This is the 15th installment in a series of columns I am devoting to the adoption journey my wife, Claudette, and I started in 2005. Hank Bond, publisher and editor of the Greenup Beacon, asked that we share our story with you. Maybe you have an interest in adoption or know someone who does. If so, I hope this information is helpful. We adopted our daughter, Josie Claire Siyan, from China in 2007.

While in China, we communicated with our friends and family members via a website we set up prior to leaving for our two-week journey throughout China.

In a Feb. 1, 2007, entry in our website entitled “Our Adoption Story”:

“Our adoption story begins back in the late 1990s. Claudette and I, as many of you know, were married in 1998. We decided early on that we wanted three or four children in our family.  We always wanted boys and girls.”

“Brock, our oldest child, was born in 2000, at King’s Daughters Medical Center in Ashland, Ky.  He’s a beautiful son, who’s over halfway through his first grade year at Sugar Creek Christian Academy in Ironton.  He’s doing very well in his studies.  We are very proud of him.”

“Blake, our middle child, was born in 2001, at King’s Daughters Medical Center in Ashland, Ky. (and no, I didn’t pass out during either of Claudette’s C-Sections!).  He’s also a beautiful son, who has been in preschool for 1.5 years (at the Children’s Learning Center at Shawnee State University where I am a professor, and now at Central Christian Church in Ironton).  We met with his teachers recently and they said he is very independent, and stays out of the trouble that most of the boys in his class cause on a regular basis.  We are very proud of Blake, as well.”

“Josie Claire Siyan (See Ann), our youngest child, was born in 2004, and was found abandoned on the steps of the Suzhou Social Welfare Institute in Jiangsu province in the People’s Republic of China.  She spent the first 2.5 years of her life at SWI.  Through reports we would receive on occasion and through our direct interaction with our beautiful daughter, we have come to know Josie as a very quiet, happy child, who is usually content no matter where she is.” 

“A couple of years after Blake was born, Claudette and I began to talk about having another child.  We love our two boys more than anything in life, but also wanted a daughter we could also love more than anything in life.  We prayed about this and God laid it upon our hearts to adopt our daughter versus trying to have another biological child.  The more we prayed the more God led us to China.  We would see American parents with their Chinese babies and it touched our hearts to think a couple would go clear across the globe and adopt a baby into their family.  We made the decision in February 2006 to begin our adoption process.”

“We had known of several couples in our community who had used A Helping Hand (AHH) Christian adoption agency out of Lexington, Ky., for their Chinese adoptions.  Based on what some of these individuals had to say about AHH, we decided to utilize this agency.  We officially started “the ball rolling” in March 2006.  The amount of paperwork that has to be completed is phenomenal.  Form after form has to be filled out completely and accurately, and nearly every piece of paper must be notarized (special thanks to our Aunt Bonnie who helped us get forms notarized, in addition to my friend Denise Gregory at SSU).”

“In May, Claudette was scanning the special needs lists of waiting children in China and found “Bridget.”  “Bridget’s” real name is Wu Siyan.  She was around 1.5 years old at the time.  She was born with a cleft lip and cleft palate, and found abandoned on the steps of the Suzhou Social Welfare Institution in the Jiangsu province of China.  Claudette showed me the web site and we knew right away, without hesitation, that this is our daughter.  We had scanned and scanned lists during that two-month period and had finally found our daughter.  We learned that Siyan’s lip had been surgically repaired. 

We learned all about her health and disposition via medical reports provided to us by Lifeline Adoption Agency (also a Christian agency) out of Alabama.  I immediately called Lifeline and they put “Bridget” on hold for us.  Claudette and I took a day to pray about it.  We never doubted for one second that Siyan is our daughter.  We immediately kicked things into high gear, had our home study completed (another major project), and officially had “Bridget” put on hold for us (soon to be changed to “Matched” status by Lifeline).  We also found out quickly that A Helping Hand would do their first co-op agreement with Lifeline, because we were so far into the paperwork process with AHH.”

“That same weekend, we had plans to visit with Doug and Tonia Darbro and their daughter Sadie (whom they adopted from China in early 2005 when she was 1.5 years old).  While I am a journalism and communication professor in the Department of English and Humanities at Shawnee State University, Doug is a mathematics professor in the Department of Mathematical Sciences at SSU, we really didn’t know one another very well.  Our departments are housed side-by-side on the fourth floor of Massie Hall at SSU.  In addition to that, His office space was four office spaces to the left of my office!  I had known of Doug as I had been at SSU since 1998, but I didn’t know him well.  I do remember stopping by my office during Christmas break in 2005 and saw Doug with Sadie and spoke to them. 

