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| March 21, 2005 - Tina painted Renée's toenails today, after conferring with Zachary who thought is was an awesome idea. Tina thought she would squirm. But instead she really loved it and sat attentively. Soooo beautiful. Tonight is the first night she is not sleeping in our room. Today, we move her play-n-pack to Zachary and Renée's room. So far, so good. |
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| March 19, 2005 - Renée was able to pull herself to a standing position unassisted. She was also able to stand unassisted for a few seconds. Other than the fact that our little girl is growing up, the ability to stand is quite important. When she gets excited, she likes to clap and clapping with one hand while holding on to dear life with the other does not have the same "ring" to it. So, she would let go, clap really quick and then grab on. |
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| March 18, 2005 - Renée is getting better at crawling and crawled at least 4 feet unassisted. In addition, she is becoming more comfortable with us and can get lost playing while we go about our business - but we still have to be careful about leaving her eyesight. But this looks like the successful beginnings of room time - YES! |
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| March 7, 2005 - Renée crawls multiple steps by herself and sits up on her own (in the crib and on the carpet). And we can be next to her. She is figuring out how fun this can be and she is doing it on her own. The muscles are still weak - but she has the desire. She is developing SOOO fast. She wants to walk SOOO bad. |
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| March 4, 2005 - Renée sits up by herself for the first time. She will do this in her crib/play-n-pack but now where else and she cannot see us. If she sees us, she will cry out asking for help to sit up. |
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| March 3, 2005 - Renée crawls one step for the first time. We have been working with her on crawling by calling her name and by helping her move her upper legs and TONS of praise of every miniscule thing. With her thick clothes, she really never had a chance to develop these muscles and ability. When she wanted to get close to us, she would reach with her hands. If we were too far away, she would roll over on her back and scream angrily. She did not realize that it is even harder to crawl on her back - just ask Zachary who is learning how to do bridges in gymnastics. So, to use, this is a HUGE milestone. |
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| February 16, 2005 - When we received Renée, we received a paper specifying some information about Renée, which our guide Candy translated for us. It reads:
Renée's schedule:
Wakes up at 7:30am
Naps from 1:30 to 3:30pm
Goes to bed in the evening at 8:30pm
Main food is mixture of formula and rice cereal, three times a day (200-250mL each time). With 6-7 spoons of formula and 4-5 spoons of cereal. She drinks this at 7:30am, 8:00pm and 12:30am. She has other food at 8:00am, 12:00pm and 6:00pm, which consists of egg, fish, meat, vegetable, beancurd, noodle, potato and congee.
9:00am, she takes a bath.
10:00-11:00am, she plays outside.
2:00-3:00pm, she watches TV and listens to music.
3:30-6:00, she plays outside
She is a happy girl. She loves animals very much. Especially likes doggie. She always reads books, draws pcitures, plays toys, watchs TV, waves hands when she listens to music. She likes playing outside. She feels very happy when she is out. She can say some simple words like "mama". |
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January 26, 2005 - 21 days until Gottcha Day. 457 days since BAAS Orientation class.
The sick bug has hit our house. Zachary stays home from school. Eric's voice sounds like Barry White (at least he thinks so). |
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January 25, 2005 - 22 days until Gottcha Day. 456 days since BAAS Orientation class.
Renée, watch out because WE ARE GOING TO CHINA!!! We picked up our approved Visas to travel to China today. This is the last bite of formal documentation standing between us and getting Renée. The next set of paperwork is to get Renée's passport and immigrant Visa for her to return to the States. Needless to say, we are happy. However, we are overwhelmed with everything else that must be done before we head to China.
Zachary sleeps with Renée's doll each night. He is SO excited. |
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January 20, 2005 - 27 days until Gottcha Day. 451 days since BAAS Orientation class.
Eric celebrates his 35th birthday.
We submitted our China visa applications today. Also submitted applications for two other families traveling with us.
We finalized our travel itinerary. Wow, we will be busy, but I know it will be well worth it. We are excited that we are able to fly to Arizona after we get Renée so that most of our relatives will be a part of this process. The only real itinerary unknown is when we will be traveling from Chongqing to Guanzhou. |
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January 19, 2005 - 28 days until Gottcha Day. 450 days since BAAS Orientation class.
