Families risk China trip to adopt
By Vicki Viotti
Advertiser Staff Writer
Nothing could stop three Hawai'i couples from taking the risk of a trip to China to bring the newest members of their families home.
Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser
A small black device called a "personal air purifier" still hung from the neck of Jon Nakamura yesterday.
Mothers Vinarose Marcello, left, and Deborah Nakamura let their newly adopted daughters, Lian Nakamura, left, and Taylor Marcello, take a few steps at the airport yesterday.
He and his wife, Debbie, packed an arsenal of protection from the SARS epidemic that has hit China.
By the time they arrived at the Honolulu airport, however, the air purifier had a different purpose.
"Lian likes to play with it," said Debbie with a laugh and a glance at their new daughter, a 17-month-old cherub. As the family disembarked from the Japan Airlines flight with their newly adopted daughter, they seemed to be suffering from nothing more than jet lag.
Lian and two other baby girls adopted through the Hawai'i International Child Inc. agency are among the last group of Chinese babies whose departures had been approved before China suspended travel clearances and child assignments last week.
Severe acute respiratory syndrome, which has been contained in other parts of the world, is not under control in China, and travel to and from the country has slowed to a trickle. But the Nakamuras from Kaua'i and two other Hawai'i International client couples — Mae and Tim Sawamura of Maui and Vinarose and Bobby Marcello of 'Ewa — were fortunate enough to be able to make the trip to complete their adoptions. The Sawamuras, who declined to be interviewed, hurried straight from the international terminal to the interisland terminal, with baby Ashley in tow. The other two families lingered to talk about how smoothly everything went, and how easily they relinquished their cares about the potentially fatal illness.
"We didn't even think about SARS," Vinarose Marcello said, indicating 13-month-old Taylor. "As soon as we saw her, that was it. The masks came off."
Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser
Child & Family Service, the only other Hawai'i agency that handles applications for China adoptions, has only five families on its case list, each with a child assigned, each waiting for the suspension to be lifted.
Jon Nakamura, left, with Lian, and Bobby Marcello, with Taylor, were able to travel to China before adoption travel was suspended.
Hawai'i International Child's pending caseload is heavier: nearly 60 families in all. Three were on the verge of having a child assigned when the suspension began; three were simply waiting for their final travel clearance.
One couple in that group is Rosa and Carlos Wegner of Lahaina, who first applied for adoption about 2 1/2 years ago and had hoped to depart for China tomorrow.
"We were waiting for more than two years, delayed first with 9-11, then the war, now this," Rosa Wegner said. "We were already packed, ready to go. I got the phone call (about the suspension) Friday at work. I couldn't stay at work.
"I can't wait to hold her and kiss her little cheeks," she said of the 8-month old infant they've named Mei Lei. "The minute they say it's time to go, I'm gone."
The moment of introduction is indeed a poignant one for couples who have waited for years to have a baby. The Hawai'i International clients left May 12 for Nanning Social Welfare Institute, the orphanage in the southeastern province of Guangxi where all three children lived. The orphanage adoption coordinator brought the children to the hotel.
Bobby Marcello worried a bit because little Taylor seemed reluctant to approach him.
"All her caretakers were ladies, so she didn't really bond with me," he said. At that moment, his daughter was happily resting in dad's arms; clearly, that little barrier had long since evaporated.
All the couples had their temperatures frequently checked for signs of SARS during their flights between Nanning and Guangzhou, where more paperwork awaited at the American embassy. But other than in transportation and food service environments, very few masks were seen.
"The locals say they're getting tired of it," Debbie Nakamura said.
The Nakamuras had a short-lived worry with Lian, who had a slight cough and temperature, but she recovered quickly. Over the next few weeks, the couples plan to keep their children at home most of the time, but mainly to ease their transition. SARS, it seems, is a worry of the past.
Jon Nakamura, a physician, worried a little more than most — at first.
"On the way out there, all I could think was, 'I must be crazy, going to a place where there's an incurable disease," he said. "But on the way back, all I could think was, 'I'm a father now.'"
Reach Vicki Viotti at vviotti@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8053.
