Our journey started at 12:07 a.m. on December 30, 2004.  It started with a posting ( that would change our lives forever) to the Yahoo a-parents-china list serve and it looked like this:

“Hi all. I have permission to post this so I’ll just get to it. See the info below. These boys files will be sent back shortly if they don’t find a family soon. So if you know someone or are interested yourself please contact the people below with CCAI.  We are thrilled to have a set of twin boys who need to be placed this week.  They have cleft lip & palate that has been partially repaired. They appear to have gray eyes but are diagnosed with a condition that indicated their eyes are 2 different colors. The 2 issues together can be part of a bigger issue but we feel that we have ruled these issues out as best we can. They are young and we would love nothing more than to find a home for them fast.  Child information (males) born 7/12/2003 and reside Lianyungang/Jiangsu twins…….Cleft lip/palate (lip has been repaired on both boys) & Heterochromia (2 different eye colors but they are all gray eyes) Need to find them a home this before the first of the year”.

I didn’t see the post until about 7:30 a.m. on December 30, 2004.  At that point I called my wife Mary and asked her what she thought?  Her answer was “why are you still on the phone with me?” 
Let me backup a little.  We started our first journey on October 25, 2004.  We were looking to adopt a baby girl under 1 year of age.  We began our paperwork by collecting all of the documents that our agency requested and we started our home study.  We knew that we had a long road ahead of us but knew that it was worth it.   Our home study was completed by Bright Futures Adoption Center of Lancaster, MA.  And we were approved for up to two children under the age of two years old.  Then we saw the above post and everything changed. 
At 11:52 a.m. I received an email with twenty-seven attachments from CCAI.  These included pictures, medical reports and general updates on Lian Geng Hao and Lian Geng Ming.  We immediately fell in love with these two adorable boys.  Truth be told, Mary immediately fell in love.  I was more guarded.  I emailed all of these reports to the director of the International Adoption Clinic at Tufts Floating Hospital, Dr. Laurie Miller.  Our social worker had told us about the great work that Dr. Miller did and recommended that we contact her once we received our referral.  I printed out all of the reports so that we could read them on our way into Boston that night for dinner in Chinatown and to see “The Lion King”.  While we were sitting in traffic (I know that it’s hard to believe that we could get stuck in traffic in Boston) Dr. Miller called.  With 30 minutes notice she invited us up to her office in Chinatown and spent about 90 minutes with us (this was on the night before New Years Eve at 6:30 p.m.).  She read over the medical reports from China.  She mapped out growth charts for both boys.  She looked at the pictures of the boys and explained the possible ailments that the boys might have.  We left with a lot more information than we came with. 
Over the next couple of days Mary and I discussed this, with me playing devil’s advocate.  Mary said “we can handle anything”.  On January 3, 2005 at 9:30 a.m. we called CCAI with more questions.  We were told that we would have to make a decision quickly because the boys’ file was being sent back to China.  Mary and I discussed it and we finally called CCAI back at 12 noon on January 3, 2005 to let them know that we wanted to bring these boys home.  Next we contacted our social worker who was more than happy to write an addendum to our home study for these two boys. 
Now it is less than six months later and we are going to China to bring home Patrick Hao and Lucas Ming.  Please follow our journey that will allow us to join their family.