Zachary did something really cool today. Sometimes, we have wondered how a 6-year old processes getting a new sister. Is he excited or is he just saying he likes it to make us happy? Well, at our Awana program tonight, we have the Awana Store. This is where children can spend Awana dollars that they have earned by making various accomplishments on real toys. There were many things are cool to 6-year olds, like a skate board, basket ball and much much more. And Zachary had quite a few dollars, which he spent solely on a doll for his sister. When he told me about this, we know where he stands - he is thrilled! And that makes us thrilled! |
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January 17, 2005 - 30 days until Gottcha Day. 448 days since BAAS Orientation class.
Eric and Tina get second Hepatitis B shot. |
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January 2, 2005 - 45 days until Gottcha Day. 433 days since BAAS Orientation class.
Meeting with China coordinator Xiaoqing. This was a great meeting where we started to see an outline of our itinerary when in China. We also learned more of what we need to do before we can leave. We have to get a Visa to enter China, need to withdrawl crisp $100 to pay various fees, and need to make various purchases. It is overwhelming but exciting as we can continue to do tasks to help our adoption - we are no longer drifting is the sea of waiting! Before we can purchase our airline tickets, we have to wait for a confirmation of our Travel Assignment. Once this is oked, our dates will be locked in and we can travel. |
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December 24, 2004 - 424 days since BAAS Orientation class.
Mailed a care-package to Renée in Fuling, China. It includes a disposable camera with instructions (in Chinese) for the caregivers to take pictures of Fu Ai Jun (as they know her) and her caregivers and environment. It also included fruit tea for the caregivers and a few small toys for the children. |
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December 23, 2004 - Added Renée Aì Jun's history to this news archive and delisted the original photo:
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December 20, 2004 - 420 days since BAAS Orientation class.
From email of original announcement: And her name shall be called:
Renée
Aì
Jun
Chester
(the U is to have a bar over it, but my email does not like it).
A couple of notes:
1. While these special characters show the precise pronunciation of her name, it is ok to omit the accent and tonal marks. All Tina asks is that you do not call her A.J. ;-)
2. We do not expect perfect pronunciation. We give the pronunciation as an aid.
3. Renée has an accent and Aì Jun have show the two tones.
Renée - pronounced Ren-Ae - the accent on the E makes the E stronger than the R, and thus makes the pronunciation of her name softer (which we feel better blends with the soft-toned Aì).
Renée is of French origin and means to be Reborn. Though most of the info seems to be focused on spiritual rebirth, it seems fitting as she will be "reborn" into our family.
Aì - pronounced like the English word EYE. The Mandarin 4th tone means that your voice goes from a high-tone to a low-tone.
Aì is Mandarin for love. This name which was given to her by the orphanage seems very appropriate, as one is Reborn with Love.
Jun - pronounced with the J from the word June. The UN is more like a German UN sound, where the N sound is very short. The line above the U is a 1st tone, meaning that you hold the same tone as you say the whole word.
Jun is Mandarin for Bamboo Skin. We have yet to understand why this is so culturally significant and a preferred girls name. But we like it.
As for Chester, do we really need to go there????
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December 18, 2004 - 418 days since BAAS Orientation class.
Received a "formal" translation of our referral from Xiaoqing. Click here to read the referral. Also, found a cool website called Fuling Kids
International!. It is a website for those who have Adopted from the Chongqing Fuling First Social Welfare Institute. |
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December 17, 2004 - 1 days estimated until we receive our referral. 417 days since BAAS Orientation class.
With one day to spare in our 6 month estimation window, we received our referral from the CCAA!!! Tina called BAAS today to find that they had received the referral but they hadn't called due to a funeral service which they were attending. Tina was able to drive down, pick up the letter and drive back in time for Zachary's Christmas party at his school PRINTS. When Tina was driving down, she felt like she was "in labor". When Tina called Eric, her first words were "I will be with her for her first birthday!" Zachary was the second Chester to see her picture. His response was typical Zachary - he shook with excitement and said "She's cute!". When I arrived at Zachary's school, the teacher's ushered me to Tina so that I could see the referral. I wondered if they were excited for me or if that wanted me to see the picture so that they could - Tina required that all her Chester's saw the picture first. The teacher then helped translate the referral document, which was in Chinese.
From email of original announcement:
Her estimated birthday is February 20,2004 so she is 10 months old. The attached pictures were taken when she was 8 months old. So I don't "babble" on and on like a new Mom, here are the few things we know about her:
- She does not have any known medical problems.
