Adoption enriches lives of local families

Justin Messner/Daily Mail-- Nevada Public Library children's librarian Martha Bledsoe reads and speaks to area children and families, Thursday, in the library's meeting room, about adoption, in observance of National Adoption Day, which was Saturday, Nov. 17. Following the reading she gave one of the families a free copy of the children's book, "Forever Fingerprints." The children also enjoyed activities like making drawings of their family using ink pads and their own fingerprints to create the images.

November is National Adoption Month, a time dedicated to creating awareness of adoption needs.

Missouri has always played an important role in the lives of orphans going back to the Orphan Train runs from 1854 to 1929. These trains transported thousands of orphans from New York City to the Midwest.

Today, many Missourians continue to battle the ever-growing orphan rate across the world. One of these people is James St. John and his family who has just recently moved to the Nevada area.

St. John, a postal worker, moved to Nevada after winning a bid for a Sheldon mail route contract. Physical impairments kept him and his wife, Marjorie, from conceiving after their 12-year-old son, Matthew, was born, so they turned to adoption. The St. Johns adopted two daughters from China.

A minister since 1992, St. John was admittedly hesitant at first, when it came to adoption. However, following his experiences adopting his first daughter, he decided to take a more productive role in orphans' lives throughout the world. This decision sparked the idea to create and launch "More Than a Home Ministries." The organization, he said, was created to raise awareness and offer those interested, a starting point for supporting adoption.

Although the St. Johns decided to adopt a child in 1999, it took nearly seven years to complete the process that brought the St. John's daughter, then 3-year-old Le Ke, or Sophie, to the United States in June 2006.

Most of these years were spent pursuing adoptees in the United States. However, after several attempts to adopt that failed due to the biological parents changing their minds, St. John began looking into international adoption.

Referring to international adoption, St. John said, "There is more security in knowing that there is no chance of anyone taking the children back or changing their mind."

St. John's second daughter 5-year-old Jun Ping was adopted on Aug. 22 of this year. Although it's unusual for International adopters to have the opportunity to do so, St. John was able to meet and see Jun Ping prior to her adoption. Having decided to adopt a second child prior to the trip to finalize the adoption of Le Ke, St. John scheduled a visit to the orphanage where Ping was staying and met with her seven months prior to her adoption.

Though the adopted children bring with them such information as age and birthdays, it is very common for the birth parents to drop off the children without leaving the actual dates, St. John said. In these cases the orphanage uses a doctor to give an approximate age and then assigns the child a birthday. So even though Jun Ping is believed to be 5 years old, she could be as young as 4 or as old as 6.

St. John said he hoped to have a bone scan performed on the children in the future to better identify their actual ages.

According to St. John, China classifies orphans by one of two categories; special needs, or non-special needs. A special needs child is one who has any physical or health abnormality. This can range from a facial birthmark to a cleft lip to an actual body disfigurement. Non-special needs children have no known abnormalities. Both of St. John's daughters were classified under special needs.

Along with exams and classification for adoptees, the Chinese government requires adopters to meet certain physical criteria. St. John was subjected to a body mass test and would not have been allowed to adopt if he had more than 40 percent body fat. This is just one of many health and physical exams required for Chinese adoption.

Through his ministry, St. John hopes to help in the fight against growing orphan numbers several ways.

MTHM offers a web site full of information and ideas for others to become active in the adoption community. "All of us have something we can do," said St. John. MTHM also offers services where possible, like building the largest orphanage in Mexico along with the Tapestries of Life which is slated for late May, 2008.

St. John's ministries try to keep the idea of orphans and adoption in the minds of those listening. He urges churches to keep an active program running for possible future adopters. He said, "Unless its right there in front of us we forget."

Worldwide there are approximately 143 million orphans, only 250 thousand of these adoptees actually find a home annually. While accurate State statistics are hard to come by it is reported by the Missouri Department of Social Services that there are approximately 2,000 children currently in Missouri foster care.

Many options are available for those interested in adoption. There are four different forms of adoption including; private agency, independent, stepparent, and public agency, all of which can be done domestically or internationally.

The cost of an adoption can vary from $0 to $40,000 depending on the form you choose. Financial assistance also available for adopters.

Millions of Web sites regarding adoption and adoption agencies can be found online such as www.nacac.org, www.davethomasfoundation.com, and www.adopt.org.