WELCOME to our adoption Web site. The primary purpose of this site is to chronicle the process of adopting our daughters, Sydney Grace YaQi and Emily Faith LinHui. We hope this site will be a useful resource for those who consider adopting international children, especially from the People's Republic of China.

Chinese folklore says that when a child is born, invisible red threads extend from the child's spirit and connect to all of the significant people who will be part of the child's life. As the child grows, the threads shorten, drawing closer those people who are destined to be together.

Sydney (that's her on the masthead in the three left photos) is our first adopted daughter from China. She was born in December 2002, somewhere in Yongning County, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. Shortly after birth she entered the Yongning Social Welfare Institute, which contains a small orphanage for abandoned children. On January 5, 2004, we accepted Sydney as our daughter at a brief ceremony with 16 other families at the Lottery Hotel in Nanning, capital of the Guangxi Province.

Emily (that's her on the masthead in the three right photos) will be our second adopted daughter from China. She was born in December 2004, somewhere in Xiaonan District, Hubei Province. Immediately after birth she entered the supervision of the Xiaonan District Social Welfare Institute in the city of Xiaogan, from which she was then placed into foster care. On November 28, 2005, we accepted Emily as our daughter during a chaotic moment in the provincial office of adoption affairs in Wuhan, capital of the Hubei Province.