Little about us and our children

Okay so since I can't sleep and have so much time on my hands you will all get a brief family history. LOL just what you wanted you say?...... Good

Well Brad and I have been best friends since 1980 (he was 10 and I was 12) for those slow at math that's 27 yrs. And for those still doing math I'm 39 and he is 37, LOL.
We were married January 1990, (Mom if your reading this I know that you want to say something go ahead). So far our marriage has survived being newly weds, the Army (7 yrs),living overseas during that time,working with family (love you all I promise!)unemployment, bankruptcy and reestablishing ourselves.

And then there is the biggie INFERTILITY.

While he was in the army it was so hard dealing with everyone around me getting pregnant and having children wanted or not. Crying out to God , WHY. Well I have that answer but at the time going through it I couldn't see an answer just the pain of empty arms, just the sorrow of not hearing a sweet voice calling Mommy. Many of you reading this know this pain, even if infertility didn't bring you to adoption, being a childless mother did.
In 2003 my Grandfather passed away and we moved back home to be near our families, we also discussed international adoptions. We talked to our pastor David Jackson who recommended FTIA . With this recommendation for an agency the country we wanted was hands down China. My heart has been there for a very long time. December 2003 as we were driving to Christmas with Tappaw and Nanny (Brad's parents) we made the decision to submit our application and find out if this could be something real or just the pipe dream of having a family.
Well we submitted our dossier and it was logged in May 26, 04. We were referred a beautiful little girl Nov. 8Th that same year.Gan Bo Rou was 13 months old. She was from the JiangXi Province. (Katie's referral pics are at the bottom of the page). I can't tell you how over joyed we were to get that call at 10:38 AM it was a Monday and Brad was working and had no cell service I drove like a crazy woman telling everyone I met that we were the very proud parents to a beautiful baby girl in China. We traveled Jan to get our Katherine Gan Bo Rou. It was with great joy and sorrow we left China as I felt we had a daughter still there(we had requested twins. We arrived home with a bundle of smiles, Katie.
Jump ahead 6 months and a wonderful friend calls me and said you have to see this little girl! So I contacted FTIA and low and behold there was my daughter! We had to wait while another family viewed her paper work. On Aug. 5 2005 we got the call that she was ours if we still wanted her! Still wanted her were they crazy? I had only wanted her for almost 16 yrs! Cordelia Lu Meng Jia was from the Anhui Province in China and her pics and paper work had been submitted for international adoption while we were in China getting our Katie. God is so amazing.
Cordie has albinism that was her special need, the need wasn't so special to us but she sure is. We rushed to get our papers together and were logged in Nov 31, 2005. We traveled to bring Cordie home March 2006.
Now we are once again waiting and praying for a special little soul in China who is our son. His name (as if you can't guess) is Carlow Guan Qi Zhi. Our dossier was logged in March 13, 2007 (Cordie's Gotcha Day) We had no idea that while we were again in China adopting Cordie, Carlow's paper work was processed for international adoption. Again God is Awesome!
Carlow's special need is syndactyly (mittening of his hands and feet). We are not daunted by this "SN" and feel he can do anytihng he sets his mind to do and we plan to challenge him, probably not as much as he plans to challenge us LOL.


He is so loved and we haven't held him in our arms just in our hearts.
He is part of every day and we have never dried his tears, just with our prayers.
He is part of our convesations every day, yet he has only heard our voices in his dreams.
He is our Son, Brother, Grandson, Nephew, Cousin, yet he has no idea who we are ...Yet. Soon Carlow you will know the love of this family and all it's members who have waited so long for your arrival.