A Gift From China

This was Gotcha Day, March 3, 2002 in Changsha, Hunan, China. Shortly after our Gotcha Moment, my husband snapped this photo. It's one of my favorite pictures -- the first time I held my daughter, Katherine Rebecca Chang-Shun Reese, as she slept. Kate was 8.5 months old, the biggest baby of the bunch, with rosy red cheeks and two perfect bottom teeth. Our trip to China was a wonderful adventure 18 months in the making.

Why China? The tongue-in-cheek answer would be that we knew our daughter was there – but that begs the question of just how we knew our daughter was there.

It was after much research, many conversations with those who had adopted from China and a sure-enough miracle (at least I think it was a miracle) that we knew China was the right place for us.

The Chinese adoptive process is one of the most straightforward, least confusing paths to international adoption – of course, I could be biased. Yes, there are hoops to be jumped through, but so many have jumped through those same hoops that the process is streamlined. I highly recommend it.

If you are interested in adopting from China, check out the following links as a starting point.

FWCC - Families With Children From China

Chinese Children Adoption International

Kate was the inspiration of my novel, THE BABY WAIT. Our adoption went quite smoothly, unlike my heroine's adoption. The novel, however, pulls from true-to-life experiences of adoptive parents. Thank God not all of these things happened to a single couple.

But my fertile, if devious, imagination kept whispering …

What if …?

What sort of woman would hang on? What sort of husband would be by her side? And how would it all work out?

Back to our adoption: it was, bar none, the smartest, best thing my husband and I ever did. Truly we are blessed with a wonderful daughter, who daily gifts us with her smile, her unique way of seeing the world … and her love.