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Monday, January 8, 2001

Chinese children adopted
Abandoned baby girls touch couple's hearts
By Cynthia Hodnett
Caller-Times

Paul Iverson/Caller-Times

Laura Sherman (left) and Larry Weiner plan to adopt another baby girl from China this year. They adopted their first daughter, Leah, three years ago. They said they want to teach their daughters about their heritage.

In her short life, 3-year-old Leah Sherman Weiner has experienced abandonment from her birth mother that left her in an orphanage in China and love from a Corpus Christi couple who adopted her nearly three years ago.
   Leah's parents, Laura Sherman, 39, an architect and adjunct professor at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, and her husband, Larry Weiner, 68, a composer in residence at the university, plan to open their hearts again by adopting another baby girl from China this summer.
   "We've already named her Aria," said Weiner, who has written a musical composition for each of his daughters. "(Leah) knows, and she is all excited about going back to China to get a baby sister."
   Sherman and Weiner are among several local couples who have adopted children from China.
   The couple turned to adoption after trying unsuccessfully to have their own child.
   "An appropriate child was not available to us (through adoption in the U.S.)," Sherman said.
   "We could have gotten two 13 year-olds, but we would've had to go through with having a child that might've had (psychological problems) and that we just didn't want to deal with," Weiner added.
   Officials from U.S. adoption agencies told the couple that Weiner's age could be a hindering factor in being able to adopt a child.
   "There are no age limits in China," Weiner said.
   "They want families who are mature and established and whom they believe will give the child a good life," he said.
   Another local couple, Terry and Laura Piper, adopted their 2-year-old daughter, Jade, when she was eight months old in China. They too had tried unsuccessfully to have their own child and to adopt a younger child in the U.S.
   "We attended a seminar on (adopting a child from China) and just took it from there," Laura Piper said. "We thought it would be a drawn-out process, but it wasn't."
   The couple plans to adopt another baby girl from China this year.
   "If (other couples) are thinking about doing it, I would tell them to research adoption in other countries and domestically and not to be afraid of the process," she said.
   Susan Koniak, a social worker at Children Hope's International adoption agency in St. Louis, Mo., said more couples are turning to international adoptions.
   "For many, the first choice are babies or younger children which is difficult to find (in this country)," said Koniak, whose agency arranges adoptions of Chinese children. "That's why many of them turn to agencies like ours for help, because we offer them that option."
   Statistics from the U.S. State Department show there were more than 4,000 U.S. adoptions from China in 1999. Numbers also showed that the number of adoptions from China increased to more than 6,000 last year.
   Patty Kileen, program coordinator at Children Hope's International, said that 95 percent of adopted Chinese children are baby girls.
   China, which has a population of 1.2 billion people, encourages residents to have only one child per family, Kileen said. Most couples want to have boys, who are often prized for their ability to provide for their parents when they grow older, she said.
   Most baby girls are left at public places and later placed in orphanages where they wait to be adopted, she said.
   "It's illegal to relinquish your child to the government, so most of them are abandoned," Kileen said.
   "Most of them will be left by their mothers at (an) orphanage with a note attached with their birthday written on it."
   Sherman and Weiner relied on the Great Wall Adoption agency in Austin to find their first daughter. The agency then worked with officials at China's central adoption agency, the China Center of Adoption Affairs.
   After the adoption agencies located a child, Sherman and Weiner boarded an airplane to China where they were required by the Chinese government and adoption agencies to spend two weeks bonding with their new daughter. They had to sign an adoption contract and prove to the agencies that they would accept their new child.
   Officials in China and at their American adoption agency checked the couple's background, and their daughter was given an extensive medical examination. Officials decided which child the couple would adopt.
   The couple said they spent between $15,000 and $20,000 to adopt their daughter. Costs included travel, hotel bills and adoption paperwork. The couple also applied for American citizenship for their new daughter.
   "We were given the baby with the clothes on her back," Weiner said. "There was a tremendous amount of bureaucracy on the part of our country's government and China's government."
   The couple said seeing their new baby made it worth the trouble.
   "She was beautiful. All we could do is look at her," Sherman said. "We accepted this child on sight and unseen before we traveled to China."
   Since adopting their first daughter, the couple has had to make a few sacrifices. Sherman left the architect firm where she worked and opened her own office.
   "You have to be flexible and ready for anything," Weiner said. "You're tired a lot, but it's a part of being a parent."
   Making the decision to adopt children from another country has required the couple to immerse themselves in another culture. They meet regularly with Chinese families in Corpus Christi who help them teach their daughter about her heritage.
   "We aren't going to keep it from them," Weiner said. "We want her and her sister to be proud about who they are."


Staff writer Cynthia Hodnett can be reached at 886-4334 or by e-mail at hodnettc@caller.com

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