Bob Donaldson/Post-GazetteGetting ready to visit Cambodia are, from left, Hilary Rihn, her mother, Julie Rihn, Kaley Foster and her mother, Lisa Dormire.
Tuesday, July 01, 2008
By Kathy SaeNgian, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Lisa Dormire desperately wanted children, and she was willing to travel halfway around the world to find them.
"The social worker called me one night out of the blue and said that there was a new adoption program starting up in Cambodia, and it was probably going to be a wild ride," said Ms. Dormire, 46, of Washington Township, Westmoreland County.
And indeed it was.
She and Julie Rihn, 46, of South Butler, were two of only a handful of families in the United States that adopted children from Cambodia when the adoption program began in 1991.
Both mothers are returning to Cambodia this week with their adopted children, not only to acquaint the now older teens with their home countries but also to give back to the country that gave them so much.
One of the goals for their trip is to raise money to buy rice for the Nutrition Center in Phnom Penh, where the children were living before they were adopted. Because the price of rice has more than doubled since last year, it has become harder to feed all of the orphans.
They've established a Web site, www.sendricesendlove.com, and hope to attract at least $2,000 in donations to buy rice to help feed the children in the orphanage.
Because of rising prices and lack of funds, the U.N. World Food Programme recently had to suspend for one month its School Feeding Program, which provides free breakfasts for 450,000 Cambodian children.
"The money that they have to spend on rice for orphans isn't going up, but the rice prices are. So at the end of the day that just means less rice," Ms. Dormire said.
In addition to the fundraiser, this trip will have sentimental value for the Rihns. This will be the first time that she and her 18-year-old daughter, Hilary, will be back to Cambodia since the adoption. They decided to embark on this trip after recently contacting members of Hilary's birth family, who live in the countryside. Although Hilary's parents and grandparents have died, Hilary has three sisters who are anticipating her arrival.
Traveling to Cambodia is the only way for her to reunite with her family because of a moratorium the Immigration and Naturalization Service imposed in 2004 on immigrant visas issued to Cambodia.
Ms. Rihn hopes that the reunion between Hilary and her family will allow her daughter to learn more about her roots and gain a stronger Cambodian identity.
In April 1991, Ms. Dormire traveled to Cambodia with hopes of adopting two children, a girl and a boy. She was told that her children might have some sort of disability, but she was willing to accept the risk.
She flew to Ho Chi Minh City, the capital of Vietnam, and caught a bus to Cambodia. About 12 hours later, she arrived in Phnom Penh and met her children at the Nutrition Center orphanage.
"I went to the orphanage and met my son, and he was 11 months old at the time. Then five minutes later, they brought out a tiny little baby girl and said 'Do you want her?'" she recalled.
The baby, whom she named Kaley, was 5 months old, weighed 7 pounds and was not strong enough to hold up her own head. But that wasn't the only problem. Kaley's arms and legs were in a scissored position, and Ms. Dormire feared that she could have cerebral palsy, a neurological disorder.
"We put her on a table, and we tried to straighten her arms out and everything," she said. "And I thought that maybe she will be in a wheelchair or she won't walk, but I knew that the connection was there. There is just something in your heart, and you know they're going to be OK."
It took six weeks for the Cambodian government to complete the adoption documents that allowed Ms. Dormire to take her children home.
Kaley, now 17 and still in high school, has no signs of a disability and is a competing gymnast. Her brother, Brennan, is also 17, but he is not returning to Cambodia this summer because of his soccer schedule.
Ms. Rihn waited for Hilary for a year after she met her at the Nutrition Center. Since she was fertile (she already had two biological sons), many adoption agencies either considered her ineligible or made it difficult for her to adopt.
When she finally received word of her new daughter, she traveled to Cambodia to pick her up. She got her first look at Hilary sitting on the floor while the nanny fed her rice.
"Then they handed me the spoon and the rice bowl, so I sat down and fed her," she said. "Then they let us take the kids right away. I guess they figured if you could feed them, it was one less mouth they had to."
The adoption paperwork was not complete when Ms. Rihn's visa expired three weeks later, so she had to return to the United States shortly afterward without Hilary.
The little girl finally arrived in the United States shortly before her second birthday. She weighed 17 pounds and had scabies and lice.
This month the mothers and daughters will be traveling with friends who also adopted children from Cambodia.
Seven years ago the INS suspended adoptions from Cambodia due to lack of legal documentation and a proper child-care system. It is unknown when the suspension will be lifted.
