We saw her face for the first time on the Waiting Child list in July 2009. Six weeks later we went to committee and found out we were matched with her. Then the paper chase began!

Abandoned on Feb.12 2001 near the Nanfang Hospital, Bai Jieya was  found by common people who immediately called the police. The Tonghe police station of Baiyun District then tried to find her birth parents who, after a long search, could not be located.

She  was then brought to Guangzhou City Social Welfare Institute dressed in a white floral coat and wrapped in a red blanket.

Read The Yarger Family’s blog posts from China!……

Learn more about the Journey of Hope program!

Would I recognize the girls? Will Tara make friends? These were some of the thoughts twirling around in my mind as we drove to Boulder, Colorado for the reunion of our China travel group, Guangdong 5-06. Had it been four years since our journey to China? I remembered meeting most of the parents in our group in Beijing in 2006 during orientation. All of the parents had an expectant aura about them. We were shown recent photos of the girls and even though the girls had grown so much since they were last photographed, each of the parents recognized their daughter instantly. The bond had already formed.

In 2008, our group had a two-year reunion in Chicago, but unfortunately my family was unable to attend. So it would be four years since I had seen the girls. I tried to go through the images of the babies we had seen at the hotel in Guangzhou. We were only together for 12 days but went through so much in just a short time— the joys, the crying, the sleepless nights, the endless paperwork and the outstanding Holt staff support.

When we finally made it to Boulder for the reunion, we walked in and instantly recognized our group. It took me a few minutes, but I started to recognize the girls. Although they had changed tremendously, the early personalities I had seen in China gave them all away. Four years had not changed the shy smile, the twinkling in the eyes, the certain exasperated look. I could not stop a few tears of joy at the sight of these beautiful, happy and adorable girls.

Tara made friends immediately and we spent the next two days going shopping, sightseeing and having a blast. It was with a heavy heart that we drove away from Boulder, but with the hope of seeing them again perhaps in two years. Tara still talks about her sisters from China and is making plans for our next reunion. I hope that the bond these girls have will continue to grow and will be a source of strength to them as they mature and navigate through life.

Have you ever reunited with your travel group?  Share your story with our managing editor, e-mail her here.

After six months of beginning to assemble a dossier for China, we became discouraged by the wait times and decided that adopting a child from Mongolia may be a better option.  After much time and expense, our agency sent our completed dossier to Mongolia. Many months passed without much information.  Then, one night, we were told that our agency would no longer be handling adoptions in Mongolia.

It was hard to describe how we felt at the time–stunned, depressed.

Three months later we realized that we still wanted to have a little girl, and our hearts were set on a toddler. We considered domestic adoption, investigated it with our social worker and came to the realization that we could adopt an infant, but there would be many unknowns.

After considering this for a time, we decided that we wanted to adopt a young girl with minor special needs from China. We were told that the wait times for these children are much shorter. After all of this time we had come full circle!  Deciding on the needs that we were willing to accept for our family was not easy. After much deliberation and investigation, we informed Holt that a child with bilateral or unilateral cleft lip and palate would be a good fit for our family.

Our referral came through in record time!  When we finally arrived in China, our guide took us to the Social Welfare office to meet Kate and have the “hand off”.  Of course we had seen many heart warming hand offs on the Internet, but ours was a little different.  Lisa and I were all tears of joy to meet “Chun-Chun” (pronounced Chew-in-Chew-in).  She, however, wanted nothing to do with us.  She wailed each time someone pointed to us and said “Ba-Ba, Ma-Ma”.  Finally, I took her in my lap and tried to console her.  She just went limp and wailed at the ceiling.

The next two weeks really put Lisa and me to the test.  There were many tears, and we felt really inadequate…but I’d do it all again in a heartbeat.

Today Kate is a vivacious three-year-old.  She gives us hugs and kisses, whispers very important things in our ears, swims like a fish, and surprises us with entire sentences in English.  She has to watch “Cinderella” every day and tells me: “No, that’s not a monkey in the mirror.  That’s Kate!”

