Family

Sean Thomas O'Connor (Dad)

Shannon Korink O'Connor (Mom)

Eliza Catherine Yu O'Connor (age 4)

 Egan Patrick Chaka O'Connor  (age 1)

waiting for Elinor Margaret O'Connor (China)

Quinn William Samuel O'Connor (in our hearts, 07/10/08 -  10/18/08)

We have been very blessed to be able to build our family through adoption. We began our first adoption in the fall of '04 and 18 months later(April of '06) flew to China to bring home our adorable daughter, Eliza, who was 8 months old at the time.

In January of '07 we started the process again knowing that the wait times for China had increased. We knew we wanted another child and it was our hope that the girls could support each other as they grew and struggled with the details of a common background and culture. Our paperwork was received in China that July and our initial hope was for a 2-3 year wait for a little sister whom we have planned on naming Elinor (Ellie). However, by the end of '07 it was clear that our 2-3 year wait would in all likelihood be closer to 5 years. While we knew our daughter was in China and would be joined with us eventually we were a bit heartbroken that our whole family, especially Lizzie, would be waiting so long. We prayed A LOT, talked a lot, and searched our hearts and souls for the best decision for our family.

In the middle of all of this God unexpectedly brought a little special needs baby to us and opened our hearts to options and possibilities that were only theories before and could now be a reality. We put ourselves into a tailspin, excitedly preparing for a new born, mentally preparing ourselves to understand and be prepared for some of his special challenges, and working over-time to get him out of foster care as soon as possible. The adoption was disrupted two days before we were to bring him home, leaving a hole in our hearts where we now knew a child should be. Many tears, prayers, and conversations later, we started the process of our adoption from Ethiopia. This is often referred to as a concurrent adoption since we are also still waiting on our daughter from China.

So, in May of '08 we sent our finished paperwork off to Ethiopia, again putting our faith in God that He has put us on this path to be matched with the baby that He has planned for us. Ethiopia is a much newer program with a lot more unknowns about time lines.  We were told to anticipate a 12-18 month wait, but to our great surprise we were matched with a 2 month old little boy just 4 months after sending off our paperwork.   To say that we felt blessed and overjoyed by this match would be a total understatement.  But that joy was turned to heartbreak when he suddenly passed away in his transition house just 5 short weeks before we were to bring him home.  We knew that this was a risk, but nothing prepares you for such heartbreak.  But we continued to put our faith in God and knew that He would match us to another baby when the time was right. 

Another two months later we were matched with a chubby little 8 month old boy with the biggest, most expressive eyes you have ever seen.  Any fears of feeling guarded or unsure about being able to open our hearts to another baby melted away when we looked into those eyes.  We made it successfully through court on March 4th, traveled to Ethiopia on April 10th, and had him in our arms on Easter Sunday, April 12th- 11 months after beginning the journey.  Now that we have him safely home we have started the process of RE-adopting Egan to officially change his name from Tegegn to Egan and finalize all of the legal mumbo-jumbo (a step we didn't have to take with Lizzie).

Adjusting to a baby boy has us absolutely discombobulated:  he is so active and curious- walking, grabbing, CLIMBING!  There is no rest for the weary in our house as watching Egan is a full time job for all of us.  For the first time in two years we are grateful for the slow down in China to give us some time to adjust and focus on Egan and Lizzie before we add any more chaos to our lives!

As always, we thank everyone who has kept us in their prayers through the ups and downs of the adoption process. And we love talking about the huge blessing adoption has been for us (at least Shannon does!), so please ask us questions if adoption is tugging at your heart as well.

Shannon,  Sean, Eliza, and Egan O'Connor