Happy Holidays

From the Rizzo Family

Sophia Joy JinTe Rizzo

33 months old

THE ROBERTSON FAMILY STORY

Our journey to adopt our precious daughter began long ago. We first considered adopting from China around 15 years ago but what with one thing and another we didn’t proceed with any great seriousness until many years later.

After an incredible trek through remote areas in southern China in 2000 we came home and decided to pursue adoption from China with renewed vigour. Visiting China had changed our minds and lives forever.

After much discussion and research we approached social work to begin the process in November 2003 and after a long and stressful process our papers finally winged their way from the UK to Beijing in July 2005. Little did we know that our daughter was being born halfway across the world at the exactly the same time. We waited almost a full year until the end of June 2006 before receiving our referral information. Wan Jin Dao was just approaching her first birthday on referral and was 13 months old by the time we met her and fell in love in August 2006.

She had waited for us in Wanzai exactly as long as we had waited for her back home in Scotland.
We arrived in Nanchang at around 2pm on Sunday 27th August and at 5pm our daughter was placed in our arms in the Civil Affairs Office in central Nanchang.

Jiangxi is often called ‘the furnace of China’ and I now know why! The heat was incredibly intense and Dao Dao, as she was called by her foster granny and SWI staff, came to us wearing a very worn blue and white stripy body suit and nothing else. She was hot and sticky after the long minibus journey from Wanzai to Nanchang. The bus had broken down on the way and the babies had had nothing to eat or drink since mid morning.

To make matters worse our luggage had been lost between Beijing and Nanchang so we had nothing to give her.

Once all the formalities were completed I took Dao Dao back to our hotel while my husband and our guide went shopping in Wal Mart for bottles, milk and nappies etc to keep us going until our own things arrived the next day.

It took some time for Dao Dao to settle and drink something that afternoon but we bonded very quickly and all the stresses and strains of the long, long wait melted away as I held her in my arms and walked up and down the hotel corridor quietly singing nursery rhymes in her tiny ear that evening.

Our time in China felt like a bubble in time and space. It was incredibly important to be removed from the worries of everyday life back home for that short period of time. All we had to do was look after our daughter and get to know one another. Nothing else mattered.

Dao Dao was very happy from the start and settled into a routine much quicker than we had hoped for. She ate and slept well and quickly attached herself to both of us. She was wary of her new dad for a while but by the time we came home they had ‘clicked’ and she is now very definitely a ‘daddy’s girl’!

Back home in Scotland Maisie Dao Dao, as she is now called, has flourished and everyone who meets her falls under her charm. It’s wonderful to hear her little Scottish accent develop and to watch her race around without a care in the world.

I often wonder what her life would be like if she had been able to remain with her birth family in China. What would she be doing, where would she be living? Things would be very different – for her and for us that much I do know.

She is a perfect match for our family and is much loved by her big sister and all our extended family and friends.

I can’t imagine life without our beloved Maisie Dao Dao and can no longer remember life before she came along! In the two and a half years she has been with us she has transformed our lives beyond recognition. I had no idea what this little skinny scrap of life was going to do to my mind and heart when I first saw her but each day thank God for the blessing she has been to us so far.

Marion & Bruce Robertson

Van Eman Family Story

I am the blessed mother of Jocelyn Jin Luo. My story began on May 4, 2004. This is the day that I looked on the internet about adoption. This is something that I had been thinking about for some time. I wanted to be a mother and my chances of having a biological child were slim to none due to polycystic ovarian disease and endometriosis. I filled out my application for the adoption agency and sent it off. Being a single woman once I was accepted I had to be put on a waiting list as they only allowed a certain number of singles to adopt per year. I was told that it would probably be October before I could begin the paperwork pregnancy. I got a call from the adoption agency on August 12, 2004 that I could officially start the process. I never guessed all of the paperwork that was to come. I was able to complete the paperwork and had my dossier logged in China on 12/20/05.
Many things developed during my 2 + year wait. I lost my father to pancreatic cancer in June of 2007, my primary care doctors changed as my former physician couldn't seem to fill out the paperwork correctly. My desire to become a mom became even stronger than before.I received the call on Feb 4th of 2008. I couldn't contain my happiness. I had to wait until the next day to see pictures of her. I cried tears of happiness. My fondest wish was coming true I was a mother. I finally had a face to put to her name. During the wait for travel some misinformation was given to the adoption agency that delayed my approval being sent to China. My travel approval was delayed also. Needless to say once the confusion was cleared up my travel approval arrived. I found out on March 6, 2008 that I would be able to travel with my group and leaving on March 13th. Talk about frantic.My gotcha day is March 17th of 2008 (St Patricks day) I have been blessed and honored and priveledged to be Jocelyn's mama. Getting to see the culture and scenery of where Jocelyn spent the first 11 months of her life was very special and a trip I will never forget and I will be telling Jocelyn the story every chance I get.For updates on Jocelyn and I please visit my blog at http://mamas-china-doll.blogspot.com/

