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