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Life in a new land, free from strife, struggle |
Newberg family adopts 14-month-old Shayna, a
Liberian girl abandoned in infancy |
By Schellene
Clendenin, Newberg Graphic reporter
E-mail Schellene at
sclendenin@eaglenewspapers.com
|
Fourteen-month-old Shayna Trachte loves to dance, even without
music.
Her bright brown eyes sparkle when she smiles at her big brother,
Sam, and she has a deep, infectious belly laugh. She can say
“momma,” “daddy,” “duck” and “dog.”
It’s
obvious that she’s been cared for since birth, said mom Lynn Trachte
of Newberg. The Trachte family recently adopted Shayna with the help
of PLAN Loving Adoptions Now, a McMinnville-based nonprofit agency.
Since the agency opened in 1978 it has placed thousands of children
from around the world in homes in the United States.
Though shy at first, Shayna is most comfortable with children and
adores her three new brothers: Sam, 10, Caleb, 12, and Colin, 14.
Lynn has never seen Shayna’s biological mom. And except for the
first few days of her life, neither has Shayna.
A little Blessing
Just days after her birth Shayna was left on the doorway of a
family with nine children in Nimba County, located outside Monrovia,
the capitol of Liberia. Her umbilical cord was still attached.
Her new family, a minister and his wife, named her Blessing and
gave her their last name, Kallon. “It’s not outside the culture for
a family to just keep a child like that,” said Judy Elkins,
international program director for PLAN Loving Adoptions Now. The
program places children from Liberia, Guatemala, China and Vietnam.
Most often, the children placed are ages 3 to 6. The group also
places children born in the United States.
The couple cared for Shayna for three or four months before
deciding they didn’t have enough room for her in their small home.
They wanted to give Shayna an opportunity to be adopted.
They took her to an orphanage sponsored by Hope for the Nation, a
program that provides foster homes for children who have been
orphaned or abandoned, Elkins said. Shayna remained in foster care
with the program for at least eight months before she was sent to
her new family in Newberg.
In Newberg, the Trachtes had been discussed adding a daughter to
their brood of three boys. Sam Trachte was all for the idea of
having a younger sibling, though he was planning on a brother. “As
long as I didn’t have to change diapers,” he said.
In January 2005, the couple began the process of planning for a new
child in their home. The process was completed on Feb. 27 when the
couple met Shayna at Portland International Airport for the first
time.
Stories of Africa
The stories emanating from Africa are enough to raise the hair on
the backs of anyone’s neck. Unstable peace, rebel insurgency and an
AIDS epidemic that affects more than 4 million people, according to
the British Broadcasting Corporation.
Almost 3.5 million people populate the West African country of
Liberia, roughly the size of Tennessee, according to the Web site
www.CIA.gov. About 200,000 more live in neighboring countries.
Just more than 6 percent of the land can be farmed in an area in
which tropical rain forest deforestation, soil erosion, loss of
biodiversity, pollution of coastal waters from oil residue and raw
sewage have ravaged the environment.
About 130 children per 1,000 die in infancy. Most adults die before
they reach 40. The risk for contracting a major infectious disease,
such as malaria or yellow fever, is high.
Linda Vollman and Elkins were sent to Liberia in February to pick
up five children who had been adopted by families in the United
States. Shayna was one of them.
The rest of the children — all boys — were taken to homes in other
states, including a pair of brothers who were adopted by a family in
Oklahoma.
Elkins, who oversees all the international PLAN programs, said the
trip was wonderful. “Liberia is a fascinating country to go to,” she
said. “The people are warm and friendly and so devastated because of
civil war. But now they are full of optimism.”
Their optimism stems from the election of President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf,
the first woman elected to the office.
Shayna’s new family
The Trachtes completed the adoption paperwork this past summer. In
August, the family was at a PLAN picnic when one of the coordinators
approached Lynn. They had a little girl for her. Lynn was
speechless.
“I couldn’t talk,” she admitted later. “I was blubbering. It was
embarrassing.”
The next round of paperwork began.
Then Elkins and Vollman traveled to Monrovia to pick up the
children. Shayna wanted nothing to do with Elkins and Vollman at
first. Their white faces were completely foreign to her.
Often countries — such as Russia— require would-be parents to
travel to the country before adoption can occur. But in Shayna’s
case, travel to Liberia was unnecessary to complete the adoption.
The Trachtes were discouraged from making the trip, Elkins said,
adding that Liberia is not a safe place for inexperienced travelers
with the intense heat, unrest and chance of contracting a disease.
Lynn said a hitch in the process — extra forms required by the
embassy — may have delayed Shayna’s trip to the United States, but
the family and the adoption agency went into action. The final
signature wasn’t dry on the forms when Shayna boarded the airplane
to the United States.
With her family
When she arrived in Portland Shayna was tired and had a head cold.
But after a few days she was already firmly attached to her big
brothers.
Paul carried her around in a sling for the first week after she
arrived in Newberg. After about a week she became a bubbly, playful
little girl.
Shayna likes to be carried, Sam said, as he balances Shayna
expertly on one hip. “In Africa they carry their babies around all
day,” he said.
“She likes anyone who will hold her,” Caleb agreed, adding that his
new little sister loves being pushed in her stroller. “She likes
going fast.”
Sam agreed. “I wanted a younger sibling,” he said. “I’m happy with
her.”
Paul Trachte said a friend of his in Kenya called his family heroes
for adopting Shayna. Without the family’s decision to adopt, Paul’s
friend felt she may not live to adolescence. But Paul, who attends
Newberg Christian Church, said he feels God led him to become
Shayna’s father.
“How can you not help but love her?” he said. |
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From March
29,
2006, Newberg Graphic
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