A baby sleeps in her mother's arms after a long trip
back to home St. Louis.
Adopted Children From China Were
Welcomed Home To St. Louis
By Staff writer
On the afternoon of November 29th, a group of people gathered at St. Louis Lambert int'l airport to welcome 8 families back home. These families went to China to pick up their adopted children. As the families stepped through the security check gate, they saw balloons and signs and heard applause. One mother was moved to the point of tears.
Through the adoption agency, a total of 24 families traveled to Hunan, China in November to complete their last step in the adoption process and finally, take their children home. The children put up for adoption are usually orphaned or abandoned babies ranging from a couple months to one or two years old. Most of them are girls. They are eligible for their citizenship once they arrive in the US.
In St. Louis, there are about 600 families with adopted Chinese children. Together, these families founded the FCC (Families with Children from china) and CAFE (Chinese American Family Exchange). FCC has been around longer. FCC holds the Chinese new years party every year. Many of the families send their children to Chinese school to learn Chinese.
CAFE was founded in mid-2001. It not only includes American families, but Chinese families also. CAFE held a full moon festival in august and will hold a Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner party this coming Saturday, December the 8th, at the Chinese Gospel Church. CAFE's Vice President, Rick Westerhold, says that the full moon festival is a Chinese festival, whereas Thanksgiving and Christmas are Western festivals. CAFE wants people to understand that it holds both festivals in order to help bridge the culture gap. CAFE plans to hold a Chinese New Year festival next year.
CAFE is in the process of building their website. For more info about the FCC, CAFE and the Chinese American community at St. Louis, please visit Chinese Culture and Education Foundation at http://www.CCEFoundation.org or call St. Louis Chinese American at 314/432-3858. |