Davis Family Story

On February 4, 2008 at 3:16 p.m. we finally got our referral call. Our daughter, Lily Grace, (Wan Jin Mi) was born on May 17, 2007. When the referral photo was taken, she was 5 months old. She weighed 12 pounds, and she was 25 inches long. At birth, she weighed 6.8 pounds, and she was 19 inches long. Her caretaker wrote in her paperwork, "Wherever little Jin Mi goes, people adore her."

We sent 2 cameras, stuffed animals, clothes, and pictures of ourselves to Lily and her foster Nanny. The following pictures are the ones her Nanny took for us.

This is a picture of the home beside the orphanage which houses the elderly people who become foster parents to most of the children.

This is a picture of the room in the orphanage where the babies slept. We were never told if Lily slept with her foster Nanny or in the orphanage at night. But, we wondered why she would have taken a picture of this room if Lily was never in it.

This shows the back of the Wanzai Social Welfare Institute- orphanage.

The children had a playground at the orphanage. You can see the building for the elderly people in the background.

Lily was found on the day she was born with her umbilical cord still attached. We were told she also had a note, but nothing was given to us. They said she was found right outside the gate of the SWI. We imagine her being left right under the signs with Chinese writing on them. But, we really have no idea of the exact spot outside the gate.

We started our adoption on June 19, 2005 through America World Adoption Agency. We got all of our paperwork completed by November 26th. Our dossier was sent to China on December 2nd. The following picture shows you all of our paperwork laid out before Christmas of 2005.

Then, the true wait began. On January 2, 2008, we missed the CCAA's cut-off by one day! Then, finally, our call came, and we began waiting again- but this time on the package!

Lily's package arrived on Feb. 5th & another wait began! The final wait to go get Lily and bring her home!

Friends helped to keep us busy having baby showers for us during that last waiting period.

We finally left to go get Lily in March. On St. Patrick's Day, we got to meet our beautiful daughter for the first time. It took 3 days for her to completely get used to us. She was beautiful, and the foster Nanny had taken excellent care of her. She was also spoiled rotten already! Our time in China was wonderful, and we cannot wait to take Lily back someday. Now, Lily has been with us for 11 months. She was definitely chosen and made for us by God. There is no doubt that she is our daughter, and she was always meant to be with us. Even though the wait was long, once Lily was placed in our arms- the wait was forgotten. There are a few pictures of our time in China on our blog (http://oneworld--onelove.blogspot.com/), and you can also see updates of Lily's life now.

Our beautiful daughter at 20 months old.

Rizzo Family Story

This is our story..

It began in the summer of 2005 when we decided to adopt our first child from China. We began the paperwork and the wait. We anticipated a 8-10 month wait that turned into a 29 month wait for our referral from China. We can now say that every second of the wait was worth it because it brought us our beautiful daughter Sophia Joy JinTe. We received our referral on May 2, 2008 we were instantly in love with this round faced, dark eyed girl who was named Wan Jin Te.

