Kirk and Nancy Johnson of Minot are filled with gratitude every time they hug their 5-year-old son. They consider Micah to be a gift from Vietnam, grafted into their family nearly two years ago.
"People always say he's so lucky. We say no we are so lucky," Nancy Johnson said. "He's a lot of fun. We are very grateful we have him."
Adopting Micah from Vietnam has brought an international flavor to their home. The Johnsons are part of a growing movement in international adoptions to maintain a connection with the culture of the child's birth.
"That's who he is. That's part of his identity. He's a Vietnamese-American," Nancy Johnson said.
The Johnsons received the 2009 Multicultural Award from the North Dakota Department of Human Services and licensed child placement agencies for their efforts to nurture the cultural heritage of their son. When they received confirmation they were matched with their son, they studied the culture of Vietnam and learned enough of the language to have basic communication with him when they traveled to Vietnam to meet him in January 2007. While there, they took their son on a tour of his birth country. Upon returning, they have connected with others in the community from Vietnam.
Because Minot doesn't have the diversity of a metropolitan area, the Johnsons have had to be willing to stretch themselves to provide Micah with a connection to his roots.
The Johnsons brought items back from Vietnam that enable them to give Micah a gift from his home country on his birthdays. They also preserve the culture through books and the food. Micah's middle name, Lee, is part of his birth name.
When they moved into their current house and hung photos from their three weeks in Vietnam, their son was so excited, Nancy Johnson recalled. He enjoys watching the video and looking through the photo album of their time in Vietnam, too.
The Johnsons strive to maintain Micah's training in aspects of the Vietnamese culture that they admire, such as a strong sense of community and respect for elders. Elders are important in the Johnson home, where Nancy operates an adult foster care. Kirk Johnson is an environmental scientist.
The Johnsons want to expose Micah to broader cultural diversity through travel. They visited Ireland last summer. They are planning a trip to Kansas City to attend a conference that attracts people from a variety of cultures, including Asian.
The Johnsons might not be able to preserve Micah's native language, although they acquired instructional tapes in basic Vietnamese. The language, based on tones as well as word sounds, is difficult. The couple hasn't been able to speak it well enough to converse with Micah, who has come to understand English well but still is learning to speak it.
Nancy Johnson said their desire to honor the Vietnamese culture comes from the international perspective they gained in travels earlier in their lives. Both natives of Glenburn, Kirk and Nancy met in Bulgaria.
Nancy Johnson said a trip to Guatemala in 1991 was her first exposure to an orphanage. Seeing the babies starving for adequate attention moved her.
"It just broke my heart," she said. "I said, 'God, if I ever have a chance to adopt a child, let me.' It left a lasting impression."
She later spent time in Albania, Bulgaria and Egypt. Kirk Johnson was living in Turkey and traveled throughout that region, including assisting with a project in Bulgaria that Nancy was involved in.
"You see kids, when you live overseas, living in the streets and begging," Nancy Johnson said. "They don't get to go to school if their family doesn't have money to pay for their education. Seeing extreme poverty really affects you."
Living in Turkey after their marriage, the Johnsons began contemplating adoption there. When plans fell through, they started looking at adoptions from other countries. They also were open to adopting an older child, knowing that the chance of adoption is slim for those kids.
Working with the Holt International Adoption Agency and Catholic Charities, the Johnsons, then living in Minot, came across Micah's photo among the children seeking adoption. Nancy was immediately smitten with the cute little boy, and Kirk also felt a connection. Kirk had become familiar with the customs of the Vietnamese people in Chicago while attending seminary there.
It took about 1 1/2 years before they could travel to Vietnam to meet Micah, although they were able to send letters and photos for a year prior to the trip.
Nancy Johnson said the adoption process demands patience because of all the paperwork and formalities necessary to ensure that adoptions are properly conducted and result in a good match. One of the reasons they chose to work with Holt was because of the agency's reputation, she said. They knew the money that they were spending on the process was going to care for children awaiting adoption and for social workers and other professionals who are knowledgeable in guiding families through foreign adoptions.
In Micah's case, he had left an orphanage to spend more than two years with a foster family in Vietnam. Having lived in a family environment, he bonded quickly with the Johnsons.
"He just came bouncing around with his big smile," Nancy Johnson said. "I remember thinking he's as adorable as that first picture I saw."
Kirk Johnson cited figures from this country and the United Nations that estimate the number of orphans worldwide at between 44 million and 210 million. That's a wide discrepancy, but even the lower number points to a crisis of national and ethnic warfare, government corruption, disease, drought and famine, he said.
"People who have never considered international adoption as an option should seriously consider pursuing adopting an international child," he said. "This cannot only provide a secure home for a child without hope and a future but provide the adoptive parent or parents with blessings and rewards beyond one's imagination. Do not let prospect of finances, language barriers or other issues keep you from this journey of rewarding challenges."
Source:minotdailynews.com
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