BRIGHTENING THE FUTURES OF ORPHANED AND VULNERABLE CHILDREN AROUND THE WORLD

Spring 2010

WACAP Today 2

Yours,

Lillian ThogersenPresident & Chief Executive OfficerLillianT@wacap.org206.575.4550

Dear Friends,OUR MISSIONWACAP (World Association

for Children and Parents)

provides life-changing aid

and adoption services to

orphans and other children

who need families.

CONteNtSCeO’s Letter 2Russia 4Honored Children 6Family Album 7

ON tHe COVeRJun Feng, age 12 years, in

China.

Lillian thogersen

At WACAP, we are always thinking about the importance of family.

Generally speaking, people accept that a family should be an integral part of every child’s life, but we see firsthand how much of a profound difference having parents makes. Every year, WACAP staff members visit orphanages around the world and see kids who are growing up without moms and dads.

Most have a favorite caregiver and enjoy playing with the other children but have no idea what it’s like to grow up with a family that loves them. At the same time these kids are behind their peers emotionally, developmentally and physically, and, if they have special needs, often go without adequate care. It is not until they come home to their adoptive parents that these children truly begin to blossom.

In this issue, you’ll read about a prime example of the power of adoption and the importance of family. Elena Larson, adopted at age 8 from Russia, was found wandering the streets of Ussuriysk at 3 years old and was diagnosed as being mentally retarded. With the support, love and guidance of her parents, this little girl, who had been discounted her whole life, grew into a tremendous success.

This is one of the beauties of adoption: it is a demonstration of both the resilience of the human spirit and the potential that spirit can reach if it is nurtured and tended with love. Each child needs someone to realize that no matter how much he or she has been through, no matter how “broken” he or she is, the child possesses the strength and will to develop into his or her own person. Thank you for continuing to give us the opportunity to bring children home to families that love them and to futures that are bright.

WACAP Today 2 3 WACAP Today

On Mother’s Day, we pause to give thanks for the mothers, grandmothers and other important women in our lives: the women who sacrificed to make us who we are today. But hundreds of thousands of children in U.S. foster care and millions of orphans abroad don’t have a mom or family to give them that unconditional love and care. They lead lonely lives—

lives without a grandmother to spoil them, an aunt to babysit them or a mom or dad to kiss away their fears.

This Mother’s Day, we invite you to not only celebrate the mothers in your lives but also help children without families. A donation to WACAP’s Promise Fund in honor of a mother or anyone of importance helps find permanent, adoptive families for children who so desperately need them. And, if you make a donation of $100 or more or a recurring gift of $10 a month for one year by May 1, we’ll send you a beautiful silver “Faith, Hope, Love” necklace, just in time for Mother’s Day.

You can send your gift in the enclosed envelope or make a donation online at www.wacap.org.

WACAP BOARD & StAFFBOArD OF DirECTOrSLisa Norton, ChairpersonLizzie Parker, Vice ChairpersonLaura McMillan, SecretaryPhil Rosnik, treasurerLinda HildrethDavid JanssenBarbara ManningShelly NgoNatalie ShirleyLisa Weil

ADMiniSTrATiOnLillian thogersenPresident & CeO

MaryAnn CurranVice President, Social Services

Mary K. DuncanVice President, Development

Mary MooVice President, Adoption

WACAp TODAYLindsay DygertCommunication Manager

MAiLing ADDrESSP.O. Box 88948Seattle, WA 98138

MAin OFFiCE315 S. Second St.Renton, WA 98057tel: 206.575.4550toll Free: 800.732.1887www.wacap.orgwacap@wacap.org

Unless we take action, the adoption tax credit will expire on December 31, 2010. Many children depend on this money to complete their adoption, and it has helped bring thousands of kids home. There are currently bills in the House (H.R. 213) and Senate (S.2816) that are trying to make the credit permanent. Please contact your legislators and ask them to cosponsor and/or vote in favor of these bills. You can find contact information for elected officials at www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml. This is one of the easiest and most vital ways you can take action for orphaned and vulnerable children around the world!

