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.

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!