Follow Gary and Lisa’s journey to Kate on their “Coming Home with Kate” blog

By Gary and Lisa Falkenberg

Almost three years ago when our baby boy was born in China’s Hunan Province, his parents-to-be hadn’t even started their adoption journey. When our son was celebrating his first birthday with his loving foster family, we were putting the final touches on our home study. We had answered so many questions along the way. Which country? What age? Then, as our social worker met with us for our home visit, she asked us the strangest question: Which gender?

As a childless couple who would joyfully have accepted any child at any point in our marriage, the question took us aback. The answer was obvious. We were open to either a boy or a girl. We didn’t choose China because we wanted a daughter. Our reasons were varied. We were going to China because the Chinese adoption program was straightforward and established—and because of the China Child of Promise (CCOP) option. We were immediately drawn to a program that would match us fairly quickly with a child who had minor, manageable medical needs. A CCOP mom told me their medical conditions checklist had “a lot of no’s,” indicating that they weren’t willing to accept many medical conditions, but they were still matched swiftly and successfully with their son. Beth Smith, Holt’s China director of services, inspired confidence. And, to be honest, we had a gut feeling that our child was in China.

We were right.

Just days after our agency sent our home study to Holt, we got a call. A referral? Already? We were shocked—and ecstatic. It was a boy! He was 13 months old, his special need seemed to have been addressed, he was in foster care, and he was the most beautiful child we had ever seen.

We couldn’t wait to share our news—and our families and friends were overjoyed. We were so caught up in the whirlwind of being newly expectant parents that we were surprised when people started asking, “A boy? I thought China only had girls for adoption.” Swallowing the urge to say, “Don’t you just want to see his photo again?” we explained that many boys in China—especially those with special needs—need loving families. When a family’s entire livelihood depends on having a son who will grow into adulthood, and when medical care is not available or affordable, birth families need to make what must be a heartbreaking decision about whether to raise children with medical concerns. The doctor who reviewed Louis’s file had no worries about our referral, but he also knew that any question marks could most likely be addressed in our hometown, which offers some of the best medical care in the country.

As it turns out, Louis has no special needs by American standards. He has a ravenous appetite, an insatiable interest in vehicles, a passion for singing the ABC’s, and a sweet, affectionate heart. His pediatrician couldn’t be happier with his growth and development. We couldn’t be more enthralled with his personality and his charming—and sometimes mischievous—smile.

Since Louis came home, our responses to the questions about how we came to be the parents of a boy from China have changed. When we landed in Chicago just before Christmas, our son’s understanding of English was minimal and we could be as informative as we wanted to be in our replies. Six weeks later we realized he understood almost everything we said. Eight months later we can easily envision a day when he will be able to answer the questions himself. So our answers to “How did you ever get a boy from China?” become more important for our listening son than the people asking.

Typically we smile and say something like “Aren’t we so lucky!” and talk about how perfectly Louis fits into our family. Louis and his Baba (Dad) have the same perfectionist streak, sense of humor, and enthusiasm for trains. He and his Mama love to cook and sing together. He enjoys reading and going to the library even more than his bookworm parents do. And he proudly reminds us to say grace and says “Amen” loudly at all the right moments at church.

When Louis isn’t with us, or if we get a sense that the person asking might feel tugged toward adoption, we take the time to explain that many boys in China are waiting for families. Still, Louis isn’t a statistic, a spokesperson, or a representation of the changing population in orphanages and foster care. He is our son.

How did we ever adopt a boy who has wiggled his way so surely into our hearts and lives? Only God knows. And we thank Him every day that when we were asked “Which gender?” we shrugged our shoulders and said we’ll let God decide. We could never have picked for ourselves so perfectly.

A few weeks after bringing Louis home, my husband was giving Louis a bath. Amidst the splashing and the laughter, John turned to me and said, “OK, when do you want to go back to China for another child?” That trip won’t happen as soon as we’d like, but it isn’t far off. And when we sat down with our social worker to start the home study for Louis’s sibling, she asked us the same question about gender. We gave her the same answer as before—no preference. “You know you’ll most likely be matched with a boy,” she reminded us.

