INTERNATIONAL OPTION: FAMILIES ADOPTING KIDS FROM ABROAD

Arizona Republic, The (Phoenix, AZ)

Author: Pat Underwood, The Arizona Republic

Look around you these days and you're likely to see an East Valley child adopted from the Philippines, China, Russia, Haiti, Vietnam or Thailand.

Or perhaps from South Korea, Ukraine, Moldova, Romania, Bulgaria, India, Chile, Mexico or Guatemala.

Children who often were abandoned at birth or relinquished by parents too poor to provide proper nourishment or a stable home.

Look around.

You'll see couples and singles desperate for children. Many couples have tried for years to have children and have spent thousands of dollars on fertility treatments.

Maybe they should have considered international adoption sooner.

Adopting from a foreign country isn't cheap. Expenses can surpass $20,000. And it isn't easy. The paperwork, home studies, parenting classes and trip to a foreign country can tax the most patient person.

But it is worth every expense and every moment of it.

I've done it twice through

in Mesa. My wife, Kathy, and I have made separate trips to Russian orphanages to adopt a 1-year-old girl and a 15-month-old boy. Today, Sarah is 3 1/2 and a bundle of exuberance. Alex is 2 and doing what 2-year-olds do. Both appear to be happy and healthy.

But don't just take my word for it when you can read what an expert and other East Valley families have to say about the adoption option.

The expert is Hand in Hand founder

. She's reeled in 2,874 ''grandkids'' and is still counting as we approach November, annual National Adoption Awareness Month.

The executive director of Hand in Hand recently celebrated 25 years of placing children. Arizona families celebrated with her. Since the non-profit Mesa office opened in June 1995, 164 children have found homes.

You would be wrong in thinking all of these kids are going to childless couples.

East Valley parents Victoria Pickard-Brown and Shelly Adams have contributed to Schupp's list of ''grandkids.''

Pickard-Brown, of Tempe, adopted MacKenson at 2 years, 9 months from an orphanage in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Adams, of Mesa, adopted a daughter, Emily, at 11 months of age, and a son, Blake, then 14 months, in February 1998 from an orphanage in St. Petersburg, Russia.

The Pickard-Browns, whose family already consists of two teenage girls and a 6-year-old boy, adopted MacKenson from a country where the mortality rate is 1 in 5 for children under 6. Six months after adopting the malnourished MacKenson, the boy is ''healthy in every way now and has an incredible personality,'' Pickard-Brown said. ''He's really a happy little boy.''

The Adamses, parents to youths 18, 15, and 10, all adopted in the United States, ''felt in their hearts there was room for two more kids in our family.''

Adams said Emily has ''sailed from Day 1,'' but Blake, born 11 weeks premature, was a different story. The boy weighed 14 pounds at 14 months, rocked in his crib and didn't crawl or make eye contact.

The couple brought in speech, occupational and physical therapists.

''It took us about nine months to feel like Blake totally attached to us. He's made unbelievable progress. . . . He gives the tightest hugs. It just took him awhile.''

Happy families make Schupp smile.

She started Hand in Hand in June 1974 after moving to a new home in the Philippines. While en route, she miscarried her first child.

''We decided then that the best option was adoption,'' said Schupp, who adopted a 1-month-old Filipino girl. The Schupps later worked with the Philippines to start the country's first international adoption program. Along the way, they adopted two more Filipino children and had a biological child.

Twenty-five years later, Hand in Hand places children from around the world. The need for international adoption remains great. Poverty still rocks the adoption cradle.

There are millions of abandoned children, Schupp said, who are eligible for adoption.

''China has identified 1.2 million children sitting in orphanages. Russia has identified 650,000.''

The agency, which places newborns up to 16-year-olds, acknowledges that risks are involved.

''(But) there are risks involved when you're going to have a child biologically,'' Schupp said. ''You don't know what you're going to get.''

People looking to adopt often think infants, Schupp said, but they might want to consider a toddler.

''There are so many in that toddler age range that need to have a family,'' Schupp said. ''You can basically see if there are some problems with the child.''

Schupp credits families for often taking leaps of faith to bring home special-needs children. In December, Paul and Clarin Havig of Gilbert adopted a 7-year-old blind girl from Russia who was about to be transferred from an orphanage to a home for invalids.

Today, Clarin says, Anna ''speaks English beautifully,'' is learning Braille, sings, swims, attends first grade and is thriving in a family that includes six biological children.

CAPTION: International adoption CAPTION: services in the Valley

CAPTION: --› Hand in Hand International Adoptions helps with adoptions from China, CAPTION: Russia, Ukraine, Moldova, Romania, Mexico, Guatemala, Haiti, the Philippines, CAPTION: Vietnam and Thailand. Call (480) 892-5550 for more information and date of the CAPTION: next orientation meeting.

CAPTION: --› Dillon Southwest handles adoptions from South Korea and helps with CAPTION: other countries. (480) 945-2221.

CAPTION: --› Children's Hope International/China's Children handles adoptions from CAPTION: China, Vietnam and India. (480) 483-3906.

CAPTION: --› Russian and Eastern European Adoption Center Inc. handles adoptions CAPTION: from Russia, eastern Europe, Republic of Georgia, Bulgaria and Ukraine. (480) CAPTION: 905-3120.

CAPTION: These children are among 164 kids who have found homes since June 1995 CAPTION: through the Mesa office of Hand in Hand International Adoptions, which on CAPTION: Sept. 18 celebrated placing 2,874 children over the past 25 years. Looking CAPTION: over the shoulder of agency founder MaryLee Schupp are Emily and Blake Adams, CAPTION: who came from Russia and now live in Mesa with their parents, Randy and CAPTION: Shelly. MacKenson Pickard-Brown of Haiti found a Tempe home with Thomas Brown CAPTION: and Victoria Pickard-Brown. Identical twins Ian (with Mesa office China CAPTION: coordinator Sonja Wendt) and Isaac Schwartz relocated from the Philippines to CAPTION: the Chandler home of their parents, Lewis and Lynda. And Marisa and her little CAPTION: sister, Matisse, used to call China their home before arriving in Mesa to live CAPTION: with Ken and D'Ann Wyman.