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Sunday, September 30, 2001
Adoptive parents reunite in park
Texas non-profit group helps families adopt children from China
By Jeremy Schwartz
Caller-Times

David Adame/Caller-Times

Helen Snyder (left) plays with her adopted daughter Reba Snyder, 2, Saturday morning at the Great Wall China Adoption reunion picnic held at Cole Park. The non-profit organization has helped to place more than 1,100 Chinese children with American families.

   Three-year-old Marlee stands in a toy boat at Cole Park, pretending to steer it through some imagined ocean and yells out to Washington State resident Shannon Turner, "Hi Mom!"
   Marlee is many oceans away from the town where she was born, Dandong, in China's northernmost province near the North Korean border. She is one of thousands of Chinese baby girls abandoned by parents who are prohibited by Chinese law from having more than one child.
   In a society where male children are prized and traditionally take care of their parents, China's orphanages are filled with girls looking to be adopted.
   For Turner and her husband Tim, who were unable to conceive after their son, Eric, was born 11 years ago, adopting a Chinese child was a much more attractive solution than adopting in the United States, where waiting lists are years long and parents aren't guaranteed a child.
   "When we learned about the problem with the little girls, it just seemed right," Shannon Turner said.
   A reunion
   The Turners were among the 150 families from around the country who gathered Saturday for a reunion picnic at Cole Park. Like the Turners, all had adopted Chinese children through the Austin-based non-profit group Great Wall China Adoption.

David Adame/Caller-Times

Emily Bailey, 4, of San Antonio plays with a bubble wand Saturday morning at the adoption reunion picnic held in Cole Park.

   Since being founded by China native Snow Wu in 1996, the organization has placed more than 1,100 Chinese children with American parents. While 95 percent of the children are girls, five percent are male children. In some rural parts of China, parents are allowed two children.
   Wu said the popularity of adopting Chinese children is growing because of the ease of the process and the health of the children, especially compared to kids in Eastern Europe, another growing hotspot for American adoption.
   Informative sessions
   The annual reunion for parents and their adopted children is a chance to share stories. "It's a good time for people to meet with each other," she said. "It's like a family reunion."
   Carla Sanford, administrative director for the group, said Corpus Christi was chosen in large part because of Cole Park. "It's an amazing park. I've never seen one like it," she said. "I wanted our families to experience it."
   The picnic was part of a weekend of activities that included information sessions on such topics as learning how to make family albums as well as a banquet at the Holiday Inn on Ocean Drive.
   The agency, one of several that offers Chinese adoptions, charges $18,000 to $20,000 for the entire process, which takes about a year, Sanford said. Married couples and single mothers, who are required by Chinese law to sign a statement that they are heterosexual, are eligible to adopt.
   Adoptive parents
   San Antonio residents Mara and Matthew Hudock have two biological children and wanted to add a third child to their family. They were drawn to adopting from China because they wanted a girl and didn't want to worry about the birth parents trying to contact their adopted child. In China it is a crime to abandon a child and a parent who comes looking for their children faces prison time.
   On Sept. 7 they returned from Guangxi Province with 1-year-old Maylina who soon said her first English word, panda.
   "She has a lot of personality," Mara Hudock, a 32-year-old social worker said.
   "She's real sociable. If we say her Chinese name she makes a face like a fish."
   Susanne Vernon of Round Rock has adopted a 4-year-old Chinese girl and just found out last week she was approved for a second baby. "It really has gone so smooth, no difficulties," she said.
   Vernon said she has made her older daughter a scrapbook of her adoption experience and will take her back to China for the second adoption.
   She is not worried about her daughters adapting culturally to Texas or having an identity crisis and says reaction from neighbors has been positive so far.
   "I think they will have questions, but it won't be this dramatic thing," she said.



, Contact Jeremy Schwartz at _886-3618 or schwartzj@caller.com

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