My story began when I was nine years old.  I moved in to an orphanage in Bogotá, Colombia named Santisima Trinidad.  While I was there, I kept wondering when I would be adopted or even if I would ever be adopted.

FANA is an orphanage in Bogotá that takes care of babies.  However, they were beginning a new program to try and place children, 10-14 years old, with families in Buffalo,New York.  This program, started by Elena de Martinez and Adriana Chavez, was called Great Magic.  The idea was to take a few lucky older kids or sibling groups to Buffalo to spend 3 weeks with a family.  After the 3 weeks, the children were to return to their orphanages.  If a match was made, the children were told that they would be adopted and that their new family would be coming to get them as soon as all paperwork was completed.  This program was certainly a miracle for older Colombian children like me.

When FANA called my orphanage and asked if there were any kids cleared for adoption, they said there were, and thank God I was one of those kids.  When I was accepted to be in the program it was the best day of my life.  I spent a few days at the FANA orphanage with kids from Santisima Trinidad and other orphanages.  We were told that we were going to The United States.  At this time, I didn’t even realize that the people there didn’t speak Spanish. I was both afraid and happy.  I was afraid because I was going to spend time with strangers and I was happy because I had an opportunity to have a real family.

Finally the day came to leave Colombia.  Originally, I didn’t even know how far away the United States was.  I didn’t even know what language the people spoke.  I was so afraid because it was my first time flying in an airplane.  It was summer so the temperature was pretty warm in Buffalo.  I was not used to this because Bogotá’s temperature is moderate year round.

I met my host family but communication was difficult.  After about one week we realized things were not working out. Baker Victory Services was then able to place me with another family.  They spoke Spanish so the communication was better.  At the end of my stay, I spent the day at Spanish Camp and then went to the Friday night fiesta.  I didn’t know it then, but a woman, who was already a FANA mom, saw me and fell in love with me that day.  However, my trip was over and it was time to go back to Colombia.

Unfortunately, things didn’t work out with the second family either so I just thought I would stay at the orphanage.  Then, I received a phone call from Adriana at FANA and she said a family in Buffalo(the woman from Spanish Camp) wanted me to visit them for Christmas.  So, once again I was flying to the United States to live with strangers who only spoke English.

On Christmas Eve we went to a party with their whole family. When it was bed time I was so excited because the next day we would open our presents. This family had two children, eight year old boy/girl twins. We stayed up all night talking (me in Spanish and them in English). Somehow we understood each other and laughed all night long. In the morning we opened presents and played all day. In the evening my host family had a huge family party at their house. It was really fun spending Christmas with this family. When I went back to Colombia, my counselor asked me if I wanted to be a part of this family and I said yes because of course, that was the right family for me.

So, for two years now I have been a part of a family, my family.

I thank FANA and everyone who made my dream come true.  I know FANA did this for other kids too.  My family always supports FANA and my brother, sister, and I will always remember that we are FANA Kids.  Thank you for making my dream come true.

It’s that time of year, my birthday. This year is a “big one”, 30. It’s time to hear the story of how a young couple traveled all the way to Colombia to get their daughter. The story changes slightly each year, but that’s the best part. After 30 years my mother still has the same joy in her face when she tells it, and I never get bored of hearing it.

The story starts off with a row of basinets filled with babies, me with a lone curl in my hair and my father in tears of joy.  Ten days in a foreign country trying to get from doctors to lawyers to the consulate, all with the crying baby who would only be silenced by the sound of  Colombian Cumbia on the radio. The workers strike on Avianca which kept the plane on the ground for 10 hours, with just enough formula to feed a baby’s hungry belly before landing at JFK.

How does the story end? It hasn’t yet, but it’s been a great journey of discovery of who I am, both Colombian and American.  As of right now I am writing this note from Miami, exactly in the middle between where I was born in Bogota and where I grew up in Long Island,NY. I have chosen to stay active in fundraising for FANA after visiting the first time three years ago.  The kids that are still there will always be a priority in my life.   I plan to take my mom back to Colombia with me one day to show her all that has changed.  I owe a lot of who I am today to her and I’d love to share all of my Colombian adventures with her.  While I may never know what traits I carry that are “nature” vs. “nurture”, the best compliment I receive is from strangers who say “You remind me so much of your mother”.

I wanted to take this opportunity on a time of year that always causes me to reflect to say thank you to my family- adopted, biological and extended.

