FEBRUARY 2003 NEWSLETTER 

Caring for and serving families in Tennessee, Kentucky, Georgia, Alabama,  Mississippi,

Florida,Texas, and Louisiana 

Hello to everyone!  We thought we would take a moment to update everyone on Alana’s progress.  We have had her 2 months yesterday and she is now 9 1/2 months old.  She is doing great and we are enjoying having her so much.  Clay and Conner think their new sister is fun and everyone seems to be bonding together great.  In the 2 months we have had her, she has gone from 13 lbs. to 20 1/2 lbs, which is a gain of almost a pound a week (Alan and I have actually been on the pound a week plan over the holidays too!)  She is sprouting new hair (maybe there's hope for all those hair bows yet!) and she cut her first tooth last week.  She started sitting shortly after we got her and she is now scooting backwards all over the floor so hopefully she will crawl forward soon. She continues to be a very happy baby who smiles, laughs, and babbles constantly and we feel very blessed.  Love, The McLeod's   

Our journey for Olivia…..

By Mark Millwood, Bristol, Tennessee 

While I write this story about our journey for Olivia, a smile comes to my face.   First of all, I can’t even explain in words what an incredible, life-changing adventure it was for my family, but I will try to describe just a few of the wonderful experiences that we were exposed to. 

Our journey began in the winter of 2001 when we attended a CHI information meeting near our hometown.  After years of speculation

and interest, we knew right away that CHI was the kind of agency that we were looking for.  Immediately following the presentation we completed our application, waited for initial approval, then started the long paper-chase process.   

While the process seemed a little overwhelming at first, we found that if we focused we could accomplish all of the requirements.  CHI guided us through each step, ensuring that our Dossier was complete before being forwarded to China.  We submitted our Dossier to CHI in May of 2001 and were officially logged in at the CCAA on 7/5/01, a date that we will never forget.   

About 14 months later we received the long awaited “call” from Brenda at the Brentwood office.  We were elated to find out that we had a beautiful 9-month-old daughter waiting for us in the Guangdong  province.  Her Chinese name was Yang Chun Peng (pronounced PONG) and she was residing in the Yang Chun Social Welfare Institute.  Immediately following  the “call” we started preparing for our big trip.  We had  baby showers, support group meetings,  finished up the nursery and packed and repacked about 100 times.  Finally, our day came on October 18, 2002 when we left for China.  Our trip, which was coordinated with the help of Lotus Travel began with a long flight to Guangzhou, then connecting to Beijing for a few days of sightseeing and then flying back to Guangzhou for Gotcha day.    In Beijing we met Peggy, our CHI coordinator, who parented all of us parent for the entire two weeks.  Peggy coordinated our paperwork, proofed our paperwork, coordinated our travel, arranged for many of our meals, translated for us, encouraged us, laughed with us and really worked to create a sense of security for us while we were traveling. After touring the Great Wall, the Forbidden City and other highlights of Beijing, we loaded up again for our flight to Guangzhou.  Since Olivia was from the Guangdong province, we would receive her here.  I can remember all of us rambling like little children on our flight to Guangzhou.  There was so much energy on the airplane from all of the anticipation and excitement we were sharing with our group. Upon our arrival to Guangzhou on October 22^nd we were taken to the White Swan hotel where we checked in, had a brief group meeting and then shuttled off to the Notary office to receive our little bundles of joy.  I can remember being excited, scared, overwhelmed, overjoyed and nervous.  You name it; all of the emotions were there.  By this time we had already spent a few days bonding with our new CHI travel group and found our co-adopters to be a wonderful group of loving and caring individuals.  There were 21 families all together, a large group to put it mildly all bracing for the BIG moment that was about to take place.  I can’t even begin to describe the level of emotions that we were all experiencing by now as we gathered in a small room in the Notary office to complete some last minute paperwork before receiving our babies.  Drum roll please. 

Then, after all of the waiting, the paper chasing, the speculation, the tears, the fears and all of the other stuff that comes along with this process, came the big moment.  One by one they called out each of our families to step forward and receive their baby.  It was a moment that I will never forget.  Each family smiled, cried, laughed, cried some more, hugged, kissed and panted as we all were receiving our newest family members.  When they called my and Emily’s name we anxiously stepped forward and suddenly it seemed to me that the world stopped turning for one brief moment.  The young lady who was handing us our baby said “Yang Chun Peng” and I swear they sounded like the most beautiful words that I had ever heard.  Immediately following this announcement they placed the little girl now known as Olivia in our arms.  Right away Olivia looked at each of us with the most beautiful and sincere gaze.  It was if she were saying “well, its about time”.  At this moment I think we both cried tears of joy and our hearts were pounding so hard that I thought we were going to both pass out and drop to the floor.  But, we didn’t.  And from that moment on we began the initial bonding process.   

