well.

And it is SO worth it.