Introducing Cade

Since we accepted Lui Jun Jie's referral, Bob and I couldn't agree on a name. Two weeks ago our agency needed his new name so that we could complete some of the necessary papers in order to get a visa. After much discussion we finally agreed upon a name - Caden Dean Junjie Tarwater.

Caden was born 12/10/09 and is currently 14 months old. We received these updated pics of him at the beginning of Jan.





He had his palate repaired in December. It will be nice not to have to rush around trying to get that fixed when he gets home. He is a big boy - 25lbs and 29in (as of 12/30/2010). We aren't sure what size he is now but we are estimating around 24month or 2T size.

We have decided for this trip that Bob will travel with his mom. I am disappointed that I am not able to go, but Nathan has been so sick the past couple of months and we can't risk both of us being gone for two weeks. We are estimating travel between the middle of April and the beginning of May. We hope you follow along on our journey. We can't wait to bring Caden home.

Our return to China

Ever since we had brought Addie home, we had wanted to travel back to China to bring home another child. Last spring we started seriously talking about adoption again. In July we submitted our paperwork to begin the process. We had decided we wanted another son and since boys are matched very quickly with families we told our agency to hold off on our referral until our paperwork was done and logged into China. However, I couldn't stop looking at the waiting child lists.....I knew our son had to be on it.

In Sept. I looked online and there was a post for a 9 month old boy who had a repaired cleft lip and unrepaired cleft palate. I immediately called the agency who forwarded the info they had on this little boy. After discussing it for a day we let the agency know that we wanted to adopt him. His name is Lui Jun Jie and he is in the Henan province.

Here are his referral pics -




The following are some descriptions mady by his caregivers. It looks like he is very robust and healthy and developmentally on target.

When Jun Jie had just arrived, he looked like he had big hands and feet and his stature was very tall. Everyone said that someday he would become the second Yao Ming.

Currently, Jun Jie is taller and bigger than other children his age. It’s just that his head is not considered very big, but it is round, like the big belly of the Mile Buddha

Jun Jie is a good-looking, handsome little guy. He is very cute, we all love him, and we whole-heartedly hope that he can have a happy home.


The Chinese government approved our request to adopted Lui Jun Jie while we were still in the process of getting all of our paperwork done. Finally in December we were officially logged into China.