Where is She??

There's Ginger and Apple waiting for sister Penelope to come home.

Waiting for Penelope

We create this website to document and share our journey to adopt our baby girl Penelope. We started this process in May of 2004. There were three major steps in the adoption process that we had to complete: (1) gather almost a million documents saying that we are able to provide for a child. Included in that were referrals letters from friends. Thank you Rob, Christine, Rick and Kim for your beautiful words. (2) complete the "homestudy" wherein a qualified social worker examines us as a couple and as individuals to determine our worthiness as parents (3) file an application with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service to bring a foreign adopted orphan into the US. In January, we submitted our "dossier" to the U.S. Asian Affairs in Monterey Park and it was sent to China. We were assigned to Group 106.

Now is the waiting. If the current pattern holds, sometime in July we should receive a "referral" consisting of a photo of the baby China has matched with us along with information on her estimated birth date and a medical report. We should expect to travel to China about two months later to complete the adoption process and bring her home! When we receive our referral, we will share the excitement with you by posting her pictures here! Then, when we are in China, we will write daily to keep you updated, and we will also post pictures as we are finally united with our new daughter!

pati & joe 2.14.04

Join Us

We welcome you to join us on this magnificent adventure where we will be traveling to China and be joined with our daughter Penelope. This is the begining of a new life for us.