Introductions

You probably already know us- if you've followed us from our old blog- but if you've stumbled on us lately here's a little background. I'm a (er, older) single mom with four children, all from China. I was very lucky, though I didn't know it at the time, to go into China adoption at the right time. I submitted my first paperwork in 1997 with CCAI and adopted my oldest (Kim) in 1998. We were a great little unit of mom and daughter and then I started to feel that Kim would benefit from a sister- someone from the same background. One mom and one daughter was a small family- especially when my 3 siblings didn't have children so there were no cousins to play with. So I submitted new paperwork in 2000- the same year my mother was tragically killed while conducting census data collection for Census 2000. In our last conversation she said she was glad I was getting Kim a sister. Sadly Kim was the only one of my children she met. I brought Corey home in January 2002 at 15 months of age.

Her arrival did not go as smoothly as I'd hoped. Although a non-special needs adoption she was very sick in China and (we found out much later) had a 40% hearing loss in both ears that hindered her language development. She hated me and Kim on sight and, the opposite of Kim, was a strong willed and loud child. Still, eventually we got her medical issues dealt with (I think she had at least 4 surgeries to deal with the hearing loss) and spent 2 years in speech therapy and she grew hair and emerged a smart, beautiful, outgoing and talkative child.

And life was going along smoothly with two beautiful girls and then I got a nice raise and thought- hmm, what can I do with this extra $10,000? And having totally forgot what chaos Corey had thrown our household into, I decided to take a look at yet another adoption.

I found Alia on a special needs list with IAAP (I totally recommend this agency by the way). She had a heart defect. She was an exquisitely beautiful girl and I felt blessed to be chosen as her mom. I traveled alone (no companions) to Xian to pick her up in December 2004. Luckily Alia was in a very good orphanage, run by a western Christian charity, and she had lots of opportunities compared to my first two. I got a photo album of her time in the orphanage that included visits to parks, Christmas activities, and even eating fries at Kentucky Fried Chicken! So then we were a family of 4.

And all was well. Then about 6 months after I brought Alia home a friend asked me to help her find a special needs baby on the adoption lists and I went looking. I did find one for her. And I also found this entirely cute little 2 year old boy with a repaired heart defect who was smiling in every photo.I couldn't believe he hadn't been adopted. What a charmer. I kept going back and looking at his information, convinced each time that there would be a "reserved" tag on his photo. But weeks went by and all the other kids on the list were being taken and he was still waiting. And I was convinced that there was NO WAY the adoption agency would even consider a single mom with 3 kids a good candidate for his family...so, being quite sure I'd get the royal brush-off I placed an inquiry. The response? OF COURSE THEY'D LOVE IT IF I ADOPTED HIM! Ooops!

So... In February 2006, Kim, Corey, my sister and I all headed back to China and on Valentine's day I got my little sweetheart. And as I tell people I found out my limit was 3 by adopting my 4th!

Now- I won't say I regret any of these adoptions. How could I when I've been blessed with such smart, beautiful, capable children and when I think where they (and I) might have been. But even with all the adoption preparation courses you take, the books you read, the lists you belong to for advice and information, the earlier kids you parent... I don't know that you can be adequately prepared to be a single mom of 4 kids! Hence the 'Adventures' of our family!