Why the DR Congo?

It's a popular and valid question. Why did you choose the DR Congo? At the risk of sounding cliche in so many ways it chose us. I am going to give a quick history. I fell in love with my best friend Colin watching him with children in China. Needless to say I sunk my claws into him, married him, and went back to China for more. Fell in love with the country and was certain that when we were ready we would adopt a little girl from China. Little did we know how different life would be 9 years later. We moved across the country, finished college, traveled, moved some more. After Utah, China, Connecticut, Arizona, we finally started feeling like it was about the right time to look into starting an adoption. One night I started doing some research on the internet and fell upon a website talking about DR Congo. I read briefly about the devastating situation there and the estimated 5 million street orphans in the country. After that I couldn't seem to get it out of my head. Nobody was lining up for 6 years to help and love these children. I tried hard to ignore the pull I had towards this new idea. Kept looking in to China adoptions. Learned that times have DEFINITELY changed in the China adoption programs since we lived there 8 years prior. There was now a 5-6 year waiting list for a healthy girl. And I still had some time to kill before turning 30. Which is a necessary requirement in China. That is just 1 of the pages of crazy requirements to adopt abandoned children in China. It really started to upset us in so many ways.  Our 9 year plan was being thrown up in the air. Why would a country make it so hard to help the hundreds of thousands of children in need of a home? China was our country!!! It was what we had envisioned for so long!! But we were not waiting 6 years to start the family that we had already waited 9 to start. It was a little heart breaking. We thought we had such a connection to the country it just made sense. Well I still had that little voice in the back of my head reminding me about DR Congo. Flashes of photographs that I couldn't get out of my head. And that instant love and connection I felt that first night that I learned about DR Congo. It was time to bring it up again to Colin. He had always kept an open mind about the DR Congo.  Together we decided to lay the China idea to rest. The DRC had been in front of us for the past year screaming to be heard. We finally got the sense to listen. We were both on board.  And 100% certain that we made the right choice. Our little girl was coming from Congo.