United By Our Children, Committed to All Children…  You may have read this statement on the FANA Web site or seen it atop the La Hoja and felt it a fitting description of the mission FANA has strived to fulfill for more than 35 years—beginning with the vision of Mercedes de Martinez and the staff in Colombia and continuing through dedicated FANA families all over the world.  What many newer families may not know is, this simple and powerful statement was penned by Carolyn Van Schaik, a devoted FANA mom and community activist who not only played an active role in her Families of FANA family, but sought to create a better community for all women and children of Niagara County.  

Carolyn played a huge part in helping to create what is known today as Carolyn’s House, which is located in Niagara Falls, NY.

If you check out the YWCA’s homepage, you can read all about the history of Carolyn’s House.  (Here’s a brief summary – With 100 percent support of the YWCA of Niagara Board of Directors, the application to begin the “Sixth Street” project was submitted to the government for its consideration in 2003. The application stage culminated over18 months of brainstorming and hard work on the part of many.  The need for housing of this type was long overdue. In Niagara County, there was virtually no housing for homeless or low-income women with children.  Carolyn’s House (aka the Sixth Street project) was named in Carolyn’s Van Shaik’s honor to commemorate her assistance in the project. Tragically, her life was cut short before the home opened.   

Today, Carolyn’s House is a 19-apartment residence for homeless and low-income women and children. Women from across Niagara County call the facility home.  The home offers programs to help women gain stability in their lives while preparing for economic self-sufficiency, including GED instruction, pre-college workshops and assistance with college enrollment for qualified residents, life skills programs, and onsite vocational programs.

Since its beginning, FANA has been committed to supporting Carolyn’s House by making an annual donation, as it did earlier this year.  Just as Carolyn was then, FANA continues to be committed to supporting Carolyn’s vision to help members of her community in search of a better life.  As Carolyn Van Schaik understood, commitment begins with individuals uniting for a greater cause. 

For more information – http://ywcaniagara.org/carloyns_house_domestic_violence.html

 Thank you FANA

By: Emily

FANA has selected the SAGE Holy Angels Academy high school team as a recipient of one of FANA’s annual awards this year.  I will describe how the FANA Spanish camp, families in earthquake stricken Haiti and a young girl in the Philippines will benefit from this donation. SAGE stands for Students for the Advancement for Global Entrepreneurship. I am an alumnus of Holy Angels Academy, where I was a part of this club for three years and was president of the club last year.  I continue to be a college mentor for the team.

In the past two years, the Holy Angels SAGE team has traveled around the world. We have represented the United States, in Abuja, Nigeria and Brasilia, Brazil, and this summer the SAGE team is working hard with the goal in mind to make it to the world competition in Cape Town, South Africa. The Holy Angels SAGE team continues to do various types of businesses and social ventures.  Two years ago, we started our own book publishing business, where the HAA SAGE team personally writes, illustrates, and produces children’s books in Spanish and English. Thus far, the HAA SAGE team has published two children’s books and this year, the girls are working on two additional books. One of the books this year will be used by the children who participate in the FANA Spanish camp, and the girls have been working with Senora Giansanti of FANA to create and publish the book.

In addition to the HAA SAGE team’s business, they have been working on their social ventures. Two years ago, the HAA SAGE team discovered Lifestraws, which are personal water filters which clean and purify 99.999% of water born bacteria such as malaria and cholera.  In the past two years alone, the HAA SAGE team has sent water filters to Myanmar and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. This year, with the help of FANA, the girls were able to send 2,500 Lifestraws to Haiti after the earthquake. The HAA SAGE team was able to get the Lifestraws into Haiti though the team’s connection at D’Youville College and through Sr. Mary Finnick, a Grey Nun of the Matthew 25 House in Port-au-Prince. Yes, that is the same Grey nuns that assisted our orphanage in Bogota! The Lifestraws will be distributed to families with children that need clean water.

In addition to the Lifestraws social venture, the HAA SAGE team has purchased a flock of 60 chickens that a group of 17 widows and their children will use to re-start an egg business in the Democratic Republic of the Congo that was interrupted by a military occupation. Their husbands were killed protecting the gorillas and the egg business is the only way for the widowed mother’s to support their children. The Holy Angels SAGE team is off to a great start this year and hopes are high that they will do well in the upcoming competitions this year.  With the help of FANA over the past few years they have helped each one of our projects become a success. Gracias!

