About Us
We are Nathan and Lisa, and are in process of adopting a little girl from China. We’ve been married for nine
years and have two biological boys, Cameron (5) and Zack (2). Our home is in Ohio, and we hope to have our daughter join us here around March 2007.
Here are some fun facts to know and tell about our family:
Nathan, a.k.a. “Daddy”
· Three words to describe me are…creative, wise, and witty (and did I mention “stuck-on-myself"?)
· My favorite things are…“Stargate" and “Battlestar Galactica” shows on the Sci-Fi channel, a good book, the “Dirty Jobs” and “Myth Busters” shows on Discovery Channel, Popular Science and Reader’s Digest magazines, playing the piano, graphic design, playing hide-n-seek with the kids (mostly I like the hiding part so I can get 30 seconds of peace)
· Unique things about me are…I can touch my tongue to my nose, I can juggle
Lisa, a.k.a. “Mommmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!!!” and “Mommmmm-He-Hit-Me!” and “Mommmmmm-Can-I-Have-Some-Chocolate-Milk?”
· Three words to describe me are…administrative, perky, and busy bee
· My favorite things are…chocolate raspberry steamers with whipped cream, Graeter’s mocha chip ice cream, seeing my boys play peacefully together, Yankee candles, scrapbooking at Mach 10 speed, reading magazines and books, the music of Sara Groves, Honda vehicles
· Unique things about me are…I once begged my mom to take accordion lessons when I was little (it was SHE who made us watch Lawrence Welk every Saturday night); I like the smell of freshly sharpened pencils and Scotch tape
Cameron
· Our first-born, five-year-old little boy is analytical, poised, and detail-oriented (read: uptight). He loves his Thomas the “Trank” set (he says this because Mommy could never remember if it was “train” or “tank” so she kept mixing the two up to come up with “trank” – sorry, Cameron), talking to his imaginary friends “Da-ner” and “Gang-li”, running around the house being Soooooooooo-per Cameron, and tracking down every speck of sugary food in the house.
Zachary
· Our second boy is two years old and we describe him as goofy, squeezable, and easygoing. His favorite things are stepping on and dismantling the Thomas the Trank set, watching the animated reactions he gets from putting any part of Cameron’s world out of order, walking around the house with his “bleenk” (blankie) on his head – getting plowed over by before mentioned Superhero, and drinking his "meeeeeeelk" (milk) - preferably chocolate.
About Our Adopted Child
We have chosen to adopt a healthy female from China, roughly 9 months old at referral. There were several reasons we chose to adopt from China, but the ‘oldest’ one is this: As a child I (Lisa) always wished I had the beautiful skin and hair of the Asians. Though I knew that wouldn’t ever be possible, my mom always responded to that comment by saying if I ever adopted, I could choose to have a little Asian girl for my daughter. So when the time came to consider the “where from” of adoption, it seemed like an easy decision, one that had been made long ago. The more recent reasons are that that we wanted a girl (to add some variety to our lives), and the adoption process is a relatively affordable and smooth experience from China. It is our first and best choice.
Timeframe
The official paperwork stage began in March of 2005 when we applied to our agency, America World Adoption Association (www.awaa.org). This part of the process took a little over five months; our dossier was sent off to China in August 2005. The expected wait time for a referral keeps yo-yoing back and forth but we think we might receive our referral in the fall of 2006 and travel about two months after that.
Deciding to Adopt
Like many people say, adoption has been in our hearts for years. Nathan grew up with foster kids and step-siblings in the home, so having “non-blood related” people as part of the family has always been a comfortable concept to him. And I (Lisa) have considered adoption since I was a teen…one summer I happened to visit an adoption agency booth at the Ohio State Fair and it was there where I had an overwhelming sense of “this is for me”.
The adoption option faded to the background as we had our first biological child, Cameron, in 2001. But shortly after a devastating miscarriage in the summer of 2003, it came back to the forefront of our minds. Just a couple of months after the miscarriage, we attended a marriage retreat where Steven Curtis and Mary Beth Chapman spoke about their adoption experiences. After their talk and the showing of the video, Nathan and I knew for sure that we would adopt someday. Shortly after that, I was pregnant with our second son, Zachary, who was born in 2004. That pregnancy was a long and difficult one, and throughout the whole nine months, Nathan and I went back and forth about having more biological children versus adopting. The question that Nathan kept asking me was: “Which would I regret more?” We felt that either decision was a good one, but it soon became clear that we had a daughter in China who needed to come home, and that we would forever regret not allowing ourselves to experience the miracle of adoption.