ON MOtHeR’S DAY, GIVe tHe GIFt OF FAItH, HOPe AND LOVe

The perfect Mother’s Day gift

MOtHeR’S DAY BRUNCHWACAP is excited to invite you to our first Mother’s Day Champagne Brunch! If you’ll be in the Seattle area for Mother’s Day on Sunday, May 9, 2010, we’d love you to join us. Brunch will begin at 12:30 p.m. at the Hotel Deca. For tickets, the menu and additional information, visit www.wacap.org.

SAVe tHe DAte FOR tHe 2010 AUCtIONThe 2010 WACAP Children’s Hope Auction will be held Saturday, November 13, 2010, at a new venue, the fabulous W Hotel in downtown Seattle. Mark your calendars now for WACAP’s premiere fundraiser—it’s sure to be a night of fun and fundraising for orphans around the world!

SUPPORt tHe ADOPtION tAX CReDIt

WACAP Today 4

BRINGING CHILDReN HOMe

Russia

“I knew I wanted them to be my parents . . . They were my hope.”

Elena Larson, WACAP Adoptee

BUILDING A StRONG FOUNDAtION

From left: Elena’s referral photo; Elena at a camp in Russia; Elena at home with her cousin, Jerad; Elena’s senior portrait.

For almost as long as she could remember, Elena Larson had lived in an institution in Russia. Abandoned as a toddler, one of her earliest memories is being picked up by authorities as she wandered the streets of Ussuriysk. “I remember this man and traveling around the city by train and by car trying to find my parents,” she says. “We were just going and going and we went through all these orphanages and foster homes. People said, ‘We recognize her but we don’t know who her parents are.’ At the end they just decided to put me in an orphanage.”

At the time, Elena was 3 or 4 years old—although no one can be sure of her exact age because her parents were never found, and definitive documentation naming her age wasn’t either. In another blow, after she entered the institution doctors suspected she was mentally retarded. The next years of her life were filled with the instability of moving from orphanage to orphanage, the disadvantage of never receiving a formal education, ridicule from other children and time spent working on a farm to help grow produce for the institution. She was not yet 8 years old.

So when caregivers approached her on a mid-afternoon in June 1999, the last thing she expected was to meet people who wanted to be her parents. “We were playing outside, and [the caregivers] told me they wanted me for something, but they wouldn’t tell me what it was,” she remembers. She was led into a room where she met Matt and Jennifer Larson, who had traveled from Washington state to meet her. “I was really shy around strangers, so I kept to the side of the wall, but then my dad started playing with me,” says Elena. “I remember when [my parents] left [for the day] I was kind of sad. Then at night when everyone was brushing their teeth

and we were going to bed, I knew I wanted them to be my parents . . . They were my hope.”

Matt and his wife, Jennifer, had seen a photo of 7-year-old Elena that reminded them of Jennifer’s mother. Though they were planning to adopt an infant, they decided to also consider Elena. “We thought, ‘what harm can it do,’” says Matt.

Although they were well aware of Elena’s disability before they traveled, Matt and Jennifer were reminded of Elena’s lack of potential at the orphanage. “It was made emphatically clear to us that she was mentally retarded,” says Matt. Orphanage staff had Elena perform a series of tests with numbers and shapes to demonstrate her disabilities. When the Larsons sent her information to a doctor at the University of Minnesota’s adoption clinic, the results were “iffy.” “I remember the doctor saying on the phone that she may have limits, and that we definitely wouldn’t be adopting a Rhodes scholar,” says Jennifer.

But the couple saw something different in Elena. “Our frustration was that they were focusing on learned knowledge,” says Matt. “Our focus with her when we sat with her in the room had more to do with intelligence than learned knowledge. She wasn’t the fastest kid in the room, but she got that stuff.” They decided to move forward with the adoption and brought Elena, age 8, and Nicholas, an infant, home that summer.

At home, Jennifer and Matt worked to build up Elena’s self worth brick by brick. “She had a profound lack of confidence in her abilities,” remembers Matt. “If things became overwhelming, she would curl up in the fetal position or

WACAP Today 4 5 WACAP Today

crawl under the table.” The Larsons also enrolled Elena in school, where she took mainstream classes along with a class that helped her with her English.

