Is it hard to adopt?

"Hard" is a subjective word.  Harder than infertility treatments, carrying a baby, morning sickness, fatigue, moodiness, facing gestational diabetes or eclampsia, hours if not days of labor and pushing a living being through your birth canal, then post-partum healing, depression and breast feeding?  No, it's not that hard! ;)  But you'd really need to ask a mom who has both birthed and adopted a child to compare.  Adoption does require a homestudy, which is more a study of your family than your home.   Inter-country adoption requires a dossier as well-hundreds of papers that must be filled out, filed, fingerprinted and notarized.  There are always glitches, set-backs and complications.  It isn't for the faint of heart.  Altogether, it's about a year's worth of work, but taken step-by-step, it's doable, just like birth, and so worth it!