Sadie is a beautiful and precious girl, and Doug and Tonia were very blessed by the addition of her into their family.  My departmental secretary, Elsie Shabazz, and Doug’s departmental secretary at the time, Carol Sexton, introduced us, and the relationship Doug and I have since developed has played a major role in our comfort level during this very rigorous, sometimes intimidating process. 

We are very thankful to God that we met Doug, Tonia, and Sadie (and now Bailey—whom they adopted from China this past summer; she’s also a very beautiful, precious gift from above!).”  

“On our (Claudette, Brock, Blake, and me) way to visit Doug, Tonia, and Sadie at their home in Carlisle, Ky., we stopped at Wal-Mart in Maysville.  We were looking around the toy section and discovered an Asian Cabbage Patch doll named “Bridget!” 

 We had asked God in the beginning of our adoption journey to let us know in very clear terms what direction we were to take.  He kept moving us to China.  And here was another sign that we were supposed to not only adopt our daughter from China, but adopt “Bridget,” as Wu Siyan was known on the Lifeline web site.”

“The adoption process can be very stressful.  Paperwork after paperwork, waiting upon more waiting, stories of others having to redo paperwork and resend items, all factors that may be encountered during the process. 

Claudette and I decided right up front, as we do with any decision in our lives together, to put God in complete control.  When He is at the center of our lives, things go very smoothly.  He handles the problems.  In His Word, we are directed to give him our problems and he will solve them.  We did that with our adoption and it has been smooth sailing.”

“I have to say that my wonderful, beautiful wife, Claudette, took charge of our paperwork and did a superb job handling all facets of our adoption.  I’m very thankful God blessed me with such a wonderful wife with whom I will share all of my days on earth.  She’s precious to me and she and I now have three precious children in our family.  God has richly blessed us.”

“There are so many people we need to thank who helped us along our nearly 11-month adoption journey.  They include individuals who prayed for us, like our parents, Terry and Judy Hapney, and Larry and Patty Browning; our grandparents, Georgia Browning and Raymond Miller, Sr.; our sisters and their families, Jolinda, Michelle, Paulette, and Melanie; and our church family. 

We’d like to thank our parents for watching our precious boys while we are in China; Michelle (Claudette’s sister mentioned in the previous sentence), for buying the Josie t-shirts for both sides of our family to wear at the airport on 2/8; Doug and Tonia Darbro, who were very helpful in sharing their story with us and what to do, what not to do, really every facet of the adoption process—I told Doug that he and Tonia should serve as adoption consultants!; Karla at Lifeline who continually called us and gave us updates just at the right times; Bev Conley and Spirit of Christ Church (our church) for the money they gave us from the penny collection the kids in the church built up for God’s work); all of our friends, relatives, and colleagues who have signed our josieclaire.com guest book and/or sent e-mails, called, stopped by, etc. to share in our joy of adopting Josie Claire Siyan Hapney; our guide, John, for his expertise in the adoption process, where to go to see Josie’s culture firsthand, where to eat, etc. (he has been a tremendous help to us); and most importantly, we thank almighty God for making this entire Chinese adoption process possible for us to attain. 

 Again, it can be a very stressful process and is very costly.  God made it possible through our leaning on his strength to get us through the stressful times, and through allowing us to have the finances to complete the adoption.  Thanks to all of the prayer warriors who lifted our names up in prayer on a regular basis.  Your prayers and our prayers were answered!”

“Now we are into day seven of our journey in China.  It touched my heart yesterday during lunch when our guide, John who is from Nanjing, was speaking to Josie.  He calls her Siyan and really draws out the “Seee Aannn.”  He will then say “Josie,” which sound a lot like “Juicy!”  He told Josie that she has two wonderful parents and two wonderful brothers and a back yard to play in, and her own room, and that she will have a much better life with her Mommy and Daddy than she would have had here in China. 

We almost cried hearing him tell her that.  Not only will Josie have the best life possible with us (home, safety, higher education, etc.), but she will, more importantly, come to know Jesus Christ as her Lord and Savior.  She will not only have her physical needs and wants met in the U.S. with us, she will have her spiritual needs met and grow up in a Christian home with her Mommy, Daddy, brothers Brock and Blake, and cats Yoda and Luke!”

“I hope God will use us to share our journey with others who are considering adoption.  While the waiting for travel approval can sometimes be tough, I wouldn’t change anything about our journey.  God kept it smooth for us, and for that we are extremely thankful.”

“We are thrilled that God chose us to be the parents of Brock, Blake, and Josie.  We feel very blessed and thank him for our precious family.”

Terry L. Hapney, Jr., Ph.D., is a professor in the W. Page Pitt School of Journalism and Mass Communications at Marshall University, and an eastern Greenup County native. He may be reached at hapney@marshall.edu.