As Elena began to blossom under their care, it became clear that she was anything but mentally retarded, though it took time and patience for Matt and Jennifer to change her mindset. “She’d sit at the table and scream, ‘I’m stupid; I can’t do this,’” remembers Jennifer. “It took us four years to break her of that. We had to build her up. We had to tell her, ‘You’re not retarded. You’re capable of doing all this.’” Matt and Jennifer remember celebrating all of Elena’s victories and watching her develop a tenacious will and determination to succeed. “It was all about giving her a nurturing environment to find her potential,” says Matt.

By high school, Elena was enrolled in an honor class and had a grade point average that was higher than her father’s or her grandfather’s at that age. “She would just read read read,” says Matt. “That probably more than anything helped her. She’s a really hard worker. She works hard to prove people wrong.”

Matt and Jennifer realize the difficulties orphanage staff face and don’t blame them for Elena’s misdiagnosis. “There were a gross lack of resources,” says Matt, which led to Elena’s delays. “We think it was a tragic series of circumstances.”

In the face of these circumstances, college was something Elena wanted to do. “My parents both went to college, so part of it was their influence,” she says, but, “It’s not the main [reason I wanted to go]. I just thought, ‘Everybody goes to college.’” When she got in last year, “we were very proud and excited, but we weren’t surprised,” says Matt. “We expected it. She was the one who took herself there.”

Today, Elena is a typical college freshman. She’s looking into majoring in English and is a theater critic for the school paper. She hopes to study abroad for a semester, maybe in France or Spain, and she’s returning to Russia for the first time this summer on a student program. “I’m excited,” she says. “We’ll be studying Russian Literature and learning a little bit of Russian.”

Elena doesn’t remember how to speak Russian anymore, but she does remember what it was like to live in an institution, and she has a good idea of where she would be if she hadn’t come home to a family. “I honestly believe that my future would have been very bleak if I . . . hadn’t been adopted,” she says. “I probably would have stayed in orphanage care until I [had to leave] . . . I don’t know if I would have survived in the actual streets of Russia. I would probably just become a beggar if I hadn’t been adopted with no future, home or family.”

“Having a new family that took care of me . . . and, most importantly, gave me love and attention, made all the difference,” she says. “Being adopted has made me a very family-oriented person. I feel very blessed to have a family . . . I am like any other teenager who argues with her parents and siblings, but I also see the importance of having a family . . . to give me the foundation I needed to be a healthy child.”

There are thousands of older orphans around the world who are waiting for families. If you or someone you know is interested in adopting an older child, please contact us at 206-575-4550 or wacap@wacap.org. You can also make a difference in an older child’s life by donating to our Promise Fund, which assigns grants to older children and those with special needs to help families adopt them.

WACAP Today 6

Abby TostensonAbigail WashburnAdam RobertsAimee McMillanAlexander OrloffAlexander Scott WhiteAlexander WhiteAmanda AshleyAmber yun Margaret Thompson-EboAmiLin Mc ClureAna Milens GreenAndrew BichAndrew BrouwerAndrew KafkaAndrew OroszAni JanssenAnton Nicholas LarsonAri Rafael CurreraAsha SamuelBen ZollnerBenjamin MichaelsBenjamin VornbrockBenjamin WashburnBobby BreinholtBobby GillmannBonnie Claire Seham VanZile WiseBrandon John BishopBrandon PiedadBrooke BreinholtCale EastmanCalla HarrisCampbell Qun SenterCarolyn BrazilCassi HarrisCatharine Louise AlelnCatie StandifordCeleste VemulapalliCharles HamiltonChristian GilesClaire GolderClark AshleyColby Denis PeaseColten KriegCora Mao Liang CanningCora McManusDana DanielsDaniel De Haan

Daniel Matthew Kim BoyleDaphne DanielsDavid RitherDean MatzkoDee JetterDeepa KonakanchiDevyani N. RayeDouglas CrauderDylan TaylorEdie BrazilEleanor Fang Gui DaughertyElizabeth OieElizabeth Rose AllenElizabeth WesterbergEllie LarsenElliott Austen BellElvinEma Luo Jia CanningEmily LundEmily StandifordEthan YoungGordon P. LockerbieGrace Amelia MatthewsGrace GolderGrace SmithGurneelam NijjerHanna X. PosHannah Rose GeldinHannah WesterbergHannah Wright OsbornHope DorrisHope Elizabeth MatthewsIan McManusIsabel GilroyIsabel HamiltonJaine HuenergardJane MatzkoJasmine GrayJenna Cho Hee CombsJessica Angelina Xia DefiestaJessica BerghoferJohnica J. HopkinsJourney GilesJoy BrandensteinJuleigh Elizabeth DukeJuli Mei SundbergJulia GolderJung ZollnerJustin Wright Osborn

