Leanne’s Story

At first, there was nothing unusual about our second adoption from China. My husband, Jim, and I had adopted our first Chinese daughter, Christina, through Christian World Adoption in 1999. In March 2002, CWA sent our second dossier and request for a healthy infant to China. Then things got interesting.

In May, CWA received 20 special-needs referrals from China and put up a Web site featuring the children. I looked at it just out of curiosity. Then I clicked on a girl named Wu Peng Jing who grinned out of a tiny picture. The accompanying information said she was 19 months old and had a deformed left hand. I couldn’t stop looking at her.

Jim wasn’t so sure we should adopt this child. He pointed out that the girl was a toddler, not a baby. Jim was also hesitant about adopting a disabled child, no matter how minor her condition. He asked for a few days to think about the idea.

A few days later, Jim came home from work and announced, "Let’s do it." The next morning, I was on the phone to request Wu Peng Jing’s referral. We decided to name her Leanne Pengjing.

On September 17, 2002, Jim, Christina, and I met Leanne for the first time in the Civil Affairs Office in Wuhan, China. The caregiver showed Leanne the photo album we had sent and told her in Chinese that we were her new family. After a few tears, Leanne settled into Jim’s arms.

Leanne was sad and withdrawn for the first 36 hours, but she was soon smiling, talking, and playing. Although she spoke Chinese and we spoke English, somehow we managed to communicate with little trouble. We were also pleased that Leanne, at 23 months old, ate everything in sight, slept through the night, and was fully toilet-trained. By the time we arrived home, it was hard to remember what our family had been like without her.

Fast-forward four years, to the summer of 2006. Leanne is just shy of her sixth birthday and is a tremendous blessing to our family. She is incredibly smart, has a goofy sense of humor, and loves to read, do jigsaw puzzles, and play computer games. She can use her deformed hand so well that most people don’t notice there is anything wrong with it. Leanne takes karate, plays the piano, rides her bike, and is an active child in every way. She is also an affectionate daughter and a delightful sister to her siblings.

Leanne’s adoption changed us. Jim and I were overwhelmed by the blessings of a special-needs adoption and decided that any more children we added to our family would come through this route. In 2005, we adopted four-year-old Grace Fuwan, who had clubfoot, and we are presently doing the paperwork to adopt a toddler boy who has deformed fingers and toes. I thank God every day for the way He has shaped our family and see His blessings every time I look at my children.

As for my husband’s concerns about adopting a "disabled" child, they went right out the window the moment he saw his new daughter. As he put it, "I looked at her face, not her hand."

Joanne Mattern