Hi and Welcome to my little
Piece of Cyber Space

This web page is dedicated to my family and my hobbies.
First my family: I am married to Shane and with that marriage I inherited a step son, Ryan.
After 6 1/2 years of infertility, Shane and I decided that what was important to us was a child, not whose body that child spent 9 months in, so we started the adoption process.
In April 1995 we started the paper chase, collecting birth, marriage and divorce certificates. Being fingerprinted for an FBI fingerprint check and a state wide child abuse check. A case worker visited with us and did a homestudy. Finally it was all together and we sent our dossier off to Russia. Due to Russia shuting down to redo its adoption laws and my total lack of patience, we switched from Russia to China in October 1995. We did a whole new dossier for China, keeping the first one in Russia, thinking that whichever country we were meant to adopt from would become clear in the future. Our dossier was sent to China in Feburary 1996 and we got the referral for our daughter, Fu Rongping, April 19th 1996.
Grandma Gaye and I flew to China on the 18th of June and landed in China on the 19th. I held Chaya the first time the 21st. We spent 11 days in China, doing adoption paper work and some site seeing. I fell totally in love with China and can't wait to go back. The adoption was final on the 24th of June. We landed back in the U.S. June 30th, to an airport full of friends and family. What a trip!!

There was 9 families in our group who all came home with daughters ranging in age from 8 months to 11 months. I will forever feel a special connection with this group of people. We share the first moments of parenthood together in a far away country, those are ties that can't be broken.

After almost 9 years of marriage we found out that we were having a baby. Chase was born August 6th 1998, weighing in at 7 lbs 9.5 oz. He was a complete breech, which wasn't discovered until I was dilated to an 8 and had been in labor for 9 hours. Chase was delivered by C section and all went well. He was welcomed by his big sister Chaya, who fell in love the minute she saw him and by big brother Ryan.

Chase was a very welcomed surprise. Since we found out I was pregnant in December it made Christmas even more wonderful. It took a while for the news of a baby to sink in and become real. It even took about 4 months for the doctor to totally believe it! After a little over 2 weeks together, Chase seems to be a calm and patient soul. Not too demanding and perfectly happy to sit in your arms and look around at the new world around him. He does love to eat!!! Chaya is being the perfect "mommy" and is by his side at the first wimper. We all are very blessed. Oh yes, we do have pictures of our newest family member.

What about the other adoption? Well we are STILL waiting for INS clearance and I think we are still thinking about trying to do it. I feel that Red Thread from China pulling hard at my heart strings but at this point it is all in Gods hands. He is going to have to show us how we are going to pull this off, if that's what He has in mind for us.

See more pictures of the family and of China!
TO THE PICTURE GALLERY

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THESE ARE PHOTOS OF CHINA AND WHERE I'VE BEEN.

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Hobbies and interests:
I enjoy being home with my daughter and plan to stay home with her and her new brother.

I also enjoy reading. Anne Rice is my favorite author and of her books, The Witching Hour and Lasher are my favs.

Anne Rice Links
Theatre des Vampires
Anne Rice Vampire Chronicles

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I am big time into scrapbooking, here are a few of my favorite links;

Sue's Place-Virtual Scrapbook
Poem Place and Page Toppers
Welcome to Sidelines-Your Scrapbooking Headquarters
LMNOP Layouts 1
Scrapbook Layout Index Page
Scrapbooking! Baby Books & More!(pt.2) Parenting Babies and Toddlers-01/0
dMarie.com-Creative Scrapbook Headquarters

Are you a stay at home Mom?
check these links out for others!

Laleche League International-breastfeeding
Mr. Mom website
The Cybermom Dot Com
The Parents Place

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Here is the site of a west coast friend who helped get this page off the ground.

If your in need of gift ideas, go and check this site for
some of the best of wood work art!

PAPA LARRYS WOOD SHOP

I would love to chat or e-mail with other adoptive parents, scrapers or Anne Rice lovers. Feel free to e-mail me.

Let me know what you think about my page.
Send mail by clicking here.

Read my Dreambook! Sign my Dreambook!