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Our Family's Journey To China |
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(Best viewed with Microsoft Explorer) |
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Rob, Matthew and Patti at our friend's cottage in Muskoka in July, 2000. Our dossier has just been completed and sent to FOI and our long wait begins. |
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The Longest Journey Starts with a Single Step |
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This is Rob, Patti and Matthew's story of our journey to adopt a baby girl from China. We live in Ontario, Canada, just outside Toronto. When I was searching the net for adoption stories, I could hardly find any that were both Canadian and detailed. I decided that I would remedy this situation, when I wrote our own.
Matthew was our miracle baby. After eight years of marriage, I was unexpectedly pregnant and everything went smoothly. After he was born in 1995 and we discovered the joy of being parents, we decided if we could do it once, we could do it again. Of course, it didn't work out that way. After months of cycle monitoring and heavy-duty fertility drugs, I had five miscarriages. We decided to accept the inevitable-- Matthew was never going to have a sister or brother.
I had been to several different international adoption seminars with friends while I was still trying to have another biological baby, but hadn't committed to adopting myself. Then my best friend started the process to adopt from China and it was like a lightbulb went on in my head. When she told us how she and her husband would finance it, we knew then that we could actually do it. When I asked Matthew if he would like to have a baby sister from China, his response was: "Yes Mommy. I can't play by myself all the time you know."
After receiving absolutely glowing recommendations from former clients we contacted, we registered with Family Outreach International in Ottawa and started the process. We had a lovely social worker and even though legislation changes in Ontario governing international adoption were occurring, and our home study took longer than usual, it was actually a pretty painless process to assemble our dossier. We had our first appointment with the social worker in January 2000 and our dossier went to China on August 13, 2000. The first step of our journey had been taken. |
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To join the Yahoo Group for Canadians adopting from China: |
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Matthew, showing a former colleague's son how to fish in the pond, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Aug. 3/00. Our friends who own this bed-and-breakfast were waiting for their daughter from Guatemala. |
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For information on Family Outreach International, click on their web site. You won't be disappointed!
www.familyoutreach.com |
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A Canadian Experience |
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When I started investigating stories on the internet written by families who had adopted from China, I noticed something immediately: there weren't very many Canadian accounts and the ones that existed were not very detailed. I read hundreds of journals, including one from Canada, by a couple who had used Family Outreach International, but again, although there were lovely photos, there was very little specific information. Ironically, I could rattle off all kinds of facts about the White Swan Hotel-- famous for Americans who often stay there for the second week with their children while they have appointments at the U.S. consulate, etc., and I'd discovered some interesting facts about the city in which the U.S. consulate was located, but there were no details about hotels Canadians traditionally used in Beijing-- where our consulate happens to be-- and where we will stay for the second week of our trip. I suppose I could have just fired off some questions by email to F.O.I., but I wanted to read first-hand, descriptive stories from the point of view of adoptive parents. My month-to-month diary of our process in Ontario starts on the next page. |
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