Welcome

We are a couple Brent and Jody who live in the Pacific Northwest. This is a journal of the journey to adopt our 2nd daughter. She will be born in China and be in our hearts from that day until we see her on our GOTCHA (or Forever Family) day. Our daughter Gabby who is 8 is anxiously awaiting to have a mei mei. Our process to adopt started a very long time ago. Let me tell you a story.....


Brent and I met in 7th grade at GAA. We both enjoyed being friends and didn't start dating until we were in high school. We continued dating in college for freshman year. Then we went our separate ways, but always maintained that friendship by calling and writing to each other. We both had other significant relationships during that time. We finished college and attended our 10 year high school reunion. At that time we rekindled our romance. Brent ended moving back east to Maryland and working for the federal government. At that time we started calling each other and writing alot. Believe me a long distance relationship can be rather costly! We would see each other every 3 months. This lasted for about 1 year.



Then we decided that I would move back east to be closer to him. So, I quit my job at Eisenhower Medical Center as an Occupational Therapist(OTR). I packed up some of my belongings including my dog Cocoa and cat Cinder. My dad helped me drive all the way to Oklahoma City and then Brent met us. Dad flew home to Pasadena from there. Brent and I continued on driving to MD. We arrived and I got my own apartment,job and life. We continued to date and then got engaged within 4 months of moving there. We were married at home in my parents yard in Pasadena,CA 5 months later.



We were having a great time being a couple. Pursuing goals for work etc. Then we decided to start having children after 3 years of happy couple hood. We had bought a town home and were ready to have that family. After 1 -2 years of trying we had the usual testing done and found out we could not have children of our own. Needless to say we were absolutely devastated. I would cry all the time and ask God why... It took us awhile to get over the grieving before we began to think about other options for us.



We decided on adoption and then Brent got a new position taking us back home to southern CA. We were just so excited to be back closer to our families(especially me)! I had been very homesick for my family. Brent had been in MD. for 10 years and I had been there for 9 . We enjoyed seeing many wonderful historical sites and traveling on the east coast while we were there. We sold our town home, my mom came out and helped us drive home with the 2 cars,dog and cat. Since Brent worked for the government they paid for the move. Thank Goodness!



So, that was a major interruption in our process. By the time we got settled, jobs, new house etc. another year and 1/2 had gone by. We then started contacting different agencies to pick the right one for us. We ended up with Adventist Adoption Agency out of Portland OR. Since we lived in CA. we had to find another agency to do our home study. Bethany Christian Services was who we used. I had a really hard time writing my auto biography. I don't really like to talk about myself so it was awkward for me. We finished with everything and got our letter of acceptance from Bethany dated 6/10/1999. We got a call from AAA on 6/17/1999 about a Hispanic baby that had been born early that morning outside of Portland.OR. Our profile was given to the birth mother along with 2 other families. We got the call the next day: She chose us!! We were just ecstatic and were so very excited to be parents. We called our families, packed,called the airlines and drove 2 hrs in traffic to make our flight that Friday evening. We got in about 11:30 pm. We were picked up by my dear aunt and we drove to her home. Our daughter was placed in our arms 48 hours from when she was born. She was absolutely beautiful with jet black eyes, hair and medium skin with a cupid bow mouth and very long fingers. She was petite 5lbs. 12 0z's. and 20" long. We had to put her in preemie clothes she was so tiny! Her birth mother had named her Rosalinda. We incorporated the Rose part into her middle name. We got home a week later after filing for the petition for termination of the father rights etc. She was a very good baby.

She is now 8 years old and going into the 2nd grade this school year. We have had our ups and downs as she has Autism and Sensory Processing disorder. We cope with it the best we can. We go to alot of therapies outside of school to help her. She is in a CLC at school and is learning to read, write and do simple math. I will end this post with this note and continue on again about the searching our hearts for a sister for Gabby.

Jody