Lottie Lee's Red Thread

We have been given the opportunity of a lifetime that not only will change our lives, but our daughter’s life. This opportunity can raise awareness about the adoption process and how it can be attainable for any family. Although we didn’t have the funds to finance our adoption, we certainly knew we didn’t want to jeopardize our financial situation by taking a second mortgage, or a high interest loan. We decided cutting back on day-to-day luxuries and possibly starting a side business to help finance our adoption, would be the best way for our family. We started Lottie Lee Photography, taking quality family portraits for a small donation toward our adoption. While looking for free advertising, I stumbled across a nonprofit company in the Austin area, and our journey took an overwhelmingly wonderful twist. We met with the founders of CoupAide, who after meeting with us and listening to our thoughts about adoption, decided to sponsor us and help with a fundraising campaign for Charlotte Lee's adoption. We were told that CoupAide will build a website in our daughter's honor to help raise funds for her adoption: for every Restaurant.com gift certificate sold on the Coupaide.com web page, they will donate 50% of the sales directly towards Lottie Lee's adoption.

We are speechless and cannot believe the opportunity that has been given to us. We hope not only to raise the necessary funds for our daughters adoption and possibly help provide surgeries of other children with cleft lip/palate, but also to make it a model for families to realize that although adoption is expensive, there are creative resources to help lessen the cost. With faith all things are possible! Special Thanks to Firas & Matt from CoupAide

"An invisible red thread connects those who are destined to meet, regardless of time, place, or circumstance. The thread may stretch or tangle, but will never break."

--An ancient Chinese belief

Children's Hope International

What a momentous day! We have been accepted by our agency, Children’s Hope International, and could not be happier. It was a long road to this point, which seems ironic since being accepted to an agency is a first step in any adoption, but we were relentless in our research that included spending a couple of months interviewing various agencies and reading books that guided us on what kind of questions to ask, plus warning signs to avoid. Ultimately, it came down to our initial intuition. We listed all of our priorities, one being that we were looking for the most transparent agency, that was upfront and honest about the process and cost. In addition, we wanted to find an agency with a strong philanthropic model and one that gives back to the orphanages and children in need. We confidently chose our agency based on those priorities and look forward to building our relationship as we embark on this journey.

Why not China?

We have often been asked the question "Why adopt from China?. At first we didn’t know exactly how to explain why, we just felt a pull towards China, and slowly began reading more books and learning about the Chinese culture. Other coincidences occurred that just made us feel that China was the country for us. One in particular, was when we learned of the Chinese belief: an invisible red thread that connects those who are destined to meet, regardless of time, place, or circumstance--a quote we read on a piece of artwork that we purchased and hung in our home. We just felt this immediate connection to China; even though we were worlds apart, to us it just seemed right. 

After a while it became more and more clear why we wanted to adopt from China. After reading several books, we discovered how the one-child policy and deeply embedded cultural beliefs, has played a significant role in why so many little girls in China are abandoned on freeways, bus stations, police stations, near orphanages, or they are just left anywhere that is a very public place. Knowing there are so many tiny babies, just needing a family to love, solidified China as the country for our family. In addition, learning all the resources Lottie Lee will have when we bring her home was so reassuring. Groups like Families of Children from China (FCC) and Mandarin Preschools made it possible for us to provide Lottie with all the Chinese cultural background that we could, to raise her in our multicultural family.

What’s in a name?

“Give her a name that means something.” A quote from Moses Whitecotton, a character from one of my favorite books, Where the Heart Is. Names have always been so important to me and one of the reasons, 11 years ago, I changed my name from Jessica to Winn. So where do we start? How can we choose a name for our Chinese daughter? Do we keep her given Chinese name?

Most of the literature tells us that Chinese orphanages name the children after arrival and not from the child’s birth parents. Thinking about a name and how it defines who we are, her Chinese name no matter how it came to be, is still a piece of who she is. There is some research in the adoption world about choosing a name, but there isn’t any definitive right or wrong answer. We decided to follow Moses Whitecotton’s words, and chose to use both of our family names and her Chinese name.  

We chose a name with great meaning, Charlotte Lee, after two very important people in our lives: my grandmother Charlotte Fogarty and Scott’s grandfather Lee Hall. And as per my grandmothers request, we will call her Lottie Lee. After further research, we found Charlotte is a feminine version of Charles, and is defined as a strong woman. This description just seemed to be the perfect meaning for our strong baby, who is beating all the odds against her. Once we are matched with our sweet baby we will use her Chinese name in combination with Charlotte Lee.

Fortune Cookie

In the beginning of March, three days after we decided that we were going to begin the process of bringing Lottie Lee home, we celebrated with our favorite take-out Chinese restaurant Sichuan Garden, a staple in the Castagno home, and one of our favorite places to eat--nothing is better than ending a delicious meal with a fortune cookie. We both opened and read our fortunes, each of us with a blank stare, which quickly turned into smiles. We debated who would read their message first until we both blurted out our fortunes… “A lifetime of happiness lies ahead of you… and "Time and patience are called for as, many surprises await you”. It was at that instant we knew Lottie Lee would change our lives forever, and that our journey had officially begun!

Starting a Family

We are so excited to be starting our family this has been a compilation of many years, trying to plan when would be the best time to embark on this journey, we were young and thought we had many years to adopt, we always thought it would be later in life.  More recently in 2011, we spent more and more nights taking about our future family and thought why not adopt our first child what is stopping us from following our dreams of adoption. Unfortunely the financial aspect of adoption was daunting but we promised  we would do whatever it would take to make our dream a reality.  In the beginning we had no idea how our adoption would become a reality but we had stong faith that everything would fall into place.  And so this is where our journey began.