Our story

This is a story about our daugher, Maggie Elizabeth Fuxia Haimelin. Barbara and I started the process of adoption in November 2005, just 5 months after our marriage. We both wanted to have children, and agreed that adoption worked best for us. Conceiving a child would be high risk, and something that we didn't want to endure should there be any problems. We attended a meeting by an adoption agency from Pennsylvania in November 2005, after a friend saw an ad in the local paper. After attending the meeting and discussing the possibility of adopting from China, we both agreed that we should begin the process of adopting a little girl from China. We submitted an application, prepared our dossier, and our paperwork was logged into China in September 2006. The process and paper chase was long and tiring, but we knew that our choices and hard work would pay off. In the winter of 2006, Barbara recieved a newsletter from our adoption agency with an article about special needs children. The picture on the article captured Barbara's heart. After sharing her feelings with me, we decided that we should consider adopting a child with special needs. We contacted our agency and chose from a list of special needs that we would be able to care and provide for. We were then placed on a list for a special needs child. On December 6, 2007, our agency contacted us and stated that a new list of waiting children was received and asked if we would be interested in reviewing a file on a little girl with a cleft lip (repaired) and a cleft palate (unrepaired). Barbara called me with the good news. We couldn't wait to recieve the packet the next day, and had Maggie's picture emailed to us. According to paperwork we received, Maggie was found on the side of the road on the day of her birth (August 1, 2005) by the local police in Baise City, China. She was taken to the social welfare institute of Youjiang District of Baise City, Guangzi Province, where she has remained since. Her given name is Gong FuXia, which means "summer seasons blessings" - she grows up to be a blessed and enthusiastic person. Her lip was repaired by a volunteer group called Love Without Boundaries on October 29, 2006. She is active, fairly extroverted, and sometimes obstinate. She has a ready smile, gets well with others, and is talkative. She likes listening to music and singing. Her favorite activity is watching t.v. (sounds like we'll have a lot in common). Her favorite toys are dolls. We both fell in love with her immediately and decided that she was meant to be with us. We submitted our letter of intent to adopt her on December 16th, and received our letter of acceptance on January 25th, the final approval from China to adopt Maggie. We were told that we would now wait for travel authorization, which usually takes between 2 and 4 weeks. Because of the Chinese New Year, this date could be longer. On February 28, 2008, we received a telephone call that we received our travel approval and would probably be traveling from either March 15th or 16th and returning on March 26th. Our agency has requested a consulate appointment for March 24th, and we should hear something by Tuesday, March 4, 2008, which is where we stand now. Our nursery is complete, clothes are bought, and bags are packed. My work is throwing a shower for us on Wednesday and the RCIA group from church is having a lunch for us next Saturday. This has been an amazing journey to this point, and we can't believe that Maggie is almost home. Having such great family, friends, and support has made this time bearable, and we decided to start a blog to share our joy with all of you.