Professor adopts second daughter from Central America
by Chona Santander

Fifteen years ago, Carol Johnson probably could not have had the chance to raise the family she has today.

Fifteen years ago, international adoption laws were much more strict, not to mention the fact that social workers quickly dismissed any single-parent applicants.

But by 1992, international adoption laws were a little more lenient, single parenting was more acceptable in society, and Carol Johnson was able to welcome a five month old little girl from El Salvador named Grace into her life.

“It was like being handed a beautiful little doll,” said Johnson, who is a single parent. “She seemed happy and social...she was this gorgeous, perfect baby.
”
Johnson is an English professor here at Virginia Wesleyan College as well as the director of the Writing Center. She has had enriching experiences teaching English as a Second Language, which allowed her to encounter people of different countries, and she also surrounds herself with friends of different backgrounds. This served as a foundation for her fascination in cultures of different countries and integrated within her sincere interest in adoption, which she had researched intently for years.

“The decision to adopt was a very natural one. The decision to apply to a program in another country seemed like a natural one as well,” Johnson said. “I had no particular concern about having a child that looked like me.
”
Johnson’s reason for adopting a child is simply that she wanted a family.

And a family is what she got.

This past June, Johnson adopted another little girl, this time from Honduras. Her name is Ceci, aged two.

“When the foster mother handed Ceci over to me, [Ceci] looked a little worried at first, but then she looked up at me and crinkled her eyes and her little nose...and the foster mother said that meant that the baby liked me,” Johnson said.

Johnson had an innate feeling that “this is my child” and was concerned for the best care possible for Ceci’s condition. Johnson was told that Ceci was not as healthy as Grace was when she was adopted. Ceci had been found when she was six months old and was near starvation. She was diagnosed with severe early malnutrition, and Johnson was eager to see her progress as the baby’s swollen belly started to go down.

Both Grace and Ceci wore little wooly hats when Johnson first received them. She said that in Latin American countries, the weather can soar past a very hot 90 degrees, but the custom is to overdress the babies in layers and layers of clothing. The belief is that a child is not properly taken care of if he or she is not wearing warm attire.

“It took everything in me to restrain from offending this custom in the presence of the foster mothers. The babies had such heat rash from the thick, restricting clothes,” Johnson said.

However, Johnson does recognize that it is a privilege to be permitted to adopt from another country, as it is a test of determination. She said that enduring the long process develops an understanding and appreciation of another culture. It would be impossible, she said, to raise a child without having any respect for the child’s country and heritage.

“Most countries don’t want to seem to be too eager to send their children out of their country. No country wants to look to rest of the world as if they couldn’t take care of their own children,” she said. “They want to be reassured that families really do want these children and that they are sent to good homes, and that they have the same standing as other children.
”
Johnson considers her family to be “a pretty ordinary family” with the same challenges as any other parent would face—Grace just entered kindergarten, Ceci is adjusting well to life as a little sister, and both have recently endured a professional photo session for the first time together. In Johnson’s office hang paintings and drawings by her little girls, splashed with red and yellow smears or crayoned stick figures; typically mismatched colors of a small child are strewn across each page.

Johnson said that it’s a challenge to be any kind of parent, and that all parents strive to be the best possible guidance for their children. The stress is challenging, but the results are fulfilling.

“Adoptive parents are people who worked long and hard to have their kids, who really wanted them and these challenges...we’re entitled to complain a little, but mostly,” Johnson said, “we rejoice.”

Return to the FEATURES Page
or
Return to the Marlin Chronicle Front Page