We are a family of 8 about to become a family of 9. We have set up this website for our family and friends to follow our adoption of Tao Ying who is 6 years old and is in Zunyi City, Peoples Republic of China. I imagine you are already asking why this large of a family and still growing? Well we'll skip that question and save it for last. I feel there needs to be a long story before the answer. Claude and I were married in Sept of 1992, and we blended our families into one. We both feel that we have been so fortunate with our sons accepting each other as brothers and our family being so fortunate in health, jobs, and families. Claude and I had talked about wanting children together, biological children, but I am a diabetic and the Dr's said, "Hey, you have four boys, the health issues etc..." and we did agree...so we decided to enjoy our sons, and went on with life. At a convention we were at in Jan of 2004, a customer of mine shared photos of her new little girl and was explaining to me about overseas adoption. Claude walked up and saw the pictures and by the time we had finished the 4-hour drive home, we were convinced that we also wanted to pursue adoption. We took great care in selecting an adoption agency. We did this by asking for references from other families who have adopted. At the same time, we learned about the special needs, or waiting child program that China has. With all of this information we then sat and wrote an e-mail addressed to our four sons, then ages 28, 26, 24 and 24, which explained that we wanted this to be a family decision, and that we wanted to ask them the following questions: Would they be able to accept a sibling the same as they had each other, as brothers? If something happened to either of us could they accept having a sibling to take care of? We also wrote that with great care and consideration, we decided to adopt a special needs child. All four boys either called or e-mailed back right away basically saying "Why haven't we already done this?" Our next step was calling Christian World Adoption and asking if they had any children available on their current special needs list. There were three. We opened the file of a little girl that was approx. one year old or so in the photo. Her name was Lue Jia Xin, and her special need is Microtia (small ear). We closed her file, and looked at other children, but we already knew that Jia Xin was ours...that Red Thread...That God knows every child's parents...Carol at CWA said they had prayed and prayed for Jia Xin's forever parents to find her. We traveled as a group of 6 to bring this little thing home, Claude, my father and his friend, and Grammie Carolyn. We choose our children's names using family names. Kate is named after our sons Kristphoer, Andy, Thomas (Alex) and Eric. Kate's adoption was in Aug of '04 and she is from Hanzhong, Shaanxi province, China and she has a special need called Microtia. Fast forward 6 months from Kate's adoption and we received an e-mail that said "Are you looking to adopt again?" and "We thought of your family as we know you adopted a little girl with Microtia" and so we were introduced to Nan Min Lan, age 44 months. The agency that she was with was Family Tree Adoption. Min Lan also has Microtia but this time we were sure we were working with a hearing loss as Min Lan's ear canals were both reported as closed. We still felt comfortable knowing this, asked for her file and yes, we felt she was ours. How do we feel this? How do we know? I simply do not know, I leave this in God's hands. We adopted Min Lan in Oct '05. Claude and Kate stayed home while my sister Carrie, my good friend, Carolyn, and I went to China to bring her home. We used Adeline Min Lan as her English name, naming her after my mom, Mildred Adeline. We call her Addie and she is from Nanchuan, Chongqing District, China. This webpage was created by Our Adoption Stories Copyright © 2006 DHTML Scripts by Dynamic Drive