After just shy of a year of waiting, our three new Haitian kids were escorted home to us on October 5, 2006. We'd visited them once in October of 2005, and again in April/May of 2006, and this really helped us not to go stir-crazy during the long wait. Haiti can be a trying program because of frequent changes in the process, but being able to visit is a wonderful perk that isn't an option in many international adoption programs. I don't think we could have survived the year without being able to spend time with our children! On the flip side, having to leave your children behind and go home after a wonderful week together is no walk in the park. But the memories, pictures and video we... more

Shortly after we returned home with Sofie, we began thinking about adopting “just one more time” and began to consider various options. With our family size, we were somewhat limited, but we looked into domestic adoption (we’d already had two failed domestic adoptions – more about that later), Taiwan, Mongolia and Viet Nam (which was then rumored to be reopening eventually). We decided that since we weren’t in a big hurry, we might as well wait for things in Viet Nam to get going again. We mailed off our agency application and sat back to settle in with Sofie.

In August, we heard about a sibling group of three from Haiti who needed an LDS home. We’d been told that Haiti wasn’t... more

We’d gotten such a strong witness that Sofie was to be our child that we felt a surge of faith and optimism. We knew she’d be coming home to us, and we got right to work taking the necessary steps to make that happen.

Then came the news: China said no.

Through our adoption coordinator, our facilitator encouraged us not to lose hope and promised he’d keep trying. In the meantime, we fasted, we prayed, we attended the temple. And they still said no.

Things at the CCAA had gotten so strict that they issued a statement to all adoption agencies that they would make NO exceptions for larger family adoption, and that the agencies weren’t to ask or they would risk receiving... more

We’ve heard a lot about adoptions by Angelina Jolie and Madonna recently, but you may be interested to know that a “famous” LDS couple welcomed a new addition into their family just last week. Utah Governor Jon Huntsman and his wife, Mary Kaye, met their new one-year-old daughter Asha, in India on December 19th. The Huntsmans now have seven children, including Gracie Mei whom they previously adopted from China. You can read more about their adoption here.

Adoptions... more

On October 4, 2002, we received The Call. Somewhere in the province of Jiangxi, in the People’s Republic of China, was a tiny six-month-old baby girl named Feng Yun Gui, and she was ours. The previous fourteen months of waiting melted away, and the next two were spent preparing ourselves and our children for what was about to take place. Bags were packed and childcare was arranged, and on December 4 - two months to the day since we received our referral - we boarded a plane headed for China.

You can see our very own “gotcha” moment here, should your heart desire. It certainly showcases that wonderful moment... more

When we took that first step, neither of us could know how just how many potholes, hills, exits, traffic jams and accidents there would prove to be on that road, or how many beautiful and amazing sights we’d see along the way!

Our dossier went to China in late August 2001 after five months of loving preparation. The very next month, we received devastating news. My husband was losing his job. The ENT physician he was working with had quit, and the hospital didn’t think my husband’s job as an audiologist was safe without an ENT on staff. Because it’s a small hospital, they had no idea how long it would take to recruit another.

We had just hawked everything that wasn’t... more

My husband and I first entered the world of adoption in early 2001. We had a seven-year old, five-year-old, and two-year-old twins at the time, and we began to feel there might be another child for our family. Because I had experienced very difficult pregnancies (for more information about my particular problem, you can read about Cholestasis of Pregnancy here), and because we had recently moved to a smallish town with little specialized health care, we had a pre-pregnancy visit with a local obstetrician to discuss whether another pregnancy was a smart idea. Much to my delight, he was familiar with my diagnosis and alleviated my fears about the level... more