- At 6 months she weighed 7 kg (which translates to 15.4 lbs.) and was 62 cm long (24.4").
- Her Chinese name is Fu Ai Jun. Fu is actually the last name. Ai means love. And Jun is a name that just given to girls.
- She was abandoned in front of a Hospital at approx. 2 days old. There was nothing attached to her by her birth mom so they estimated her birth date by her weight etc.
- She is at the Fuling The First Social Welfare Institute in the city of Chongqing {actually she is in the city of Fuling}.
God's timing is always right! I was able to pick up her picture and information right before Zachary's Christmas presentation, so his Chinese teachers could translate the information for us. (I didn't think about all the information being in Chinese!) Our coordinator has translated it for us as well and sent it via email. We just haven't been home yet! :) |
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December 16, 2004 - 2 days estimated until we receive our referral. 416 days since BAAS Orientation class.
Tina called Xiaoqing tonight since we are both very curious on the status of the referral. The package was in HongKong yesterday and arrived in San Francisco today. If all goes as planned, it will be at BAAS tomorrow morning. |
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December 14, 2004 - 4 days estimated until we receive our referral. 414 days since BAAS Orientation class.
Xiaoqing called this evening to explain that a wrong code on the package resulted in its being returned to Beijing. This morning, they put the letter back on the plane. Her best guess is that we will get the package on Friday. If it arrives after 3pm, we will get it the following Monday, as our adoption agency BAAS closes at 3pm. Xiaoqing said that this issue has never happened before. The emotions in San Bruno are cloudy with a chance of tears. But we rejoice that this issue was easily resolved! |
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December 13, 2004 - 5 days estimated until we receive our referral. 413 days since BAAS Orientation class.
Well, it appears that "the package" was mailed back to China for a yet-to-be-known reason. China put the referral in the mail last thursday. It arrived at San Francisco on the 11th. But today, it was sent back. The adoption coordinator is looking into this. So, we still have no picture, name, etc. For some reason, God wants us to wait a few more days. The good news is that we are still ahead of schedule. The Dec 18th milestone marks the 6 months since we had sent our Dossier to China. Though this is a small setback, it is one where we are still ahead of schedule. Thanks for your prayers. |
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December 12, 2004 - 6 days estimated until we receive our referral. 412 days since BAAS Orientation class.
Just received a call from the China adoption coordinator Xiaoqing that tomorrow "might be the day" we receive our referral. Obviously, we are excited AND patient. |
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December 11, 2004 - 7 days estimated until we receive our referral. 412 days since BAAS Orientation class.
Baby shower... |
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December 1, 2004 - 17 days estimated until we receive our referral. 401 days since BAAS Orientation class.
From email: When Tina returned from picking Zachary up from school, there was a message on our answering machine from our Chinese Coordinator Xiaoqing. She talked with China last night and our file is being matched up right now with our little girl. She thinks we should have our referral in the next 2 weeks!! Full Of Emotions...... Tina. |
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| November 25, 2004 - 21 days estimated until we receive our referral. Grandma and Grandpa Chester, Uncle Ryan and his girlfriend Roo fly out to San Bruno for Thanksgiving. We ambitiously hoped to celebrate our Thankfulness at receiving a referral. While the referral did not come, we did have a lot of fun with the Chesters. |
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| November 16, 2004 - 32 days estimated until we receive our referral. One month to go. |
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| November 8, 2004 - 40 days estimated until we receive our referral. Decide on a Baby Shower invite list, which is set for Saturday December 11th. |
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| October 30, 2004 - 49 days estimated until we receive our referral. From email: I have a little more information on our adoption that I am thrilled to pass on (I "cling" to every little bit that I get).
I spoke with the other couple that we will be traveling with this afternoon. Their names are Jeff & Barbara Holmes. They too have biological children who will also be traveling with them. A son who is 3 1/2, Tucker, and a daughter who is 5 1/2, Kendal. What a treat this will be for Zachary to have "playmates". They are hoping that their niece (22yrs old) will be traveling with them as well who will assist with their kids. They live in Los Gatos which is south of us about 45min - 1 hour. We plan to get together after we receive our referrals.
The process is running approx. 1 month ahead of schedule so we should be receiving our referral by the end of November and then traveling to China
the middle of January. It looks like we will be celebrating Eric's birthday abroad! This also tentatively puts us in Phoenix the end of January/beginning of February.