She was from Wanzai County Social Welfare Institute in Jiangxi, China. We immediately began searching the Internet for information about Wanzai. We were hungry for details and wanted to know anything we could about where our daughter was. We quickly found out that there was not a lot of information available about Wanzai. We found the Wikipedia page and the Wanzai Family Yahoo group that provided us with some connection to Wanzai and families that had adopted from there before us. We were so grateful for that resource but were left with a feeling of wanting more information. Ever since we adopted I have had this desire to help families who will be receiving referrals from Wanzai. I found that much of the information that was out there was quite old and fragmented. I wanted to create a place where all families (families with older children, current families, and those still waiting to travel) could come together and share information about our experiences with the Wanzai program. On June 12 2009 we made our way from Central Florida, USA to Beijing , China. We arrived, checked into our hotel and so started the trip that would change our lives in a remarkable way forever. We embraced this change with every fiber of our being and with overwhelming excitement. For the next 2 1/2 days we toured the Great Wall, Tienanmen Square, and The Forbidden City among other places. Sunday June 15th (Fathers Day in the US) we made our way to the airport and boarded a plane that took us one step closer to our daughter. We were traveling with a group of ten other families. It was a very exciting and emotional time for all of us. In our group of 10 families 7 were about to become first time parents including us. A couple we had become great friends with durnig our 3 year wait was with us and they were about to become first time parents to beautiful twin girls. Excitement was in the air and as we approached Nanchang and began our decent. We could see the sun setting over the Mountains, Rivers, lakes and rice fields. Many of us became very emotional and unable to hold back our tears. It was like no other feeling I had ever had before. Knowing that we were now in the province of our child's birth and that she was not far. What struck many of the families was that what we were seeing would have been our child's life had they not been brought to an Orphanage that participated in the International Adoption Program. With out a doubt what we would see from that point onward would be the life of our child's birth family. We landed in a very rural airport with smelly squatty potty bathrooms. We quickly gathered our luggage and made our hour long bus ride to the hotel in Nanchang. We arrived at the Galactic Peace International Hotel (funny name but nice hotel) hot, tired and excited. This hotel was what we would consider a 5 start hotel. The lobby was marble and shined to a high luster. We checked in and each family made their way to their rooms where they we greeted by the most beautiful sight any first time or waiting parent could want to see. A White Winnie the Pooh Crib, a Mickey Mouse stroller, a Pink Baby Bath tub and and a pink potty chair that looked like a dinosaur. We stood their in that hot dark room and cried tears of joy. We hugged each other and embraced because we knew all of our hopes and dreams of the past 18 years of our marriage were about to come true. We regained our composer and began to ready ourselves and the room for what was about happen in a few hours. Before we knew it was morning and we were ready to go have breakfast, but before we did we share a moment together in our room imagining our life to that point and what it would be like from that moment forward as parents. We went to the breakfast room where the excitement and nervous energy was very apparent. Someone asked Riz if he was nervous and he said "no I am am ready for this lets go".. With in the hour we were gathered in the Lobby with the 10 other families and our agency Representative that we all fondly refer to as Uncle Zhou. We waited there for Uncle Zhou to say OK lets go. When he did we walked across the street to the Nanchang Civil affairs office. We crossed the street like a heard of cattle.Crossing the street in Nanchang, China is a kin to the 1980's video game Frogger. It is an experience all to itself that you will remember forever. We walked down the street and into a hot building. We all crowded onto the elevator not wanting to be left behind for the next one. We entered the room where we would become parents. The furniture was wooden hi lacquer and sat low to the floor much like the furniture we saw in other parts of China. We all paced the floor clutching the lovies we would give to our children as we met them for the first time. In our group of 10 families our children were coming from 7 different orphanages so we had no idea who would arrive first. When the first baby arrived we all rejoiced in that families moment of pure joy. Then we began to pace the floor again waiting our turn. It was about 35 minutes later that the next baby arrived and after that it was like a flood gate had been opened. Sophia arrived in the middle of the group. When we saw her there in a women's arms we did not know we both began to cry. Sophia had been in foster care and we did not know if this was her Foster mother(it was not) or people from the Wanzai SWI. This women and little Wan Jin Te were there with an other women and 2 men from the Wanzai SWI. They were smiling and taking pictures of us and our travel mates were taking pictures of them and capturing each and every moment of this amazing event in our lives. Our daughter was standing in front of us, with in arms reach and we still could not hold her, not yet paperwork had to be checked first. The emotions that surfaced were like none other we had ever felt the tears were over flowing like water over a dam. This was it we were seconds from becoming parents. Then the women motioned to me to take Sophia. I reached out my arms and the women who I did not know and could not communicate with handed me my daughter. It was the most wonderful moment of my life. For Sophia however it was the scariest moment of her life. She was handed to two crying people who looked, smelled and sounded nothing like her. She was alert and aware that something was different. She began to cry and continued to cry for about an hour. She eventually settled down and laid her head on my chest and began to suck her thumb. Once all the families in our group had been united with their children we walked back across the street to the safety of the Galactic Peace international Hotel. We all scattered to our rooms so that we could begin to bond with our children, so that we could get to know one an other and so that we could have our first moments as a new family. Sophia began to cry again and did so on and off for the next 4 days. She would fluctuate between crying and a stoic shut down silence. Sophia would not interact with either of us for much of the first day or two. For us it was a process of learning each other and learning what Sophia needed form us. It was the most wonderful and the hardest time of our lives. I was given the best advice from a friend who told me be there to meet her needs and give her space when she needs it. I did that and it worked it took about 4 or 5 days but Sophia began to trust us and we began to understand what she needed and when she needed it. Uncle Zhou told us not to worry by the time we got to Guangzhou Sophia would be a different baby. He told us keep holding her and loving her and you will see. He was right, by the time we made our way to Guanzhou Sophia was interacting with both of us (she did prefer Riz over me but she would let me care for her). We saw our first laughs and even a few steps before we left China for home. We had the most amazing trip, we had become a family in a matter of a few short weeks. We were in love and excited about what was still to come for us as a family of three.....

Sophia Joy JinTe at our local Chinese new Year celebration 2009