more pictures....

I can't get over that hair!
I love her!!!
I love her!!!!!!
I love her!!!!!!!!!!

More pictures.....

Look at that hair! Penelope will fit in with her cousins wearing that spiderman T-shirt.

Our Baby Girl!

It gives me with great pleasure to introduce our baby girl Yangfeng Qiu.

Born: January 5, 2005

Height: 24.4 inches

Weight: 12.5 pounds

She is living in the institution and is a deep sleeper. She is able to grab her toys and laughs aloud. She knows her name and turns when called. She responds to facial expressions of adults. She is active, restless, and has a ready smile. She loves to play with colorful toys.

Penelope's Current Place of Residence

This is her Orphanage. We will find out tomorrow if she has been living there or has been living with a foster family. This is so surreal. Her room is not painted and the bowflex is still in it. I guess Penelope will be sleeping with us along with Ginger and Apple. Thank god we have a king size bed or Joe would have to sleep on the sofa.

2nd Call!!!

I was shopping at Target shopping for clothes for Penelope and myself for China. All of a sudden my phone rings. It's USAA (our agency). That %&*#$!!! phone. It will not allow me to pick up the call. I run outside and try to call out. Finally I reach the office,
"are you Patrica Ornelas?"
"yes...."
"is your husband Joe Ornelas?"
"yes...."
"do you live in Alhambra?"
"YES!!!!"
"i have good news for you"
"yes....."
"well we have matched you with a baby girl...and you wanted a very young baby, right?"
"yes...."
"she's 7 months old....her birthday is January 5, 2005...and yours is January 16, right?"
"yes...."
"now you will have your daughter that will be celebrating her birthday along with you"
"WHAAAAAAAA!!!!!!! (tears)"

Penelope's chinese name is Yang Feng Qiu and she is from Yangxi Social Welfare Institute in the Guangdong Province. Joe and I will be picking up her picture tomorrow. I can't wait!!!!! As soon as I am able to scan her photo, I will post it. I'm walking on clouds......

1st Call

Today we received our official first call from our agency. I was told or at least what I can remember, we will be leaving towards the end of August/early September. We will be receiving our referal which has Penelope's information and pictures, in two weeks. So tune in.......

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.