The other woman who will be traveling with us (I don't have her name) lives in Vacaville (approx. 2 hours north) and is adopting her second child.
I was also able to find out the name of the Province of where our baby girl will come from.... Chongqing. There are 3 orphanages there each within 50 miles of each other. We will not know which orphanage until we receive our referral. I continue to wait patiently (at least I am trying) for the arrival of our referral. Tina. |
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| September 21, 2004 - 88 days estimated until we receive our referral. The wait is quite borring. But last Saturday, we received a letter from the U.S. Consulate General from Guangzhou. Though it just provides information about what to do when in Guangzhou (a 6+ million person city just north of Hong Kong), it does show that someone somewhere is invisibly processing our paper work. I don't think we have been this excited to receive government forms. In other news, we have proved that "nesting" is a mom-thing and has little to nothing to do with the chemical changes due to pregancy. Tina is entering "nesting" mode. |
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| August 20, 2004 - Fu Ai Jun can sit by herself. She turns her head to look at you if she hears noises. She can hold toys very tightly in her hands. She has started to have stranger anxiety. She liked to play with other people and liked to be held. As soon as you play with her, she would give you a sweet big smile, with her eyes closed. She could also giggle out load. She likes to sit in the walker, and move around inside and outside. Her crying and laughter all make sense. She is very lovely. |
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| July 21, 2004 - 150 days until we receive our referral - at least that is the current estimate of 6 months after our dossier was sent to China. We are finding this wait to be difficult. When we were pregnant with Zachary, we could see the daily growth of Tina's tummy, the nausea and the frequent and aggressive trips to the restroom. With adoption, there is no daily or weekly change. There is no paperwork to do. There is not really anything we can purchase, because we do not know her age yet. There's immunizations - but we are holding off for obvious reasons. We can read the news from China, but it does not help. A massive flood is in central China due to the typhoon that came through - they say our daughter is somewhere is central China, but we do not know if she is impacted. In addition, China and Taiwan are flexing there military muscle as Taiwan wants to declare its independence from China. China is preparing for conflict against aircraft carriers (a.k.a. USA carriers arriving in protection of Taiwan). This conflict could force the US to choose sides. Would the adoption process be immune to any military conflict between China and the US? Thus is the referral waiting game. Though I believe we are doing a good job of giving our concerns to God, this hopefully presents a picture of what we are feeling. Thanks for praying. |
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| July 20, 2004 - Fu Ai Jun could sit up from a lying position if you pull her hands. She could hold her head steadily. |
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| July 1, 2004 - 170 days estimated until we receive our referral. We have just received confirmation that our documents were received and being processed by the CCAA! Unfortunately, this is because the US CIS department did not send their approval documentation to China. We thought they had sent it, but after rereview found that we had misread their CIS letter. We have mailed a letter of approval to the CIS to send their approval to the CCAA. |
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| June 20, 2004 - 181 days estimated until we receive our referral. Next steps. Now, we will begin to prepare for a trip to China - immunizations and the like. Once we receive our referral, we have 4-5 weeks to get travel visas, wrap up the paperwork and travel to China. So please pray that we will complete all of those loose ends now, for it will be nearly impossible after the referral comes. Now that I have time to reflect on this process, it seems like God has made the task difficult enough for us to have to fight for our daughter but not so impossible as to cause us to quit. And this fight has raised our love for our daughter even though we have not met her yet. When one fights for something, one holds it tighter than one who has not fought for it. For example, the current generation does not understand a WWII vet's passion for the United States. In our case, it seems like this fight is by God's design. Trusting Him...
