Why China....

Lots of people ask why we chose China. There are many reasons, but here's some of the main ones:

1. To control China's fast growing population, there is currently a "one child" policy that is still enforced in many provinces. Many families prefer to have a boy because it is culturally the boy's responsibility to work to help the family and boys will look after their parents in their old age. Girls will usually marry and will help to look after her husband's family. While many people assume that some babies are not wanted simply because they are girls, this is certainly not true. In many cases, the family already has one or more children and face paying unaffordably high fines, losing their jobs, or perhaps worse for having a second or third child. Because it is illegal to give a child up for adoption, there are approximately 1.5 million girls abandoned in China. These are children whose birth mothers love them very much, but clearly could see a better life for their daughters in one of China's many orphanages, or with adoptive families. Often, they are abandoned in very public places such as a police station, hospital, public park or shopping mall, usually with the mother watching from a distance to make sure they are safe and found quickly.

2. Children and infants adopted from China are generally very healthy. The prenatal use of drugs and alcohol is almost non existant. Fortunately, it's just not part of the culture in most areas of the country.

3. The process of adopting from China may be a little longer than some countries, but it's a very clean process with a child as the end result. Other countries have adoption processes that can be terminated by birth mothers at the 11th hour, or in some cases, after the child has been placed with and bonded to a new family.

There are many other reason's, but overall, we felt a real tug from China right from the start and we know with absolute certainty that this is right choice for us (and for our daughter!).

Our current baby...

Our current baby, Emma. I sure hope Olivia isn't allergic to Emma when she comes home - I'd hate to have to find her new parents so soon. OK - I"M KIDDING!!!! I sure love my dog though. How could you not love that face? Especially when she greets you with a mouth full of socks and doesn't just wag her tail, but rather the whole bum. I think Emma will be more than a little jealous of Olivia at first, but will soon love her to death when she realizes what comes off of that high chair everytime Olivia sits in it.

Beginnings.....

You may have got here because you've seen our other website. Well, the reason for this blog isn't that I have a desire to use every means possible to post this journal, but rather it's almost the opposite. The real truth is that I'm nowhere near technically inclined enough to figure out how to post multiple journal dates on the web site, but on a blog, it's pretty much a no brainer. I should probably have reserved that comment until I know for sure whether or not this will work, but for now the plan is that we will post our daily journals and photo's on this blog each day that we're away, and a few updates before then, so check in regularly.

Here's the latest: The paper chase is done, the home study is done, dossier is logged in at the CCAA in China and I'm really, really sick of waiting. Whoever said patience is a virtue needs a smack. I've heard everything from "the wait will be soooo worth it" to "it's just how long most people have to wait when they find out they are pregnant" to "the time will seem like it just flew by". I smile and nod take another sip of the 12th coffee of the day (get off my back about the coffee - I already quit smoking) and keep my foot from involuntarily kicking them in the shins. Don't get me wrong - I love my friends and family and I thank God daily that they are sooo helpful and supportive - I'm just really, really ready for my little girl to come home.

Anyway, I follow the Yahoo groups discussion board for Family Outreach International (our facilitator) and for Canadians Adopting From China, and there's always discussion about who has what log in date and who is getting referrals at the beginning of each month. Well, we have a log in date of May 31/05 and at the rate things are going, it looks like we will get our referral around the beginning of January and travel mid to late February. If a small miracle happens, and China gets caught up enough to work on a calendar month, there's a chance we may get a December referral and travel in Jan, but I sure don't want to get my hopes up for that. Please think good thoughts for us and keep your fingers crossed.

How did we get here.....

Thanks for joining us on our journey to adopt a beautiful little girl from the Peoples Republic Of China. We are thrilled to be able to share this story with our family and friend's and to anyone considering adoption, we hope you find the information useful. I know that when we were first researching adoption, reading other families' journals was a huge source of information and inspiration.

As many of you know, Ron and I have been together for about 18 years and married for 5 years. Ron has two wonderful sons, Aaron and Dale, from a previous marriage and they spent pretty much most of their teenage and young adult lives living with us. While raising two teenage boys in a blended family certainly had it's challenges, I wouldn't trade it for anything - they've taught us so much, and I think we will both be better parents as a result. As they grew and moved out on their own, it became more and more apparent to that I was really suffering from "empty nest syndrome" at too early of an age. Ron was certainly noticing this also....

Dec/04 - After years of on and off discussions and research, we decided to bring another child into our lives and decided that China was calling us! So begins our story....

Please join us regularly, as we will update this site with journals and photo's as often as there's something to say (and even when there's not).