At first, the thought really scared me. It was something that in my 45 years I had never considered or even ran into that much. But now it was probably the only reasonable alternative for Carolyn and I to raise a family together. It still didn't feel right and the thought of appearing on the Opra Winfrey show with some mother, young enough to be my daughter, telling the world why she should have her child back, didn't appeal to me in the even remotest of ways.

God had other plans. A few weeks into the "quiet" period, I was awakend each morning to a series on National Public Radio's "Morning Edition" about China and, in particular, on the increasing number of Chinese adoptions. The neurons in my brain began firing, more each day as I considered the possibility until I discovered this was the answer. That, in fact, it was the answer all along! The excitement in me was frenetic, I could hardly contain myself! I began searching the Internet (at the time a pretty new thing) for more information. Information about adoption, about China, about agencies, about how to get started.

In my search, I found Holt International. I gathered all my infomation and my facts and decided to present it all to Carolyn. One afternoon, while at lunch, I asked her if she'd like to go to China. Her immediate reaction was that I had gotten a job transfer or something and we'd have to move there. I told her that I had done some research and would like to talk about adopting from China. I really thought I was hitting her with something that she'd find too distant, too unapproachable, basically, someting way out in left field.

Nope.

She had been doing her own (low-tech) research and had arrived at the same decision and had been talking to Lutheran Ministries of Georgia. As it turned out, both LMG and Holt worked together in Atlanta to process Chinese (as well as other) adoptions. We made an appointment with LMG and we were on our way!

Ironically, it wouldn't be until some 15 months later that we'd discover our daughter to be was born at just about the same time our IVF possibilities had died away.