Our Family Album

David's Artwork

Saturday, May 24, 2008

Earthquake Benefit Dinner


We just came home from an earthquake benefit dinner being held at our local Chinese restaurant. Jiapan Chen (pictured 2nd from right), who owns the A-Won China Buffet in York, Pennsylvania, has expressed his sympathy and support for China's Sichuan Province by donating all of the earnings made from today's sales to the disaster. As we were leaving he bowed to us. A very humbling experience...he was the one who was deserving of our respect and gratitude. The benefit was organized by Mr. Chen's friend, Zehao Zhou (pictured on far right), a member of our local Families With Children From China support group. ZZ, as he is known to family and friends is a professor at York College and has been very kind and supportive to our family.

It's All In A Name..

I thought some of you may be wondering how we came up with Du Tan's new American name. I've always been a name nut, and have enjoyed searching the baby name books for everything from our children's names to names for our dogs, cats, fish and hamster. I'm so crazy that I even named my cell phone!! His name is Ahsan, which is a Hindi name from Sanskrit meaning "gratitude". Hey, I waited a LONG time for my cell phone!(I told you I'm crazy!) Anyway, I wanted to make sure that there was a nice meaning involved with Du Tan's new name choice. So after months and months of searching, I came up with David Esai Du Tan. David means "beloved", Esai (pronounced ee-sigh)is the Spanish form of the Hebrew name Jesse, which means "gift". So he's our "beloved gift". Du means "big" and Tan means "protector". So there you have it! :)

Friday, May 23, 2008

Changsha here we come!!

Today we received our long-awaited travel approval! Our agency is requesting a consulate date of June 30th. This means that we'll be leaving around June 20th!! It has taken so long to finally get to this point, and now that it's here I don't know what to do first. Who am I kidding, of course I know what to do...PACK!!!! Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers though, as we still do not have the needed funds to actually leave. This has been a tough adoption on us, but we're going on faith that things will work out. After almost 10 years of waiting, David has a family, and we feel so blessed that we get to be the lucky ones to welcome him home!

A Poem For My Little Boy

I jotted down the poem below for David. He has waited his entire life for a family to call his own. According to his caretakers, he has become depressed at times. It has been very hard on him, watching as each of his friends have left for foster or adoptive families. He has wondered when it would be his turn, and has asked some families in China if they would adopt him. I can hardly wait to see the look on his face when he realizes that he will be coming home to live with his best buddy, Noah! Anyway, here goes...

Through time and distance we have been joined,
our thoughts and dreams melding into one.
Sadness came, and doubt.
Never knowing, still we worked and planned.
We are joined by our souls desires.
Love...it is everything.
Always enough,
to bring our thought world into substance.
Sadness and doubt are now tossed
into the sea of forgetfulness.
As together we go on,
into this miracle that is our destiny.
~Mama

Thursday, May 22, 2008

More on the Earthquake in China

It's been over one week since the devastating 7.9 magnitude earthquake in China's Sichuan province. There have been many, many survival stories. This slide show reveals the horror of what the people endured and are still enduring.
http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/Powerful-quake-rocks-central-China/ss/events/wl/051208chinaquake/s:/ap/china_earthquake;_ylt=Aid.cdFy.NyCKP0500ShCmj9xg8F

Monday, May 12, 2008

David is Safe!

I've been watching the news all day after learning that an earthquake hit central China. Although the quake was felt in Hunan (David's province), there have been no reports of damage there. Our hearts are heavy for everyone affected.
Here's the link to the story...

Thursday, May 8, 2008

Our Adoption Timeline

For those of you that are waiting to travel to bring home your child from China, I thought that I'd include our list of dates. So here goes...We applied to our agency, Families Thru International Adoption (FTIA) on 3-16-07. We were matched to David on 12-11-07, and sent in our letter of intent on 1-4-08. Our pre-approval arrived on 1-14-08, a very happy day indeed! Our dossier was sent to China on 2-15-08, and we were officially logged in to the China Center of Adoption Affairs on 2-22-08!! On 5-1-08 we were surprised to learn that our letter of acceptance had arrived, after only a 69 day wait. So now we are only waiting on our travel approval, which we think will arrive by the end of May. As soon as our travel approval is through, our agency will request the ever-coveted consulate appointment. Then it will be off to China to bring back our cuddly sweet boy! We expect to travel in June or July. Our little guy will be turning 10 yrs. old on July 22nd, so we are very hopeful to get to him before then! :) Sorry if this was a boring post for some of you...but I know first hand how important dates are when you're waiting (not so patiently) for your own turn to come.

Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Introducing...David Esai Du Tan McClymont

In 2005, we were blessed to adopt our little boy Noah (Tan Tong) from Changsha, China. Soon after returning home, Noah began talking about his best friend Du Tan. The boys had grown up together and had become very close. Both boys have Spina Bifida, and both need wheelchairs for their mobility, so they have a lot in common. Noah missed his best friend terribly. We began to sponsor Du Tan in 2006. We exchanged letters and packages, and before we knew what hit us...we were in love! We wanted so much to adopt him, but he wasn't registered for adoption. We began sending translated letters to the orphanage that oversees his case. They seemed happy that we were showing an interest, but month after month nothing happened. This went on for a year. Finally, in desperation, we contacted a few international adoption agencies. They tried repeatedly to help us, but were declined by the China Center of Adoption Affairs. One agency finally was able to work things out, and this past December we were matched to our sweet little bear cub! In one of the letters Noah received from Du Tan, he said, "Tan Tong, I still dream. I dream that I fly on a plane to America and you are there to collect me". Thus, the title of this blog! Little did Du Tan know that we were hard at work trying to adopt him! It is our desire to encourage anyone considering adoption to follow their heart. We know first hand how wonderful it is to welcome a child into your lives. We hope you enjoy following us on our journey to David!