Our Story

Jo-Ann and I have been together for quite some time. We met in High School and I never turned back. We instantly clicked. In 2001 we were married and off to pursue our careers. Jo-Ann a school teacher and a musical career for me. After some time working on achieving some of our goals in each of our careers, we began to think about a little guy to help create some new and interesting changes in our lives. We began to talk about how great it would be to have a child to teach how to play music or enjoy a fun day at the park with. Sure, we have nephews and nieces to play with, but wouldn’t it be great to have one of our own? To spend every waking moment with. We thought of adoption as a great way to start this new journey. The idea of adoption first came to us because of our experiences with a friend that was adopted from Korea and his story always inspired me. His adopted parents were always so warm and generous. A really amazing family.
So on my birthday, Jo-Ann and I started out on our journey to our family’s future. We spent a couple of days in the upper west side of Manhattan and attended our first meeting regarding adoption. It was quite a scene. There were a bunch of little tikes running around and some nervous parents trying to tell their stories to a bunch of eager listeners while their child grabs some cookies off the table and hands them to the nice couple in the front row. A real interesting meeting. Pretty cool to hear someone else talk about their experiences and to hear their stories on how they came to the decision to adopt a child.
Jo-Ann and I were extremely eager to start our home study courses. A couple of months later starts the paperwork. Boy, was that fun. Writing a biography was really a cool experience. Remembering things from the past. Very cool way to start this journey.
So we got all the necessary paperwork done and all the government stuff done. We were finally done and the journey to adopt a Korean child was about to begin, right? Not really. More like the wait began. A wait for a referral of a child from SWS (Social Welfare Society) in Seoul, Korea.