That’s in God’s hands, we said. And what a blessing that child—our son or daughter—will be.

–Rita and John Buettner

Interested in the China Child of Promise option? Click here to learn more…

DOB: 2/25/02

We met Ben this summer at an orphanage in Wuxi, a city in southern China. He seemed shy at first, but began to relax and smile during the interview and, at the urging of his caregivers, eventually stood up to demonstrate a headstand.

His caregivers seemed very fond of him and talked about how helpful he is around the orphanage, where he came into care at just a few days old. He likes to help care for the younger children, especially feeding the babies, but he tells us what he would really love are older siblings. Though he has many good friends, Ben misses his pals from the orphanage who’ve joined families through adoption. But when asked how he would feel about being adopted, his eyes immediately brightened.

“Are you at all worried about the language difference?” we asked.

“No problem,” he said. “I can learn.”

Now 8, Ben is in the 2nd grade. He’s a fast runner, loves basketball and also enjoys art projects and origami. He’s doing well in school and hopes to grow up to be a policeman – a point he reinforced for us with a straight-backed salute!

After entering care, Ben progressed well in the institution but was found to have slow motor development. Laboratory reports also noted that he is a Hepatitis B carrier. Ben would do best in a family with older child adoption experience and access to good medical resources.

Contact the Waiting Child program for more information about Ben….

by Robin Munro, senior writer

For Shannon Landry – a 16-year-old Nebraskan girl adopted as a baby from China – life so far has mostly revolved around school and soccer, friends and family. Returning to China rarely crossed her mind, though she thought it would be cool, she says, to see where she was born.

But from the time she turned 10, her mother told her that one day, they would go.

That day arrived this past summer, when she embarked on a two-week tour of China. She expected a cool adventure – an adventure that has since become a lifelong journey.

“I just feel like there’s so much more I could learn about me. Before, I never really thought about it,” Shannon says, “but now that I’ve had the experience, I don’t want to lose it.”

Joining 21 other adoptees and their families, Shannon and her mom, Melanie, traveled to China on a Holt heritage tour. The adoptees – all girls from this country of the one-child policy – explored the land of their birth, together. They climbed the Great Wall and toured the Forbidden City. They learned to cook traditional Chinese dishes, studied calligraphy and honed their chopstick skills. On a cruise down the Li River, they saw cormorant fisherman and water buffalo. They traveled to a panda reserve, where some even held these squirmy, soft-furred vegetarians, subdued by honey on the paw. They biked and cruised and climbed through China, ending where they began their adoption journey – at the White Swan Hotel in Guangzhou, the southern city home to the American Consulate, where all adoptive families secure their child’s visa.

But for many of the girls, the most meaningful part of the trip occurred on separate journeys – journeys to their finding places, their orphanages and foster families. Here, they found a connection to their past.

When Shannon visited her orphanage, she broke down in tears. “I got to meet the old [orphanage] director, which was really cool,” she says. “It kind of felt like I had a connection with her.” Shannon spent the morning at the orphanage, holding and playing with the children. She met children with special needs, a characteristic shared by many of those needing adoptive families in China. “That definitely impacted me the most,” she says. “That stood out for me and I think it did for a lot of the girls.”

Holt heritage tours are designed for adoptees and their families to experience the customs, culture and history of their birth country. Central to the tour philosophy is the adoptee’s personal story, and personal journey. To recreate this story, Holt strives to coordinate visits to adoptees’ orphanages and reunions with foster families, whenever possible.

Seeing the places and people significant to their adoption story also helps clarify, for many of the girls, why they were adopted. “It hit,” says adoptive mom Colleen Koester. “Wow, this is the building I lived in. This was the kind of situation I was in.”