Fu Ai Jun could hold a rattle and could roll over. |
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| June 18, 2004 - 183 days estimated until we receive our referral. Our dossier has been translated and has been sent to the CCAA. Now, there is literally nothing we can do to alter the time it will take to receive our referral. Earlier, Xiaoqing had found a few minor issues which Tina mainly had to clean up (at this time I was crushed with a big project at work - working 82 hours that week), such as doctor did not circle something on a form. Xiaoqing was ahead of schedule so when we mailed our changes earlier in the week, she was ready to send in the dossier. She told us that CCAA was responding faster - that people who had sent dossiers to CCAA in December already had referrals. Thus, we still have a chance of having our miracle by Christmas. |
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| May 28, 2004 - We are Authentic!!!! Can anyone read Chinese? The authentication documentation is only in Chinese. We have sent our dossier to Xiaoqing Cai (pronounced shaow-ching kai), our China Adoption Coordinator to translate our dossier into Mandarin, the official Chinese language of China. From now on, she will be our representative in China and will work directly with the China Center of Adoption Affairs (CCAA), the governing body for Chinese adoptions. Xiaoqing states that it will take about 1 month to translate. |
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| May 25, 2004 - Phew... all of our documents are Certified. On to the Chinese consulates to have our documents authenticated. Authentication is where a federal-level statement that the document is correct. China requires all documents to be authenticated before they consider them authentic and the consulate only recognizes certified documents. Our California-based documents have to be sent to the consulate in San Francisco and our Arizona-based documents to Los Angeles. |
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| May 20, 2004 - On Wednesday May 19th, scrambled to get our last documents notarized. Today, Tina and Eric travel to Sacramento to get our 12 California-based documents Certified. All certification does is to state that each notary is valid and that the notary is currently licensed. We were nervous that there would be a paper-problem and would require us to return to Sacramento. Certification took us only 15 minutes to get these documents certified. I calculate that the state of California had just earned about $2000 per hour. In contrast, we mailed our two Arizona-based document for certification. It will take Arizona two days - this translates to about $0.20 per hour. Based on this "study", it is not clear why California is in debt. I would have to be pretty poor with my funds to be in-dept earning $2000 per hour. All said, this process was very smooth - again we are thankful that the Lord is carefully walking us through this process.
While being held, Fu Ai Jun's head was sturdy. She would smile at you and also follow other moving people with her eyes. She could hold other people's hands. |
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| May 13, 2004 - Not so fast... The events of April flew by so fast that we had inadvertently fallen behind in other tasks - namely we had to meet with our adoption agency's Overseas Program Counselor. Tina met with her today - a nice lady. But she gave us a lot of homework which we knew nothing about - each new document must be notarized. Our guess is that the newness of this homework is due to changes in China's adoption policy. We are hoping to be able to finish it by the end of the month. |
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| May 10, 2004 - Zachary celebrates his 6th birthday. |
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| April 27, 2004 - Another miracle. Today, we have received both our Federal Fingerprint Clearance and BCIS approval! Instead of waiting 2 months to receive both approvals, we received the approval letter in 7 days, which means that the only thing holding up our BCIS approval was the FBI Clearance. Obviously, the BCIS had begun processing our I-600A form which was submitted on 02/09/2004 (Eric's brother's birthday - Ryan). In one month, we have received approval from both our agency and the U.S. government. |
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| April 20, 2004 - Today, we had our Federal Fingerprint check. Eric returned early as planned from Germany (4/19/2004) and checked our mail. In addition to a copy of our notarized Homestudy packet, we received authorization to have our FBI fingerprinting done in San Francisco. On Friday the day after Tina and Zachary returned from Germany, Eric dragged them (jet-lagged and all) to get Eric and Tina's fingerprints. We were amazed - we were expecting our poor DMV (department of motor vehicles) environment. All fingerprinting was performed by electronic scanning. Everyone was up-beat and helpful. I was able to find out why Tina's hands are always sweaty - because her hand is packed with sweat pores. We were there maybe 20 minutes. It is estimated that we will have to wait about 2 months to hear whether the BCIS has approved us.
