December Photo Update

Preparing for Adoption Day

 We have been doing some required online training lately for the adoption.  This is a short movie about one ''adoption day'', the day the adoptive family actually takes the child into their family.  Although this is the day we have waited so long for, and such a happy day for us,  it may be the child's worst.  Imagine being put into the hands of strangers by the only people you know, being evicted from the only home you have known.  I hope that Ying Rong has a little easier time with the initial transition since we are in the unique position of having already spent time with her.
 Quite a bit of our training deals with the grief and loss that these children feel throughout their lives.  They miss there caretakers.  They miss their playmates, who they may have been living with for years.  They grieve the loss of their birth parents, who they never knew.  They become sad when they realize that they did not grow in their adoptive mom's tummy, and that they look nothing like their adoptive mom and dad.  They may sometimes doubt that they belong with their new family at all.  All of this sadness manifests itself in different ways and at different stages in their lives.  We hope that our love and the Holy Ghost will ease the sad and confusing times Ying Rong is bound to encounter.   Please pray that she adjusts well and always feels at home in our home.

Adoption Update

We are still working on our dossier and home study paperwork. We are about to submit 8 important documents to the Chinese Consulate in Chicago for authentication, and we are very close to submitting all of our documents to the agency doing our home study. We have applied for one adoption grant and are waiting to hear if we will receive any funds. After our home study is approved we are free to apply for many other adoption grants; most granting organization require families to have an approved home study. We are looking forward to new photos and an update from the orphanage this month!

It has been a beautiful fall here in Kansas, with lots of sun and warm weather. We are preparing for winter and already looking forward to spring, because that is when we hope to be able to travel to China to get Ying Rong! There is so much to look forward to!

October Photos

Ying Rong and her good friend, who is also being adopted!

Ying Rong Received Our Care Package (New Photos!)

We sent a care package and letter to Ying Rong about three weeks ago. It arrived in China last week. The orphanage took photos and a video of her receiving her package. In our letter, we told Ying Rong that we are adopting her and that we will come for her as soon as we can. The orphanage sent us a message saying she is happy and misses us. I hope she is happy.We can't wait to see her again!!!!! Even though we haven't completed our home study or dossier, we've already started making unofficial travel plans :) 

Our Lady of China

The Blessed Virgin first appeared in Donglu, China in 1900. Donglu is a few hours drive from Beijing. It's been reported that Holy Mary has appeared in Donglu as recently as 1995.  The site of the apparition is over 1,000 miles from where Ying Rong has lived all her life -  

You can read more about this at:

http://indefenseofthecross.com/marian-apparitions/our-lady-of-china/

http://www.cardinalkungfoundation.org/pm/PMourladyofchina.php
 

Fundraising at the Fair

This past weekend our good friends set up a booth at our parish fair to raise money for Ying Rong. Many generous people from our parish contributed to our adoption fund and we are truly grateful.

Our friends made Ying Rings and bracelets, and small, handcrafted finger puppet dolls to sell, and for prizes. I enjoyed meeting new people and talking about Ying Rong as they visited the booth. All during the fair I was thinking how nice it will be next year to have Ying Rong with us - she will have so much fun playing games, bouncing in the jump house, riding the train, eating cotton candy and having her face painted. She will be welcomed by a wonderful and loving Catholic family community!

Raising Funds for Ying Rong

We have been very blessed with donations to our adoption fund; we are grateful for this financial support, and for everyone who is praying for us, for our intentions, and for Ying Rong. We have set a goal to raise $32,000 for our adoption. The cost of adopting a child from China is nearly $30,000. Not included in this cost are fees for ordering documents, mailing documents, background checks, training expenses, our home study, post-adoption services and reports, and little things like stamps and gas, etc. In addition to expenses for the adoption process, we will also have a loss of income for two weeks when Joe travels to  China to get Ying Rong. China requires at least one parent to travel, and since we have 3 little ones at home, we have decided that Joe will go.

We have set up a fundraising profile on the website, Adopt Together (adopttogether.org/thedorans) where donors can offer their support.  So far, $10,150 has been generously donated to help us bring Ying Rong home.  We are keeping all of our benefactors in our prayers. May God bless you all abundantly for your love and support!

More to come....... Fundraising at our Parish Fair and Applying for Adoption Grants 


                                          

We've Started Our Home Study........& Are ONE Step Closer.....

Our Home Study is officially under way!  Our Social Worker visited our home for the first time last week and it went well. She gave us an overview of the study and handed over a huge packet of paperwork that we need to complete. We were told it could take a couple months to finish the study, but I am hoping to get it done sooner than that. The process does not seem quite as daunting as the dossier because we don't have to notarize, certify and authenticate everything. Also, a lot of the paperwork is similar to what we are doing for our dossier, so it's just a matter of transferring the information to another form. Finding time to do paperwork is a challenge, but we are getting it done.... one step at at time! I hope this time next year Ying Rong is enjoying a hike with the rest of us!

