In February of 2005, Elizabeth and I began our journey and decided to adopt a little girl from China. After months of paper work we finally received our Log In Date (LID) on August 9th, 2005. That is the date that the Chinese government approved us to adopt a Chinese orphan. Since then, we have waited....and waited.... and waited....until today!

At 12:01 PM today, we received the phone call that we had been waiting for. "Elizabeth and Jeff, we have received notification from the Peoples Republic of China and they have matched you to a child". Dick Dietz (our Social Worker) told us, "and her name is You, Fu Jian".



"You" is her surname given by the orphanage, "Fu" means good fortune and "Jian" means sword. We will call her Eliza. She was born on December 28th, 2005 in the City of Youyang in the Chongqing Province of China. She entered the Fuling District Social Welfare Institute located in the City of Fuling the same day that she was born where she shares a crib with another child.

The latest information that we have on her was from June of 2006 when she weighed 15.4 pounds and was 24.8 inches long. Her health report indicates that she is a normal healthly child for her age.

Elizabeth and I can hardly believe that this day has finally arived! Travel arrangement are being finalized by our adoption agency (CCAI) and we will not receive confirmed travel plans for another two or three weeks. At best guess we will be traveling to China within the next 5 to 8 weeks where we will spend about 2 weeks in China to finalize the adoption and bring Eliza home.

Please visit us often over the next 8 to 12 weeks and join us on Eliza's journey home!