On a heritage tour to Korea, Holt’s adoptee outreach director, Courtney Rader, had a similarly eye-opening experience. “It made me appreciate being adopted and where I came from,” she says. Growing up, she explains, she heard stories of what her life would have been like had she not been adopted. “Going to historical sites and museums in Korea gives a glimpse of what it was like when adoption was at its peak.”

Colleen also valued the opportunity for her daughter Hannah, 13, to learn about her heritage. “I think for her as well as the other girls, you grow up in the United States, with no memory of where you came from,” she says. “It’s easy to be just American and not appreciate your roots.”

“We learned about the ethnic groups – there are 56 of them,” says Hannah.

Led by experienced Holt staff and professional tour guides, these two-week summer trips are open to any adoptee – not just Holt adoptees – ages 8 and older for China. For Korea, all ages are welcome. Adoptees over 18 may also travel on the Korean heritage tour alone, without a guardian.

Activities vary from year to year, but one constant is the bonding that occurs on the trip.

“There’s this connection that cannot be explained among adoptees,” explains Courtney. “You can bypass the question of, ‘What’s it feel like to be adopted?’” This summer, Holt reintroduced the adult adoptee tour of Korea – for the first time in partnership with another placing agency, Bethany Christian Services. Courtney planned the itinerary and co-led the trip with the executive director of Bethany’s Western PA branch, Sandy McLaughlin. She also blogged – and recruited adoptees and adoptive parents to blog about their journeys too.

All women, the 13 adult adoptees on the tour ranged in age from 21 to 50-something. But the adoptee bond trumped the age difference. One night, in particular, forged the connection. Toward the end of the trip, they gathered in one of their hotel rooms and talked over Korean junk food… for four hours. “That night solidified that this is a safe group to share our deepest feelings, and it stays in the room,” says Courtney.

For the younger heritage tour participants, the chance to travel with other adoptees is also a major draw. “I was really happy that I got to be with other people [who shared] my experience,” says Shannon. Two of the girls on the trip, twins near Shannon’s age, became especially good friends. “When we had to say goodbye, it felt like we were sisters,” she says.

China has stuck in Shannon’s mind since returning home to Nebraska. She’s decided to attend more Families with Chinese Children – or FCC – events, and to stay in contact with fellow adoptees.

Her desire “not to lose” the connection to her heritage, and to continue exploring, is not uncommon. Though the tour ends, the journey continues, says Courtney. “It changes their lives,” she says. “We stay connected because we shared an experience that no one else can relate to.” The adult adoptees on the Korean tour continue to talk and email, and some plan to visit each other.

Even the adoptive parents forge a special bond on the tour. “These other adoptive families have been through the same experience you’ve been through – the same emotions, the same understanding,” says Colleen. “These people can relate.”

For both Melanie and Colleen, another highlight was the chance to learn the little details of their daughters’ early lives in China – to learn that Hannah ran around a lot as a toddler, and Shannon was always “in the know” at the orphanage. And to observe their daughters reconnect with their past. “The highlight for me was how much [Shannon] got out of the experience,” says Melanie. To meet those who cared for her affirms the love and nurture she received before being adopted. “That is a really important connection for a child – to know that they were loved,” she says.

The sights visited, the memories created, the bonds forged, all amount to a monumental experience in the life of both adoptees and their families.

“What I would tell anybody who’s contemplating going is that it’s an absolute must,” says Colleen. “It was so worth it and so much more than I expected.”

Join one of next summer’s heritage tours today!

Soon after Tony and I were married, we found out that it would be difficult for us to have biological children. Tony wanted to look into adoption. I, however, wanted to try for biological children. We tried IVF with donated eggs…twice. No luck.

Eventually, we decided that we really just wanted to be parents. First we looked into domestic adoption, received an approved home study and waited. Three years (and no requests to meet us) later, we decided to look into international adoption. We attended an information meeting held by our local agency, and after reading about the various country programs, and talking to friends who adopted from China, we decided China was the country for us.

