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There is a woman here (she often posts in the international section) named Sharon (her user name is sak and some number) who has an 8 or 9 year old daughter she adopted from China at 18 months. She sends her daughter to Jewish day school.
My synagogue has a family with two daughters from China -- they did a homeland visit last summer. My daughter is from India. In fact, my tiny (70 family) temple has at least 7 adoptive families (and those are the transcultural/racial ones -- there may be same race domestic ones I don't know about!).
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Hi, Kellster.
I'm the person mentioned by Spaypets.
I'm the 59 year old single Mom of a wonderful daughter from China. I adopted her when she was 18.5 months old, and she's 9 now.
My homestudy mentioned that I am actively Jewish, and this was not an issue for China. I was referred the child of my dreams.
Becca was converted to Judaism in a mikvah run by a local Conservative synagogue. The rabbis in attendance were female. This makes her Jewish in the eyes of Reform and Conservative Jews. However, we know that if she decides to make Aliyah or to marry an Orthodox Jew, she will need to go "skinny dipping" again.
Becca was named in the Reform synagogue to which I belonged at the time. It was a lovely ceremony, though Becca screamed through it. (She enjoyed the Oneg Shabbat afterwards, however.)
When Becca was 2.75 years old, I moved her from a day care center to a full-day preschool located in a Conservative synagogue. She loved it, and really blossomed.
When Becca was still 4, she started kindergarten at a large Jewish day school that goes from K-12. It is so big that it has 7-8 classes in each grade. It is basically Conservative, and one of the flagships of the Solomon Schechter movement. Its curriculum adheres both to the requirements of Montgomery County, Maryland, one of the better public school systems in the U.S., and to those of the State of Israel. (It attracts Israeli Embassy families and other Israelis living in the area, as well as other Jews.)
Hebrew is taught by immersion for about half of every day. The children have an English teacher and a Hebrew teacher; the latter is always a native speaker of Hebrew. Besides learning about Jewish subjects in Hebrew, some secular instruction also takes place in Hebrew. For example, there is both a Hebrew computer teacher and an English computer teacher. Becca learned to do Excel graphs in Hebrew before she could do them in English!
The school, like Jewish institutions everywhere, is becoming more diverse. Becca is now in fourth grade, but a couple of years ago, she was in a class of 18 students that had four non-White children. Besides herself, there was another Chinese daughter of an older single Mom, a Black girl born to Eritrean Jewish parents who immigrated to the U.S., and a girl whose Black Mom converted to Judaism at age 19 and subsequently met and married a Caucasian Jewish man. This Black Mom is now very active in a local Conservative synagogue.
Becca loves her school. When we moved from DC to Maryland, I offered her the chance to attend the very good public elementary school in our new neighborhood, but she cried out, "BUT WHAT ABOUT THE HEBREW?' I realized how much Becca loves the curriculum of our Jewish day school, and how good it has been for her. So, despite the cost, we have continued there.
Becca is an excellent student, who does well with the very demanding curriculum. She is also healthy, a very secure and "well-balanced" child emotionally, very loving and empathic, a major league social butterfly, and terrific with animals. She has become a surprisingly good equestrian, and that is her primary extracurricular activity.
Because we are very involved with the local Chinese adoption community, and because I used to work for an adoption advocacy organization, Becca has been raised hearing lots of talk about issues like abandonment, birthparents, racial and cultural identity, the one-child policy, and more. While her school is not terribly good at dealing with adoption issues, Becca has become quite an outstanding spokesperson on adoption issues, and educates classmates who ask things about why she and I don't look alike, where her "real" parents (that is, her birthparents) are, and so on.
Becca is very well-accepted by other Jewish families, partly because she is such a nice kid. She has many girlfriends at school, as well as friends from our neighborhood and the Chinese adoption community. She has already gotten some "gentlemen callers", so I suspect I'll have to hire a bouncer when she's a teenager. The parents of the boys seem to be quite fond of Becca, and I know that at least one was sad when a friendship fizzled out. I'm afraid she was way too prematurely thinking about having a Chinese daughter in law!
Becca seems very comfortable about being American, Chinese, and Jewish. At this moment, she actually feels more connected to her Jewish heritage. For example, when I recently said that I would love to take her to visit China and see the city where she lived, she said that she would prefer to go to Israel first! But I suspect that she will emphasize different parts of her background at different times in her life.
I would be delighted to talk with you further. You can do so on this list, via PM, or via e-mail to sak9645@starpower.net.
Sharon
I've been dipping in your conversation and appreciate the topic. My wife and I are waiting to get our referral of our daughter from China and plan to raise her Jewish. My wife is Jesish and I am not. We recently moved and haven't joined a temple locally, but we're planning to soon...well, as soon as the expense of the adoption has passed.
Thank you for your posts. I'm quite encouraged.
john
[url]www.internationaladoptionstories.com[/url]
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