Our Story
Our Personal Adoption Story
We first became interested in adoption years ago. Over the years, we have looked into various avenues of adopting such as domestic adoption, foster-to-adopt, and international programs. The waiting, uncertainty, and bureaucracy involved in a domestic adoption proved too much for us. We also found the foster-to-adopt program to have many ridiculous regulations and requirements that are neither in the best interest of the children or the adoptive parents.
In January of 2005 we decided to go with international adoption, specifically with the China adoption program. We completed our dossier package quickly, and had to wait on the homestudy completion. During that time were introduced to a little 1 year old boy named Yuen Hai, on a waiting list due to his cleft lip and palate. We chose to adopt him, went through the process to do that, and on October 21st, we left for China to pick him up.
Our “Gotcha Day” was October 24th, 2005. He was only pulled from his foster family, with whom he had been with since just a couple of months old, just a few days prior to our arrival. He was certainly missing them when he was handed to us. For the first several days, whenever we were in our hotel room, he waited and cried by the door, hoping they would be on the other side. Because of his sadness, we decided against going to meet the foster family because we were concerned he would have to go through the same grieving process all over again. Three days later, as we were in the lobby ready to leave to catch our flight to Guangzhou, his foster family showed up at the hotel. Although I recognized their faces, it took me a second to realize it was them. He hesitated for a second and then was obviously thrilled to see them. They were crying, I was crying, but it was a wonderful reunion. Fortunately our guide was still at the hotel so we had the opportunity to talk to them and give them a chance to say good-bye. The good-bye was very sad but it was also a blessing and brought some closure to all of us. Our son recovered within minutes and was excited to get into our van to head out on another adventure.
Because of this reunion, we now have contact information and communicate with them through email, as well as have a physical address to mail pictures to. We are thrilled to be able to include them in his life from this day forward. We have had a few challenges with them in the communication process and having information translated improperly but it was a minor glitch and worth the trouble. We know without a shadow of a doubt that his foster family loves him so very much and they cared for him as though he was their own. We are forever indebted to them for their love and care of him. If they are an example of most foster parents in China, then China is doing some great work.
The rest of our trip went incredibly well and was both efficient and enjoyable. Our guides were amazing. Kai transitioned smoothly, traveled like a pro, and we arrived home on November 1st to his anxiously waiting big brother and big sister. Outside of the jetlag and being sick for a week after our return, we had a very smooth transition. Our little boy is home :-). He is more of a blessing than we ever could have imagined possible. We can’t imagine life without him.