Kaetlyn DidjurgisKaili MichaelsonKailyn Maryrose DoaneKanmani KuriyanKara Anthony-PriceKari Lee CartwrightKatelyn KriegKatherina WinebrennerKatya StowellKayla SturgesKelli BreinholtKim Renee RichmondKimiko Ann ReidKyle KriegKyle RobertsLarry Arthit DierkerLeah MyersLeah Myungjin Mohundro ArmstrongLeilani C.R. WeaverLeonie MannLila WilcockLillian PiedadLily CopeLior HemmatLorna Xiaogin MartelLucas Yuri DouglassMairi YoungMalia YoungManjula KuriyanMargaret Sheela ReddenMari Li ThierschMaria M. BeaulieuMarika BichMarinela StefkaMariya Bridget ReddenMartin W.V. DwigginsMasha JohnstoneMatt SturgesMatthew KuhnMattison LarkinsMaya OrloffMaya Qiu-Lan CarnathanMei Ling McAfeeMia Louise HagertyMichael BreinholtMichaella Ann WooMikelle ZabriskieMiLee Jan Reid

Miriam Dora Myung Hee SissonNabina LiebowNaomi Liqing MartelNiko HoskinsNina Anastassiya RobertsNina WilcockNoah WesterbergOlivia KafkaPetr PaulsonPetre Mihai MarstonQuinn HarrisRachel EastmanRachel Nikitha SunderarajRachel OieRachel RogowskiRobbie CrauderRoopa KonakanchiRose HoskinsRosie CopeRuan WalkerRuslan DahlRyan ClabbySage ChoiSai JetterSamuel WesterbergSara RitherSarah Xiujiao CorbelloSasha JohnstoneSera HuenergardSeryozha DahlShannon KuhnShawn PagelShelby Oksana SealsSophie FreemanStacie GillmannStwen Ton DierkerTerah HorvathTessa Anthony-PriceTravis EpochTrevor JahnVanessa Sun WooVictoria EastmanViolet Chun Yu RussoVladimir JohnstoneWeston BichWyatt ScottYi ThomsenYing Boyles CladouhosZohar Hemmat

IN HONOR OF tHeSe CHILDReN

Honored Children

Donations have been made in honor of the following children and other members of the WACAP family. These funds will be used to continue adoption services and humanitarian aid to children who need families in all the countries WACAP serves. We welcome your donation to WACAP. It’s easy. Just visit www.wacap.org, or use the envelope included in this issue of WACAP Today.

Please note that you can also build a bridge to the future of other children just like those listed here by including WACAP in your will and legacy planning.

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FAMILY ALBUM1 eli (et) and Jonah (et)

2 Jubilee (AAI)

3 Parkavi (I) and Amanda

4 Larry (t), ellysia and Steven

5 Asher and Vivienne (CH)

ADOPtING tHROUGH WACAPSince 1976, WACAP has helped nearly 10,000 children find loving homes. We currently help families in all 50 states adopt children from eight countries: China, ethiopia, India, Kazakhstan, Korea, Russia, thailand and the United States. We are fully accredited and strive to meet the highest ethical standards in all of our endeavors. If you are interested in learning more about adoption, call us at 206-575-4550, or e-mail wacap@wacap.org. You can also request an information packet via our Web site, www.wacap.org.

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P.O. Box 88948Seattle, WA 98138Tel: 206.575.4550Toll free: 800.732.1887www.wacap.orgwacap@wacap.org

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PAIDSeattle, WAPermit 402

WACAP Today is distributed quarterly to donors and key supporters. For a base donation of $25.00 annually, contributors receive this magazine free of charge.

Eager WACAP kids volunteer to be a magician’s assistant at Kids Day 2009. Kids Day 2010 will fall on Sunday, August 14.