During the paperwork process, we kept hearing about (and being reminded about) the lengthening wait times for a child in the standard process. In our mid-40s, we knew that we would not be able to wait the 3 or 4 years after our dossier arrived in China for a referral. That’s when we decided to look into adopting a child with special needs. We knew, however, that we wanted a child as healthy as possible, rather than one with a more acute medical condition.

Soon after we were logged-in, (October 2008), we sat in on Holt’s China Child of Promise (CCOP) webinar to learn more about the program and process. Because a referral through this program was a much faster process, and the children available were more within our comfort zone, we felt that this program was a good fit for us. We viewed the minor/correctable needs checklist and did some research on the conditions. In November 2008, we sent in our checklist, and had a daughter six days later! Tony said: “I knew the wait was shorter, but I figured it would be six months, not six DAYS!”

A little over four months later, we met Meighan and have been home for a year. It was a “match made in heaven,” and we couldn’t be happier. Meighan was born with a very minor cleft lip, repaired when she was 6 months old. Now, at 2 ½, she has very good fine and gross motor skills, smiles and laughs readily, loves to run, blow bubbles, be tickled, and do just about anything outside. She also loves music and dancing.

As far as her lip goes, doctors say it’s a good repair, and I doubt she’ll need more work on it.  Meighan came to us as a “special needs” child, but she’s as healthy as any kid.

Children with correctable, manageable conditions are waiting for families in China right now. Holt’s China program matches these children with families very quickly.  Join Holt’s China Child of Promise Webinar to learn more about this expedited process and the beautiful children in this program.

Click here to view the minor/correctable conditions checklist

by Jennifer Smith

After the birth of our third child in 2003, we decided that our family was complete. We were content and didn’t plan to have any more children; however, God had other plans. During the summer of 2006 we began to think about adding to our family, discussed adoption and prayed for God’s guidance. We both felt a tugging towards adoption, but we wanted to make sure it was the right path for our family.  We were looking for some sort of big sign, and we got exactly that when we attended Winter Jam in 2007 in Mobile. It was our first time to attend a Winter Jam concert, so imagine our surprise when we discovered that Holt International sponsored it. As a video presentation of orphanages in China played, we watched as tears rolled down our cheeks. When it was over, we looked at each other and said: “We’re adopting. We’re going to China.”  We requested an application packet from Holt the next week.

Like most people, we experienced both miracles and challenges during our adoption journey, but we just forged ahead and claimed 2 Corinthians 5:7 as our adoption verse. It states: “For we walk by faith, not by sight.” That verse came to mean so much to us during both the joyful and difficult times of our adoption journey.

We started out in the standard process but then expanded our options to include China Child of Promise.  After only a few weeks in this program, we received our referral for a beautiful little girl named Shang Nan. She was listed as having vision problems. We read over the information and looked at her pictures, and we knew that she was the one. We fell in love with her instantly.

Rinnah Shangnan is doing very well now. She’s had an eye examination, and it was confirmed that she is completely blind in her right eye. She wears glasses now, and we can tell that using them is definitely helping her.  She is trying to stand up now and even does somersaults! She is a good-natured and happy little girl.

Before we met Rinnah Shangnan, we anticipated that attachment would be her biggest challenge; however, she has attached and bonded remarkably well. Now our biggest challenge is helping her with the vision problem and developmental delays. She has regularly scheduled appointments with a vision therapist, as well as both a physical and an occupational therapist. Rinnah Shangnan has made a great deal of progress already, but we’ve still got a long way to go.

To those of you in process now, just remember that waiting provides you the opportunity to grow and to prepare for the changes and the challenges ahead. Even then, you will experience surprises along the way. Some things you just can’t prepare for, but when you hold your child for the first time, the difficulty of waiting just fades away. The love that you feel is indescribable. We are so blessed to have Rinnah Shangan in our family, and we continue our journey – walking by faith each day.

Learn more about the China Child of Promise option….

by Cris Nelson

One year since God brought a beautiful little girl into our lives. In some ways, it has been more difficult than I ever thought it would be, but it has also been just as rewarding. Here is our story….

