Why China?

We chose to adopt from China because they offer a well established and relatively risk-free adoption process. These factors may not always be important to us, but they were at the time we made that decision. Domestic adoptions can be, and often are, very unpredictable. Also, in spite of the fact that they are often called private adoptions, private domestic adoptions actually require a high level of transparency from prospective parents. For example, prospective parents often put their pictures and detailed descriptions about themselves on websites. This is so biological mother's and father's all over the country who are looking for candidates to raise their child can discover and read about potential adoptive parents.
It has been suggested in very public forums that people adopt from China because the babies are cuter than they are in other countries and they will be good at math and/or music. For the record, neither of those attributes factored into our decision. I haven't met too many homely babies from any country, and while I certainly hope Bea will be good at math, I am pretty sure that math success is not a heritable trait.
The Jolie-Pitt's, and the Madonna-Richie's recent adoptions were not factored into our decision to adopt from China. You may have noticed that we bear exactly no resemblance to any of those folks, but we wish them well. I love the fact that they have brought adoption so far into the public consciousness. I am offended by those who believe that anyone adopts a living, breathing individual because it is fashionable. That's just nuts.