Ethan's Story

For Maggie's birthday, I decided that instead of toys or something that she would lose interest in a week- we would sponsor a foster child through CCAI's Charity Outreach program. Now don't worry - Maggie got plenty of fantastic toys and things from her grandparents and cousins! But I really wanted to give back to the country that helped us become a family. So, we got set up with the foster family program.

I received quarterly reports on the children that we sponsored, and rejoiced every time our sponsored child was matched with her forever family! This occured several times throughout the year, and I received a new match each time. Our latest report was sent to us in July 2007 for our newest sponsor. He was this little boy who had these heartbreaking eyes - John said they were "brutal", and that was the perfect word. He was so tiny and looked so fragile! I read in his report that he had a tumor on his back, which was removed via surgery. Something in this little guy just grabbed me. On the off chance that we could find out more information about him, I contacted CCAI to see if they would ever receive his file in the Waiting Child program. They emailed me to say that the chance is highly unlikely due to the number of agencies his file could be sent to, but they would let me know if they did see it come across their desks. I was disappointed, but accepted it and hoped that this baby would find his family soon.

One September afternoon - Friday afternoon - I got home from work and saw there was a message on the answering machine. It was CCAI, asking me to call them back right away and "You will never believe what we received today!!" I started to cry - was this really happening? YES IT WAS! Deniece called to let me know that they received Fu Bao Jin's file, and wanted to know if we would be interested in reviewing it! This was truly a one in a million chance, and it was a miracle that CCAI would have received his file in the first place!

After a lot of discussions, a lot of medical opinions, a lot of praying and a lot of support of our family and friends, we accepted Bao Jin's referral on September 28, 2007! We asked Maggie what we should name him, and she replied "Ethan". I have no idea where this name came from, as she doesn't know anyone by this name! But it was decided that he would be named Ethan Patrick Jin Novak. Hopefully we will get to travel in early 2008 to bring him home!