what I have been up to

almost immediately after receiving our referral for Sophia I began to scour the Internet to find out every detail about where my daughter was. I wanted to know all about the place (both the city and the Social Welfare institute) where she had spent 14 months of her life before us. I wanted to talk to families who had traveled there before us and who had children from there. I was looking for families who had recently adopted from there and found only one Jamie and Stephanie from Loving Life with Lily. Stephanie and Jamie had just adopted their daughter Lily in March and had walked in the places we were about to in a few short months.We began to talk with them and they shared lots of great information about their daughter Lily with us.We have since met them in person and Sophia and Lily hit is off so well. We call them "Wanzai Sisters" now. We also found the Wanzai Yahoo Group They were great in giving us details about Wanzai and a glimpse into our future. See most of the members have children that are a bit older. I loved talking with them and seeing pictures of their children. It let us see what we had to look forward to with Sophia. Somehow it is never enough information to ease your mind while you are waiting to travel tho. I was left wanting more details, more information. I am sure many who read my blog can relate to that feeling of not having enough information about the place your child was in before you. I decided then that I wanted to create a place that would gather information about Wanzai, The Wanzai County Social Welfare Institute and of course our family stories. I wanted to do this so that we could connect to other families who had children from Wanzai (a small rural city with a small international adoption program). So that our children could have a connection to each other and so that as they grow they could stay connected to people who have a common bond of not only their adoption experience but that are from the same city in China. I have been scouring the Internet again trying to find families who have children from Wanzai and have been somewhat successful. Stephanie and I have now contacted 8 other families who have adopted within the last 5 years. We are still looking for more and for families that may have older children as well. I am putting a request out there that if you know anyone who has adopted from Wanzai that you please pass along this info to them or ask them to e-mail me for more information. I am in the process of creating a blog for the Wanzai families with the hopes that we can share stories of our journey to our children. Share information about Wanzai and the Wanzai County Social Welfare Institute so that others who will be adopting from there may find comfort in our details. The goal is to stay connected to each other for the sake of our children and by the common bond we share, our children...