Ni hao! My name is Heidi, and I am currently in Guangzhou, China, with my husband and four of our children as we prepare to meet our newest son and sibling in less than two days. I am thrilled to share our latest adoption journey with you, as well as other thoughts and ideas related to adopting a sibling from the parent’s point of view.

Believe it or not, my husband Jeff and I discussed adoption before we ever even married. That might sound like putting the cart before the horse, but I told him that I had always felt that I would adopt some of my children and I needed to know if he was OK with that. Thankfully he was not only “OK” with the idea, but also felt that adoption was a wonderful way to build a family.

Our oldest daughter, Nicole, was born to us 23 years ago, just 10 days after our third anniversary. Next was Lynn, who showed up almost 3 years later. I guess God thought my life was too easy, because two and a half years later, I gave birth to Taylor, who I swear was more active from the moment of conception than my girls ever were! After a reprieve of four years to catch my breath, Alyssa entered the picture. From the time she was about two, I began to wonder when we would start adding to our family through adoption, but the timing just didn’t feel right.

Then one day when Alyssa was almost 6 years old, I saw a picture of a precious 3 year old Chinese boy on the internet. As soon as I saw him, I felt that I had found my next child. He was profoundly deaf, but our entire family already knew sign language at various levels of proficiency, so I felt that he might be a perfect match for us. The problem might be in informing my husband, who didn’t yet know more than a few signs. I sent him an email with this little boy’s picture and asked him, “How would you like a new son?”

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