 

Could You Host and Orphan?

We met little Ying Rong through the China Hosting Program. We did not think we would qualify to adopt, so we decided we would host a child. We wanted to at least give Ying Rong the chance to experience being in a family, and we had planned to advocate for her,  to help find her a family.

Elizabeth's Letter to Ying Rong

Our five year old daughter, Elizabeth, is always thinking about Ying Rong. Today she drew this picture for her.

From left to right: Elizabeth, Ying Rong.

Adoption Update

We have started working on our dossier, which is a pile of paperwork we create and/or obtain. Each document we gather or create has to be notarized, certified, and authenticated -   to certify a document we have to send it to the Secretary of State who will verify the Notary Public's name, after which we send everything to the appropriate Chinese Consulate/Embassy to verify the Secretary of State's name. Once all of our documents have been "sealed" (notarized, certified and authenticated) they will go to China for review.  We have a lot of work ahead of us, but knowing that little Ying Rong is waiting, patiently, on the other end, keeps us motivated!

New Photo of Ying Rong

We received a recent photo of Ying Rong yesterday and the orphanage said that she is doing really well. 

Letter to Ying Rong

We were given permission to send a letter to Ying Rong telling her that we are adopting her!  A family friend translated our letter from English to Chinese:

Dear Ying Rong,

How are you? We are very excited to see you again. Papa will come for you as soon as the adoption agency tells us he can. He will take an airplane to China to get you and then the two of you will fly home to our house, where you will see Mama, Elizabeth, Joseph, baby Luke, and all the animals (Bosco and Jenny, the chickens, ducks, pigs, and cats). We hope you will also soon see your cousins and grandparents. Do you remember Mr. and Mrs. Sun from the Chinese restaurant? You have a photo in your book of you and Mrs. Sun. Mr. Sun is helping us write letters to you, and we will take you to visit the Sun family when you come to the United States.

We think of you all the time and we pray for you every day. Mama and Papa hope you are happy and having fun with your friends. We love you and we will see you soon!

Love and prayers,

Papa and Mama
             &
Elizabeth, Joseph and Luke

Newest photo of Ying Rong

Ying Rong at the orphanage playing with one of her friends.

Fundraising Update

We are raising funds for our adoption on the site, AdoptTogether.  We were amazed and very grateful for the generosity of our friends and family who helped us pay our first agency fee ($2,900) and home study fee ($1,200). Within hours of posting our profile, we had raised the funds we needed for these first fees.  We want to thank you all for your prayers and financial support, and for taking part in bringing our little girl home.

adopttogether.org/thedorans

Update from the Orphanage

We have received a few updates on Ying Rong since she's returned to China.  Here is a photo of her at the orphanage, with a friend:

The staff at the orphanage reported that Ying Rong is doing well. She often looks at the photo album of her trip to the United States and shares it with her friends.We pray that her Guardian Angel and Holy Mary, her Mother, watch over her and keep her safe, always.

CCAI Older Orphan Hosting - CHINA

Introducing Ying Rong

Ying Rong is a five year old, little girl from China, who will soon be our daughter.  Ying Rong was abandoned when she was one day old. She was found outside of a hospital in Zhejiang Province, China; she has lived ever since in an orphanage. Ying Rong was born with a rare condition called sturge-weber syndrome. Sturge-weber is characterized by a port wine birthmark, which she has on her head and face. She also has seizures, a symptom of this disorder.

We first met Ying Rong in June 2016 at the Denver International Airport. She traveled to the United States with a group of orphans who were all taking part in a summer hosting program organized by CCAI - an adoption agency in Centennial Colorado. Each orphan lived with a family for one month in the United States. 

Ying Rong is a very outgoing and confident child. She loves to be held and hugged, and she is not afraid of meeting new people. She is also strong-willed and a little obstinate at times. She fits right in with our other children!

Ying Rong, Joseph, Lizzy and Luke

We're adopting from China

We are adopting! We have been officially approved by China to begin the process of adopting Ying Rong.


We are excited to bring this little girl home to be a part of our life - with dozens of cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents and a great, Catholic community here in Kansas, we know she will be welcomed and loved by everyone!

I will post information and updates about our adoption on this blog. Please subscribe to follow our blog and also share it with others, post it to social media sites, or pass it along in an e-mail. You can receive e-mail updates posted here by using the "Follow By Email" field located in the upper right hand corner.

Thank you!