Christmas of 1996
we began the road to parenthood.
We announced with great joy to our families,
during the holiday dinner, our desire to adopt.
As expected our families were
ecstatic and excited for us
We then
set out to pick an agency
over the holiday vacation
that would help us in our journey.

We must admit we did not
research very many agencies - only two local
agencies in Connecticut.
After attending one's orientation meeting Jan 15, 1997
we excitedly brought their packet of materials,
including application, with us to
an annual family reunion.

When we returned home
we decided to go with this agency
because we had heard
over the years good things
about them and knew others
who had used their services.
We sent away for our birth certificates
and eagerly began filling out the application.
And then we sat on it for about 4 months...

Why four months?
Well there was alot to fill out
and gather in terms of paperwork.
One of the things we needed to do
was write an autobiography.
Nancy found this very difficult and
kept writing and then leaving it.
Frank was a little better.
This part of the application had 7 parts to it!
Finally, Nancy gave a deadline,
by the time her birth certificate arrived
we should be done with our application.
And you know what?
It worked!

On June 14 (Flag Day)
Nancy mailed the application to our agency
and the journey officially began...

However, maybe there is another reason
why we didn't send our application in so soon;
one that deals with faith.
The Chinese believe in a red thread
that which connects you with China
in some way.

In the beginning China was not the way
we were initially going to go.
Then one day in April we were at church
and saw a couple with their Chinese daughter.
That afternoon, almost at the same time,
we both said "How about China?"
We agreed that it felt right and
decided this was the way for us.
We have never seen that couple again
and we go to church every week!

How ironic too that
one of Frank's students,
who is Chinese, gave him a Christmas gift in 1996
the year we decided to start our adoption.
And although she again gave him a gift
this past Christmas
she soon left the school.

Why too did our
Chinese lantern plants that
usually come out near the end of August
begin blooming at about
the time we were paperchasing?
...hummm

We can only say now
that the pull to China is very strong in our hearts.
Someone on our APC listserv once said
"we feel this (China) is where our daughter is"
and we would say that's true.

Since, as we have mentioned before,
family members live all over the world
Nancy decided to send updates via email
to keep everyone posted. By viewing these letters
we feel they best describe our journey thus far.

Updates

Every day brings new experiences on this journey.
We will try and add details
when we can.

In the meantime check out our agency
The Adoption Center
at the
Family and Children's Agency, Inc.