Wanted: Special families for special children from China

Wanted: Special families for special children from China
By Ella Johnson
Posted August 22, 2010 at 11:48 p.m.


A local nonprogit has a chance to change the life of 40 special children
Families Thru International Adoption is facing a daunting task that could change the lives of 40 special-needs children from China.

Adoptions
- For more information on adopting a special-needs child from China, call Families Thru International Adoption at (812) 479-9900 or toll free (888) 797-9900.

- To watch video clips of the 37 Chinese children still up for adoption, visit www.ftia.org and click on the Journey of Hope icon.

The nonprofit child placement organization, headquartered in Evansville, has one year to find families in the United States willing to open their homes to children with medical and physical disabilities.

Betty Betz, the international adoption group's coordinator for the China program, said the Chinese Center for Adoption Affairs invited the organization to participate in the pilot program Journey of Hope.

Betz and Families Thru International Adoption Director of Social Work Services Cindy Scheller traveled to China last month with two doctors, including Dr. Julie Keck, medical director of the International Adoption Clinic at Riley Hospital for Children, to meet the children and prepare medical assessments.

"Typically when a family is considering a special-needs child, all they have is the medical report and some pictures from China," said Betz, the adoptive mother of 13-year-old Sela from China. Betz said the Journey of Hope program allows Families Thru International Adoption to provide interested families with first-hand information about the children.

"They can talk to us and we can say, 'Yes, I've seen that child. This is what his personality is like,' Betz said. "By having a physician who has examined the child as well makes a big difference in the physician being able to give their opinion on the child's medical condition."

The Families Thru International Adoption team spent two days in Jiangsu province at an orphanage in the city of Nantong getting to know the children and learning more about their limitations. The children range in age from 3 to 12. Their medical issues varied from cleft palates and cleft lips to clubfoot, spina bifida, cerebral palsy, heart disease and developmental delays.

"It's so much different looking at a child in person and trying to get a handle on how they are doing as opposed to looking at a child on paper," said Keck, a pediatrician specialized in neurodevelopment disabilities.

"What I am hoping is that the families get a more thorough understanding of how the child is doing now, what we think the future medical issues are that may need to be evaluated once the child is home and a better look at how we think that child is doing developmentally and cognitively," Keck said.

Scheller said parents interested in special-needs adoptions should not have preconceived expectations for the child.

"It's important for families to be prepared and understand the adoption-related issues and the medical needs of the child they are interested in. When they have set expectation, the adoption may not be as successful," she said.

The International Adoption Clinic at Riley offers a program for parents and children to help children ease into their new family structure.

"That's really designed to teach children what it is to have loving parents and to belong to a family, if that has been a new experience for them," Keck said. "Some children don't quite know what to do with themselves when they're in a family, if they have lived all of their life in an institution."

Betz and Scheller said all of the children they met were excited about the possibility of living with an adoptive family in America. Some sang songs and performed in groups or individually in hopes of making a good impression on their visitors.

Scheller said during a practice performance an older boy reminded a younger boy to smile and do his best.

"They almost felt like they had to prove to us that they were worthy of a family," Scheller said. "It's heart-wrenching to think that a child has to try to prove they deserve a family."

One little girl asked Scheller what she was going to do for her when the Families Thru International Adoption team returned the United States. Scheller explained she would try to find the child a home.

"She said, 'How are you going to reach me? I don't have a cell phone.' She said, 'I knew I should have gotten a cell phone,'" Scheller said. "These kids are sitting there wondering, 'Is today going to be the day somebody calls and says I was chosen?'"

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