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The Media - Adoption Connection
After Sept. 11th, I watched the news more often. My favorite media outlet was CNN. Only a few months after that fateful day,
(November to be exact), I was browsing CNN.com as usual. The headlines were about the ground-zero clean-up, victim count,
Osama bin Laden, bombing of Al Qaeda and Taliban in Afghanistan, and Bush's latest speeches. I decided to scroll down to the
bottom of the homepage and came across the in-depth stories. I saw the title, "The New Americans" with a small photo of an
Asian infant. This seemed very unusual because I was used to Sept. 11 and Operation Freedom related stories. As it turned
out, the report was one of the first signs I saw of the nation recovering from the aftermath of Sept. 11th. From the title
only, I thought the story was going to about an Afghan family coming to the US as refugees and becoming naturalized. But the
picture made me think about the connection between it and the title because the infant was Oriental-looking.
My Interest for Adoption Evolves
As it turned out, it was the story of a retired CNN reporter who decided to adopt two more children from the former Soviet
Union country of Kazakhstan. The children available from Kazakhstan have either East Asian or Russian features. The former
reporter, John Towriss, already had a Kazakh daughter and a biological daughter. This time, along with his wife, they were
going to adopt a Kazakh boy and girl. I was mesmorized with the story and read it over several times, exploring every corner
of it. I went on to the short links page, which started my search for adoption-related websites, and eventually the building
of this website.
From Kazakhstan to China For about a half a year since I came upon the story,
I focused on personal adoption stories. I simply became interested in China. Maybe it was the children or the land, but this
interest lead me to vow to adopt from China. I love the people, language (which I'm learning), and land. I grew up in an Asian
community with adoption agencies and adopted children everywhere. But I only became interested and committed to adopt after
Towriss' story.
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