May 10, 2009

NORTH TONAWANDA: Local women bring hope home

Two teachers, friends share in motherhood since opting to adopt

By Neale Gulley

When a member of the North Tonawanda High School staff brings a new baby into the world, colleagues flock to the school library for cake and to give their regards.

Amid the bookshelves April 27 — just after the last bell — the usual pink or blue motifs were replaced with red, white and blue as two veteran teachers welcomed their three newly adopted children to the United States.

“We traditionally have little baby showers, but in this case we wanted a meet and greet,” said Spanish teacher and North Tonawanda United Teachers Union President Linda Roach, who helped organize the event.

About 50 other faculty members and even a few students dropped by to eat, congratulate the pair on their newfound parenthood and gaze at a photo slide show of their recent trip to Colombia.

Until just a few weeks ago, Juan Carlos, 14, his sister Wendy, 12, and 11-year-old Lucia were living with foster parents in their native city of Bogota.

“We’ve been friends for over 20 years and colleagues,” said social studies teacher Sarah Hansgate, who adopted Lucia.

“So we thought it would be a support system — we want to raise them as cousins.”

Hansgate and her long-time friend and co-worker Sandy Paul, who appropriately enough teaches Spanish, returned from a month-long sojourn to the South American nation about as many weeks ago, staying overseas while the adoption process was completed.

“We loved Colombia,” Paul said. “We took the children to see some beautiful things in their own country.”

While the images of the trip flashed on the library’s computer screens, a picture of a civilized western nation steeped in culture took shape. But the relatively modern cityscape would likely give way to a more baleful picture for the children, who are approaching the age where they could no longer be cared for by the government.

Time was running out for Juan Carlos; because of his age and the lack of continuing programs for foster children in Colombia, the young man might soon have been turned loose. In Colombia, turning 16 means life on your own.

“In another year, he’d probably be on the streets,” Hansgate said. “Definitely these children needed homes or there wouldn’t be anything for them.”

All three children only speak Spanish, but they managed more than the average number of “thank yous” as some of the adults brought them treats and other snacks from a banquet table set up on one end of the room.

Last summer, both women took part in a program run through Baker Victory Services of Lackawanna, a child care agency founded in part by Father Nelson Baker but which used to be run as an orphanage after opening 1854.

Director of adoption Judy O’Mara said in 1994 that the center expanded to include adoption services, including an early partnership with FANA, a Colombian adoption agency.

Since 2000, groups of children are invited to Western New York in the summer months, staying with local families and getting a feel for the area.

“These are older children,” O’Mara said. “Once they get over a certain age, there’s relatively little likelihood that they’ll be adopted, so the idea is to bring them here. Families have a chance to get to know the children, fall in love with the children and go on to provide a permanent home for them — most of the time they adopt them.”

In fact, she said of the 14 kids sent to live with local families in July, 11 found a permanent home.

O’Mara said roughly 17,300 kids from other countries were adopted by U.S. families last year — most of them less than 6 years old.

While another 125,000 children native to this country are available for adoption now, she pointed out the process for adopting children here is much different.

“I think that one of the issues always has been that it’s more of an exacting process,” she said.

Those looking to adopt choose kids from other countries for a range of other reasons, she said, and the two local teachers may be a good example of some of the reasons.

“We’re both high school teachers,” Hansgate said. “Sandy being a Spanish teacher, I’m a social studies teacher, so we’ve always been interested in other cultures … just some of the legalities with the open adoption that I wasn’t comfortable, like a parent being able to come back into a child’s life after adoption. That was my concern. Also, just the idea that these children really needed homes … the puzzle pieces just came together for me. That’s what worked for me.”

The children were nervous as they prepared for their first day of school just two days after the party.

“My kids start school tomorrow, so they’re very nervous,” Paul, who had lost her voice after hours of speaking in two languages, said at the time.

Mainly, it’s the language barrier that has the youngsters worried.

“Its been a process … it’s a lot of initially single words,” Hansgate said. “Sandy’s been a huge help, obviously … what they do in the school now, it’s an immersion program so they’ll be in an English-speaking class but they’ll be pulled out with an English as a second language teacher.”

Lucia will be entering fourth grade, Wendy fifth and Nicholas (Juan Carlos) is enrolled in seventh — each one school year behind their chronological age, a measure intended to increase their chances of academic success in light of the language barrier.

“We’ve been able to share the experience,” Hansgate said. “That’s been a huge advantage for both of us, just sharing in the process and sharing the burden of having three children involved.”