Fu Ai Jun limbs moved a lot. After waking up, she would kick the comforter and wave both hands, when playing with her, she would smile and make "gu gu" sound. She could raise her head to 90 degree while lying on her stomach. |
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| April 5, 2004 - While visiting our friends the Paquettes in Unterammergau, Bavaria, Germany (04/01/2004 - 04/22/2004), we received e-mail notification that our homestudy packet was completed and that our adoption agency approved us. Our notarized Homestudy packet was sent to the BCIS. Now, we wait for the United States government to authorize our FBI fingerprints. We definitely see a pattern of hurry-up and wait. |
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| March 20, 2004 - Fu Ai Jun liked to look at bright places. After being fed, she would stretch a little and move her little mouth a little. She could raise her head to a 45 degree while lying on her stomach. She also could notice grown-ups faces. |
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| March 8, 2004 - Full Speed Ahead!!! All systems are Go. The agency/social worker are ok with Tina's illness. We have filed with the CIS (formerly the BCIS, formerly the INS, ...) and are now in the fog of waiting. The next steps are for our social worker to file the completed homestudy with the CIS and for the CIS to approve our FBI Fingerprinting. Though already tired of waiting, we are grateful that God has allowed us to continue this far through the process. And we are thankful for all who have helped through prayer, support and tasks, such as writing the letter of references. |
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| February 27, 2004 - We received our United States passports today. |
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| February 22, 2004 - Fu Ai Jun was found today in front of the gate of the Fuling District No. 1 Social Welfare Institute. She was lying in a bamboo backpack, wearing a grey cotton coat and pants, wrapped in a blanket. No notes were found attached to her. The Institute named her. |
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| February 21, 2004 - We completed the Homestudy. Our second study was suddenly cancelled when a person did not return the social worker's office keys. The social worker was so apologetic that she allowed us to hold Homestudies 2, 3 and 4 during one long session today, which saved us two weeks! |
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| February 20, 2004 - Fu Ai Jun was believed to be born today, according to the Fuling District No. 1 Social Welfare Institute. |
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| February 17, 2004 - Tina celebrates her 32nd birthday. |
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| February 9, 2004 - Submitted the form 1-600A for Orphan Petition and supporting documentation to the BCIS. |
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| February 3, 2004 - The process of getting the adoption agency to accept us with Tina's illness history is a successful but very slow process. The social worker believes that Tina's psych eval is acceptable - but has not committed to accepting it. She is currently meeting with Tina's care givers. This has been further delayed by doctors who have taken vacation days without first receiving our approval. :-) Though this process is slower than we would like, we have seen God at work - in a way, He has placed us in a position where we have no choice but to trust Him. Besides, if our adoption process had not "stalled", we probably would not have accepted the role of Sparks Director at our church's Awana program. I liken this change to Jabez's prayer of "expand my territory", because one never knows where your territory will be expanded. This Thursday, we meet with the doctors to get our medical physical papers notarized - the complexity is notarizing the doctor's signature. |
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| January 24, 2004 - Passport photos were taken today of Eric, Tina and Zachary. |
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| January 20, 2004 - Medical Physical completed for Tina and Eric, who turned 34 today. |
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| January 11, 2004 - Received positive news from our social worker today. After checking with her supervisor, they do not feel that Tina's illness should prevent the Homestudy from continuing - contingent on two tasks: they want to check with Tina's doctors/care givers and they want to have Tina perform a psychological evaluation. Tina is hoping she can use the psych eval from 2002. We are thankful to God for this positive step in this long process! |
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| December 30, 2003 - Our Pre-Homestudy visit was today. We answered many questions, and some took time to answer since the social worker does not have a background on this topic. All in all, we felt it went well. The social worker offered her concerns, the primary of which was how would China respond to a perspective parent with this diagnosis. Now, we wait for another phone call. Thanks to Mom and Dad Chester as they watched Zachary much of the day. |
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| December 23, 2003 - Received a call from our social worker that there is great concern over our abilities to parent an international orphan with Tina's seizures. Based on what we had heard from our adoption agency, this caught us by surprise. We are requesting prayer as we face this challenge. But this raises an interesting question - how do we prove to our agency and the U.S. and China's governments our abilities to parent an additional child over a year from now based on our current state? In our hearts, we feel that we can succeed at it - but as for the "selling", God will have to open their hearts if this is the path He wants for us. Our next step is to have a Pre-Homestudy meeting with our social worker on December 30, 2003. |
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| December 22, 2003 - Received Live Scan clearance - California Department of Justice Fingerprint Clearance and Child Abuse Index Check. |
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| December 6, 2003 - Attend BAAS Pre-Adopt class. This opened the paperwork flood gates, while giving an order to the chaos. Submitted Family Description to BAAS. |
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| October 28, 2003 - Submit application to BAAS. |
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| October 27, 2003 - Attend BAAS Orientation class. Afterwards, decide to apply with BAAS. |
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| September 2003 - Interact with adoptive parents from Zachary's school. We agree that we would like to adopt a daughter from China. We decide to look at BAAS - Bay Area Adoptive Services. |
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| August 2003 - Tina becomes serious about her desire to adopt internationally. |
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| September 5, 2002 - Eric first seriously became interested in international adoption. Contacted former manager/sponsor Kathrin who had adopted two children internationally. She was able to give a foundation upon which I could start researching. |
