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In September 1987 I married my high school sweetheart; Andy, and we had 1 son in 1989. After Anthony was born for some reason we were unable to conceive another child. For 10 years we struggled through this pain of wondering why this was happening and what we were being punished for. Andy handled the pain with just deciding that he did not want any more children. While I silently prayed every day that one day we would know the joy of having another child. I knew that I wanted Anthony to have a sibling, to not be alone one day when Andy and I were gone from this world. One day in church while I was teaching Sunday school it hit me. God has three answers to all prayers yes, no, and maybe. The maybe meaning that you might have to wait for awhile. I decided to wait for the right time, not to give up but just be patient. Then one day Andy came to me and said he was ready for another child. We had talked in the past about adoption but never checked into it. Andy heard on the radio that there was going to be an Adoption Seminar at the Lexington Mall. We went and sat through hours of lecture. I think the international part was the last one to be spoken about. Andy never sat through this much lecture before. It seemed like when the lady spoke about China, and all the little girls that were in the orphanage it just did something to Andy and me. Neither one of us said anything at the time. We just went back out to the tables and picked up all the pamphlets we could find. On the way home I sorted through all the agencies and found A Helping Hand Adoption Agency who handled China Adoptions. When I showed it to Andy, it was like we knew that this was the agency and the route we were being led to take. There was never a second guess or thought about it. I immediately called and requested an information packet, filled out the application and sent in the money. A Helping Hand took no time at getting things started, our Social Worker called us the first week. While we were finishing up our home study, I was gathering all the paperwork for the dossier. AHH has everything you need listed in their packet and what you need to have done to each document. Finally we were ready to send our dossier off to China. March 17, 2000 was the magic date. Now began the wait or the paper pregnancy. The dossier was sent to the China Center of Adoption Affairs where it would lay for months with other waiting families. When we first started our waiting time was approximately 8 months. Little did we know that there would be a delay, with the number of dossiers the Chinese government were receiving per month. We would not be going to China in Oct. or Nov. like we first thought. This was still God's plan our baby was not born until May 2000 so she was not ready for us. God has the perfect time for everything. The greatest day in our lives came to us on January 25, 2001 when Andy got the call. "Hello new daddy" the voice on the other end of the line said. Andy was so shaken up that he could not even think straight. Finally he got the details of her name: Tan Wen Qian, her birth date, May 24, 2000, where she was from along with height, and weight. He then called me, I immediately left work and we headed to Lexington. Elizabeth was the most beautiful child in the world and God had picked her just for us. We could not wait to hold her. We left for China on March 2, 2001. Arrived in Beijing on March 3, 2001 It was amazing. We could not believe that we were doing something like this. We spent that night and the next day sight seeing in Beijing. We got to see the Great Wall, The Forbidden City, and Tiananmen Square. The next morning we left for Changsha, the place where our daughter was born. Elizabeth arrived a little after 3:00 with her nanny. We were at the Dolton Hotel. I thought I would recognize her but I didn't she had changed so much. Julie, our guide called out Elizabeth's Chinese name and pointed to me. The nanny handed her to me and the feeling that I was having at that moment is impossible to describe. There was immediate eye contact with Elizabeth and me. The nanny said something to her in Chinese and Elizabeth laid her little head on my shoulder. The bond happened at that very moment. God was with us to make the transition easy. Elizabeth was destined to be a mommy's girl. She would not have much to do with Andy or Anthony but she was ok as long Mommy was in sight. The rest of the trip went without a problem. AHH has wonderful staff in China to take great care of you. We arrived back home on March 15th to be greeted by a multitude of family and friends. Elizabeth has not had one minute of trouble adapting to be a Chinese/American girl. - Dawn Barnes
Adopt A Child | Why Us? | Our Families | How to Help 1510 Newtown Pike; Suite 152; Lexington, KY 40511 map © Copyright 2002-2003 A Helping Hand Adoption Agency. All rights reserved. Site design by Loracs Creations, Inc. Disclaimer: This page contains images of children not available for adoption. | ||||||