January 4, 2009

FAMILY: A new journeyAfter suffering a heartbreaking loss, the Kelahan family adopts four children from Columbia

By April Amadon

april.amadon@lockportjournal.com

WILSON — It’s been a tumultuous year for the Kelahans.

It began with tragedy, when Pat and Chris Kelahan lost their son, Tim, 18, in a car accident Feb. 26.

In the midst of the grief, the family soon found itself on another journey — the process of adopting four young children from Columbia, who are settling in at the family’s Lake Road home.

Through all the turmoil and change, the year also was filled with what Pat calls “good-friendedness” — the strong feeling of warmth and support the family has received from the Wilson community.

“It’s just a lot of positive, ‘Hey, that’s a great thing you’re doing, and we’re going to do everything we can to help you out,’ ” he said. “It’s been amazing.”

Journey

The adoption process isn’t new to the Kelahans; Tim was adopted from Columbia, as well. Their daughter, Erin, 22, was adopted from Korea, and their son, Sean, 6, was adopted from Guatemala.

The family began the adoption process before Tim’s death, working with an agency in Vietnam with the hope of adopting a toddler.

In February, everything came to a halt when Tim died.

“Two days after we buried him, we got the call saying that Vietnam was closing down,” Chris said.

Instead of stopping the process, they continued on with it. Tim had been very supportive of the new adoption, Chris said.

“He was really eagerly looking forward to that,” she said.

They began looking at adopting from Ukbekistan, but in July, they realized that wasn’t going to happen.

They decided to participate in the Baker Victory Summer Save program, bringing four siblings from Columbia to stay temporarily with prospective parents.

The kids — 12-year-old Lainie, 8-year-old Lauren, 6-year-old Jonathan and 5-year-old Danny — were siblings, living in an orphanage in Bogata.

The children came to stay for a few weeks over the summer. While they were at the Kelahans, they told Chris and Pat there were no families who wanted to adopt them.

Deciding whether to adopt four children at once took some thought.

“Pat was willing to jump in immediately,” Chris said. “It took a little bit more soul-searching for me.”

Erin said she initially did not support the idea.

“When they said four, I was personally overwhelmed,” Erin said. “I thought it was too much of an undertaking. When they came in the summer, and I met these kids, and I saw how happy it made my parents, and how happy these kids could be, I was like, ‘Well, it’s the right thing to do.’ ”

The decision was made in August, and things moved quickly from then on. The Kelahans visited the kids in Columbia in November, came home for Thanksgiving and went back to get the children in December.

Adjustment

The family — complete with four new members — returned home Dec. 23, just in time for Christmas.

They’re adjusting well to life in the U.S. with language the biggest obstacle.

The kids don’t speak English, except for certain phrases they’ve learned from their new parents and from watching movies like “Shrek.” Around the house, their sister Erin has placed stickers on appliances and other items, with the English words spelled out.

Pat speaks some Spanish and can communicate with the children to a point but sometimes it’s difficult, depending on the situation.

“How do you tell a kid not to wash the doll’s hand in the toilet?” he said.

On Monday, they will begin school in Wilson, where an English as a second language teacher will work with them. They’ll be immersed in English and, hopefully, will learn it quickly, Pat said.

At home, they’re getting to know their new brother, Sean, who has been the only child in the house for several months.

“It’s hard for him to adjust to having four new people in the house are wanting to share his toys and wanting to share mom and dad,” Chris said. “It’s kind of difficult to bring them into a family situation where there’s already another child. It’s sometimes a feeling like there’s an odd man out.”

On Friday, Sean was running around the house with his new siblings, playing happily. Pat and Chris say he is learning Spanish faster than they are.

“He’s coming out with all different kinds of words,” Chris said.

Support

Since the journey began, the family has received a wealth of support from the Wilson community. Pat said the high school, led by Principal Dan Johnson, was very supportive.

Marge Clark, director of the Wilson Free Library, organized a shower for the family in anticipation of the adoptions.

“We were getting stuff from people we really hadn’t met, who we never knew,” Pat said.

“It was just overwhelming the number of gifts that we received,” Chris said.

The family has been documenting their adoption journey at www.caringbridge.org, where they keep a journal and have posted photos of their family.

“If anybody else is interested in this odyssey, they’re more than welcome to look at it,” Chris said.

Even with the outpouring of praise from the community, the family remains humble.

“We don’t consider ourselves to be heroes,” Chris said. “It just so happened that this group came along, and needed parents. And one thing led to the other.”