Welcome to the

I started this adoption process after working in the Dominican Republic a few times, realizing how many children were abandoned or left to beg on the streets of some countries. I realized that I had so much to offer a child, and decided to check out how I could possibly do this.
The first replies that I got from all the adoption agencies were that an international adoption was basically impossible for me, being a single male. But about a year later, I got a call from an agency letting me know that I could adopt from the Ukraine. There were supposedly several children in the orphanages in the Ukraine that were missing limbs, and needed a good home.

I got the paperwork all filled out (which is NO small task), and was approved, and travelled to Kiev in March 2006. It was the worst experience of my life, I ended up having to flee the country for my safety. I had a large sum of cash on me during the trip, which was a requirment of the Ukraine for the adoption. There were several people there that wanted that money, even though they were playing games with the adoption process. I have never seen such corruption in my life, and it ended up being a very threatening experience. I ended up catching an early morning flight to Munich, Germany on a Saturday morning, before anyone could have noticed that I had left the country. My facilitator was very eager to get the money, and even made threats against me, and to others who were trying to help me with the adoption.

I decided that an adoption was not going to be in my future plans after that point. But, I met a lady in Indianapolis that has adopted a daughter and a son from China. I spoke with her briefly about China, and gave her my email address to send me more information. She did that, as did her single female friend that also has a son and daughter from China.

I went to the website they sent to me, and that very morning, the agency had just posted several new children on the waiting child list. I called them for a password and all to log in and see the children, and that is when I found this profile of a cute little 4 year old boy who was born missing his right hand. I called them again to inquire about him, and was told that I could petition for him, but since I was a single male, I was the very last choice to be matched. A 2-parent situation always takes first place, then a single female would be next, and a single male is the last pick….kind of like how I was always picked for dodge-ball teams or baseball teams as a kid…just joking.

Well, a year has passed since getting matched, and re-doing all the paperwork again, which seemed to be more difficult than the first time because some forms could be changed or edited and used for China, others had to be totally re-done etc.

Finally, after all this time, I got the approval, the travel approval, and bought the tickets. But, it seemed to be too real at that point, and could not get comfortable, thinking there had to be something else that would go wrong.

Well, that is when I got the news that my I-171 papers had expired, in spite of all the work in December to get new fingerprints and a new home study, and doing everything possible to extend the paperwork another 18 months….there was an immigration form that wasn’t filled out or turned in with the new fingerprints and homestudy. I talked to the CIS officer in Indy about that, and getting a new I-171 can take several weeks….but I only had ONE week to get this done. She finally did say that if I could get her the form that I needed (I-600A) as soon as possible, she would do everything possible to try and get it approved in time. I offered to take it up there at that very moment, dropping everything basically and going to Indy. Well, I couldn’t do that, because I have to make an appointment first. And, the only way to do that is online, and they do not allow making same day appointments online. But, nobody can do it in person either. So, the earliest apt was on Friday morning at 8:00. I ran up there and dropped off the form with a check. Much to my suprise, I had the approval back in the mailbox on Tuesday. The CIS employee worked on it all day Friday, and it was stamped with a date of Saturday, meaning that she must have worked overtime to make sure that it got processed and mailed back to me on Saturday. I was impressed to say the very least. Everything else is now in order, visas are all signed and on the way back to me on a FedEx truck somewhere, hopefully delivered tomorrow (saturday).

I have Monday and Tuesday to get everything packed up, ready to go, and Wednesday morning (July 4th) I will be on my way to Chicago and then to Bejing.

Well, this is the start of the journey. I hope to be able to access this site the entire trip and update it here and keep everyone up to what is going on.