International Adoption - China

"Can I have a potsticker for dinner, daddy?" (China)

Our adoption story

We decided that we did not wish to have an only child, so went through the homestudy process once again. Our birthmother this time wanted us to be a part of the babies' life before he was born, so I would take her to her doctor appointments and I felt like I was bonding with my baby before he even arrived. I had the privilege of being there when my son Bronson was born in Seattle, Washington. He was very tiny, born by C-Section and I just fell for him! I held him and rocked him for the three days he had to stay in the hospital. He was such a little angel. Blake was now almost 3

and saw himself in the 'big brother' role and LOVED his baby brother. We called him Sonny Bunny. An extremely tragic thing happened to our baby Sonny. Just 3 days before he was 3 months old, he died of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, S.I.D.S. This was absolutely devastating to our family. Friends and family rallied around us and we attended support groups and counseling, all of which helped but did not take away the pain of losing our child. We will never forget the little ray of sunshine that was our little baby Sonny.

Many years later, we began talking about adoption again. By this time, Blake was 12 years old. Because of the devastation of losing our baby, I just wasn't even considering adoption for many years. But we felt that we were ready at this point. Well, our friends in Seattle adopted a baby girl from Korea. When we met her, we were absolutely blown away. We couldn't believe how taken we were with this little amazing girl. I was hooked! It was just after meeting her at a Mariner's game that we began researching Asian countries and adoption agencies.

After much research and discussion with my husband we came to the conclusion that we would adopt a baby from China. It's amazing how after you decide to do this that you just begin meeting people everywhere who have adopted Chinese children. We chose New Hope out of Seattle for our agency. And so began months of home study and dossier preparation. International adoption required so much more than domestic adoption, but we, like everyone else who does this, got through the red tape. We applied to New Hope on November 18th of 2002 and little did we know that on the exact date that we applied, our daughter was born in China! I had no idea that an old friend and her husband would be applying to adopt from China, from our agency at the exact time as us!!! In fact, our dates were so close that we were even in the same travel group to China. (more...)

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