International
Adoption
Chinese
girls find a loving Columbus home
About
six weeks ago, 6-year-old Meaghan Barksdale became an older sister
to 1-year-old Graceanne. The Rev. Larry Barksdale and his wife
Liz brought her to the States to live with them in 1998. Graceanne
followed June 8 of this year. Larry Barksdale is the pastor of St.
Matthew Lutheran Church (ELCA), on Macon Road in Columbus. Now the
children, Meaghan and Graceanne, are treated as part of the
family—as if they have been sisters since birth.
Decision
to adopt
Meaghan
picked up Graceanne when she fell on the Berber carpet recently in
her 
north
Columbus home. Both then made their way to a chair where their
father's lap awaited them. "What is this?" he said, hugging
his smiling daughters dressed in matching outfits.
Larry
and Liz married in 1992. In 1997, while in seminary in Columbia,
S.C., the Barksdales decided to adopt. They could not have children
of their own and had explored fertility treatments—until one
doctor said she never saw fewer than three children born to a couple
at once. That bit of news smacked them in the face. "I think it
was supposed to be encouraging," quipped Larry.
Unable
to imagine caring for three babies at once, Liz started researching
adoption agencies.
She
was drawn to Asia because she'd spent her first-grade year in Japan,
and Liz also was sympathetic to "the plight of girls in Asia."
As
is the adoption agency she stumbled upon. Holt International
Children's Services in Oregon, founded in 1955 by a Christian couple,
got its start with bi-racial children orphaned by the Korean War. The
children had been ostracized because of their mixed race. In 1955,
the Holts brought back eight Korean children to add to their six,
then expanded their agency to reach other Asians.
"These
were kids who needed parents and parents who needed kids," Liz
Barksdale said.
Incredible
passion
Bertha
Holt died in 2000 at 96. Harry Holt died in 1964 of a heart attack.
When
Bertha died, most of the tributes came from those whose lives were
changed by her and her husband and their mission to help children,
according to the Oregonian.
"What
Holt International will miss very much will be her spirit, the
incredible passion she had for children and her steady advocacy over
all these years," Susan Soon-Keum Cox, Holt International's vice
president of public policy, told the newspaper in 2000. She first met
Bertha Holt when she was a child at the Holt orphanage in Seoul,
South Korea.
"But
as an adoptee I will miss her as a grandma, the unconditional love
of a grandma that she gave," Cox said.
Only
a few toys are on the floor of the main room, and Molly the poodle
often is underfoot. There's no TV. Chinese wall hangings and other
artifacts from the girls' country dot the room.
Meaghan,
a tall and slender girl who can do handstands, takes gymnastics and
will enter first grade in the fall at Midland Academy. The family has
a swimming pool. And, when Liz, Larry and Meaghan moved to Columbus
in 2003, they happily discovered another couple in their church who
adopted from China—Debby and Chris Owen. The daughters are Lea
and Charlotte. The families quickly bonded.
Graceanne's
adoption almost didn't happen. The caseworker helping the Barksdales
called one day this spring to ask if they were ready to close their
file, which would mean closing the lid on future adoptions from Holt.
The couple prayed and went back and forth on the decision. They also
knew they didn't have the adoption money for another child.
Then
one day Larry's mom, unaware of their struggle, called from her home
in Atlanta. They confided what was going on. She said, "Well,
why didn't you say something?" and she said she'd lend financial help.
This
time on their trip to China, where they spent a little more than two
weeks, they also helped themselves out on the return flight.
Scheduling a layover in Los Angeles to break up the long flight, the
Barksdales upgraded their seats and got some rest time. With Meaghan,
they'd stayed awake for 22 hours straight. Five years later, they
couldn't face the long journey again, especially with two children.
"We
got a first-class deal from American Express," Larry said,
"and we took sleeping pills."