After the big Gotcha day we loaded up our big group of Mommies, Daddies and babies and all of our
luggage to travel to Zhaoqing.  Zhaoqing is a beautiful city that lies a few hours west of Guangzhou at the base of the Dinzhu Mountain range.  Here, we lodged for six nights, and four full days of sightseeing around this beautiful city.  This was a great opportunity for all of us to spend quality time with our new additions and get to know each other in our new traveling family.  What an awesome experience this was.  While there were good days, bad days and super days transitioning with our little ones and learning to parent them, the experience as a whole was surreal.  It was amazing to hear our conversations with our travel group.  Usually, covered topics such as pooh-poohs, diapers, spit-up, ear infections, etc.  We found it to be just amazing that suddenly priorities in life totally change.  After our days in Zhaoqing of sightseeing, paperwork and quality family time together, we loaded up again to travel back to Guangzhou for our Consulate appointments, medical exams and final trip home.  Here, we enjoyed the comforts of the luxurious White Swan hotel and enjoyed our last few days of shopping and spending time with our new forever friends. On November 1, 2002, we left Guangzhou with our new little one’s ready to start our new lives together. 

Now, we are home and adjusting to new routines.  I can tell you that Olivia has adjusted very well. She is such a flexible, outgoing and vivacious child.  She makes parenting a whole lot of fun.  While I know that parenthood is definitely not a bed of roses, I can tell you that to date it has been all that we thought it would be and so much more.  Our journey to China changed our lives forever, and we are thankful to God, CHI and the many other people in our lives that made our journey possible.  We are so blessed!

Please know that there are many older waiting children in all of the countries we work in, including sibling groups.  If you are interested in our Wonderful Waiting Children, please e-mail Brenda@childrenshopeint.org.  I would love to answer any of your questions.

It’s not too early to begin thinking about Operation Hope, our program where we bring older children from Russia to the US for a 3-week stay with families who are interested in hosting them and hopefully adopting them.  The children are ages 7-12 and we are planning on hosting the children in the Nashville area in July!  This is our third year to host children in the Nashville area.  We will be letting you know more about this exciting opportunity in future newsletters.  Anyone interested in this program, please contact Tanya Yurlova, at 615-309-8109 or via email at Tanya@childrenshopeint.org.

Please welcome:  Carrie Krenson, Public Relations Coordinator.  Carrie and her husband, John, adopted their daughter, Dasha, in 2000.  They are currently in the process of adopting another child from Russia.  Carrie has an extensive background in Human Resources and we are very excited to have her expertise in the Brentwood office. 

Emily Reynolds, student intern from David Lipscomb University.  Emily joined our office in January as our Social Work Intern.  Throughout the semester, Emily will be concentrating on a study to further the adoption of older children as well as assisting with general social work responsibilities.

We are very fortunate to have all these additions to our staff.  Please help us welcome these newest team members.

The St. Louis office will be printing and mailing the CHI Newsletter every 3 months but sending out an e-mail Newsletter every month to anyone requesting it.  If you would like to receive the monthly E-mail Newsletter you will simply need to send an email to:  Adoption@ChildrensHope.com and (important!!) write in the subject line:  Newsletter.  That's all.  You don't even need to include a message.

 Children have captured our hearts, this Valentine’s Day, as we talk of our love, and share that with those we care so deeply about!  

And, I can think of no better time to start an adoption! Of course, we also have many humanitarian projects, through which you 
can also help a child. For information about those, please contact Lynn@childrenshopeint.org.  Happy Valentine’s Day…
from our hearts to yours!  If we can ever do anything to help, please do not hesitate to contact me at Brenda@childrenshopeint.org. 

We don't want to burden you with a lot of information, but we do want to help you if you are looking for a way to adopt. If not, please let us know and we will regretfully remove your name from our newsletter.   E-mail me at my address below with any question you have.  I would love to hear from you. 

Brenda

Southeastern U.S.
Brenda Barker, Director
7003 Chadwick Dr. Suite 350
Brentwood, TN  37027
615-309-8109   Fax: 615-309-8483
Brenda@ChildrensHope.com
Also serving the following states: TN, KY, GA, AL, MS, FL, TX and LA