The Story of Jing Jing: On a cold January day in 2007, a police officer walked his beat in the Chinese province of Shaanxi and came across a basket on a bridge. Inside the basket he found a little girl with a cleft lip and palate. Given the cold weather conditions, you could rightly assume that if the police officer had discovered the baby even an hour later, the baby probably would not have survived. It is not a coincidence, we believe, that the officer happened to be walking by at just the right moment.

An adoption missionary at our church once talked about taking a child dealt a bad hand and putting some “aces” in their hand. Kelly and I knew that was what we wanted to do. Bringing an orphaned child with a medical need to the United States is like a miracle for them, and we are humbled by the opportunity to love her. We named her Hope, because of the hope she has for a new life, and because of our family’s hope in Christ Jesus. (Hebrews 11:1)

We Loved China: Our family absolutely loved China! The Chinese people were so wonderful to us, and experiencing one of the oldest cultures in the world was truly amazing.  Most importantly, we wanted to see and understand the culture of our new family.

Difficult….at first: The first months home were really difficult. Hope had been moved around and had developed severe separation anxiety. In her 2-year-old mind, her caregivers had abandoned her. Hope bonded with Kelly right away, so that was the good news. The bad news was that Hope had complete emotional meltdowns if separated from Kelly for even a moment. This made it really hard for Kelly to accomplish simple things like showering or even sleeping. Hope would wake up every hour to check if Kelly was still there. Once Kelly reassured Hope that she wasn’t going anywhere, Hope would go back to sleep. Fortunately, Kelly was up to the challenge and really gave herself unselfishly to Hope during this difficult time.

Phobias: Hope came to us with a number of fears and phobias. At first we were amazed that she could eat more than our three other children combined, which is especially puzzling given that she has an open cleft palate. We learned that many orphaned children are prone to overeating. For the first six months, Hope couldn’t sleep unless we fed her before bedtime and had food by her bed.

Fast Forward: While we were waiting for Hope to come home, we received reports from China stating that Hope didn’t like to smile or play with other children. None of the photos we received had Hope smiling. This kind of worried us. But fast forward one year, and Hope is like a different person. She grows more confident each day, and smiles and laughs all the time.

Surgery: Hope underwent cleft palate surgery in September. Due to her fears of starvation, she had a really tough time being on the liquid diet required and lapsed back into her old behavior. Once she got back to solid foods she snapped out of it. She will have a few more surgeries in the next few years and will need a lot of speech therapy. She will have some speech delays, but we are confident she will get caught up. Hope shows improvement every day.

New Creation: Seeing Hope laugh and play with our three other children: Hannah, Thomas and Rachel, we are humbled to think about how Hope’s life has changed. She has blossomed in the past year and is no longer the child who would not smile or play with other children. One of my favorite bible verse passages is when Jesus says: “Behold, I make all things new.” God is, in fact, making a new creation of our little girl! And in the end, the love we give is surpassed by the love we receive!

Happy One-Year Anniversary!

Last year Holt matched many children with families through the China Child of Promise option, and many of these families are already home and in process for another child from China!

Although this program has proven to be a huge success, many children are still waiting, and we don’t have enough families joining this option.

If you know anyone who may consider opening their homes and hearts to a child with a minor to moderate, treatable medical condition such as cleft/lip palate, minor heart conditions, or adopting a boy with a minor condition, please inform them about this program.

Joining this program does not exclude you from the standard waiting process; it simply expands your options and gives you the chance to be matched with a child much quicker.

If you are waiting exclusively in the standard process, you might join one of our Webinars to learn more about the children available through the Child of Promise option. Also, take a look at Holt’s minor/correctable conditions checklist of conditions, which you can fill out at any time, checking the boxes of the conditions you feel are within your capacity.

This year many families who were waiting in the standard process have found the China Child of Promise option to be very gratifying! You can see the benefits of this program by reading the China Child of Promise family stories below and viewing the online photo gallery of the children who have been matched with families.