For more information, or to make a donation, go to www.sendricesendlove.com.
By Kathy SaeNgian, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Lisa Dormire desperately wanted children, and she was willing to travel halfway around the world to find them.
"The social worker called me one night out of the blue and said that there was a new adoption program starting up in Cambodia, and it was probably going to be a wild ride," said Ms. Dormire, 46, of Washington Township, Westmoreland County.
And indeed it was.
She and Julie Rihn, 46, of South Butler, were two of only a handful of families in the United States that adopted children from Cambodia when the adoption program began in 1991.
Both mothers are returning to Cambodia this week with their adopted children, not only to acquaint the now older teens with their home countries but also to give back to the country that gave them so much.
One of the goals for their trip is to raise money to buy rice for the Nutrition Center in Phnom Penh, where the children were living before they were adopted. Because the price of rice has more than doubled since last year, it has become harder to feed all of the orphans.
They've established a Web site, www.sendricesendlove.com, and hope to attract at least $2,000 in donations to buy rice to help feed the children in the orphanage.
Because of rising prices and lack of funds, the U.N. World Food Programme recently had to suspend for one month its School Feeding Program, which provides free breakfasts for 450,000 Cambodian children.
"The money that they have to spend on rice for orphans isn't going up, but the rice prices are. So at the end of the day that just means less rice," Ms. Dormire said.
In addition to the fundraiser, this trip will have sentimental value for the Rihns. This will be the first time that she and her 18-year-old daughter, Hilary, will be back to Cambodia since the adoption. They decided to embark on this trip after recently contacting members of Hilary's birth family, who live in the countryside. Although Hilary's parents and grandparents have died, Hilary has three sisters who are anticipating her arrival.
Traveling to Cambodia is the only way for her to reunite with her family because of a moratorium the Immigration and Naturalization Service imposed in 2004 on immigrant visas issued to Cambodia.
Ms. Rihn hopes that the reunion between Hilary and her family will allow her daughter to learn more about her roots and gain a stronger Cambodian identity.
In April 1991, Ms. Dormire traveled to Cambodia with hopes of adopting two children, a girl and a boy. She was told that her children might have some sort of disability, but she was willing to accept the risk.
She flew to Ho Chi Minh City, the capital of Vietnam, and caught a bus to Cambodia. About 12 hours later, she arrived in Phnom Penh and met her children at the Nutrition Center orphanage.
"I went to the orphanage and met my son, and he was 11 months old at the time. Then five minutes later, they brought out a tiny little baby girl and said 'Do you want her?'" she recalled.
The baby, whom she named Kaley, was 5 months old, weighed 7 pounds and was not strong enough to hold up her own head. But that wasn't the only problem. Kaley's arms and legs were in a scissored position, and Ms. Dormire feared that she could have cerebral palsy, a neurological disorder.
"We put her on a table, and we tried to straighten her arms out and everything," she said. "And I thought that maybe she will be in a wheelchair or she won't walk, but I knew that the connection was there. There is just something in your heart, and you know they're going to be OK."
It took six weeks for the Cambodian government to complete the adoption documents that allowed Ms. Dormire to take her children home.
Kaley, now 17 and still in high school, has no signs of a disability and is a competing gymnast. Her brother, Brennan, is also 17, but he is not returning to Cambodia this summer because of his soccer schedule.
Ms. Rihn waited for Hilary for a year after she met her at the Nutrition Center. Since she was fertile (she already had two biological sons), many adoption agencies either considered her ineligible or made it difficult for her to adopt.
When she finally received word of her new daughter, she traveled to Cambodia to pick her up. She got her first look at Hilary sitting on the floor while the nanny fed her rice.
"Then they handed me the spoon and the rice bowl, so I sat down and fed her," she said. "Then they let us take the kids right away. I guess they figured if you could feed them, it was one less mouth they had to."
The adoption paperwork was not complete when Ms. Rihn's visa expired three weeks later, so she had to return to the United States shortly afterward without Hilary.
The little girl finally arrived in the United States shortly before her second birthday. She weighed 17 pounds and had scabies and lice.
This month the mothers and daughters will be traveling with friends who also adopted children from Cambodia.
Seven years ago the INS suspended adoptions from Cambodia due to lack of legal documentation and a proper child-care system. It is unknown when the suspension will be lifted.
For more information, or to make a donation, go to www.sendricesendlove.com.
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