Against all odds

When Leann Funk and her extended family sit down to Thanksgiving dinner this week, the newest member of the clan likely will want rice instead of the traditional mashed potatoes.

After waiting and praying so long for his arrival, family members won?t mind in the least. Six-year-old Wenxi Daniel Funk has found his seat at the table as Leann?s adopted son.

Mother and son arrived from China for the first time earlier this month. All it took for it to happen were six years and a bushel of miracles.

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The first miracle may be that Wenxi (pronounced wun-see) has survived at all. Born with spina bifida in the hill country of northern China, Wenxi was fortunate to have a special biological mother. She could have discarded him, but chose to bring him to a government orphanage in Shenyang. It probably took her three months to save enough money to make the trip.

Leann learned of this only because the orphange had saved the note the biological mother left with Wenxi when she placed the infant at the door.

?She said in the note they just didn?t have any money because of his ?disease,? as she called it,?? Leann said. ?She said she didn?t want to abandon him. She hoped someone would save him.?

Leann believes Wenxi inherited his good character from his birth mother.

?I think that will grow to be a blessing for both of us as we teach him his story and he learns to understand his story,? she said. ?He will know that his biological mother really did love him. I?m sure she had a lot of advice to just throw him away.?

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Leann first met Wenxi in November 2004. She was a frequent short-term missions volunteer during her summers off from her job as a physical therapist for the Wichita school system, but had never been to China.

?It never was on my list of places to see,? she said. ?I had been in the jungle in South America and loved it out there, and a lot of other places.?

Leann made the trip at the request of some American Christians who came to teach English in a school but found themselves also caring for the 40 special-needs children living at the orphanage.

?They kind of called back to the church (in Wichita) and said, ?We need somebody who can show us what to do with these kids because we?re teachers?we can love them, but maybe there?s more we can do,? Leann said.

?They invited me to come. As God would have it, I had already asked for a leave of absence to do some short-term mission work. But I had no specific plans.?

Wenxi was 9 months old when they met. By then, Chinese doctors had surgically addressed the outward defect of spina bifida?the tumor-like growth on the outside of his back that was actually his spinal cord and related tissues.

But the doctors had not yet inserted the shunt required to drain the spinal fluid that commonly collects inside the skull and leads to brain swelling.

?I remember being pretty concerned about that,? Leann said. ?He could have had significant cognitive limitations because of the delay.?

Her American friends eventually raised the money to have Wenxi?s shunt inserted at about one year of age. Though he has lost the use of his legs because of spina bifida, Wenxi?s mental capacity, then and now, seems typical for a child his age.

?He was just a cute, content little guy,? Leann recalled about that first encounter. ?God preserved this child for…I don?t know what, but for something, I?m sure.?

Each summer after that one, Leann returned to China. To serve and to see Wenxi.

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Being a mother was never part of Leann?s ambition in life. But in 2008 something moved in her spirit when she was told 4-year-old Wenxi would never go to school.

?They said there?s no way, because he?s too handicapped to go to school and he?s an orphan,? she said. ?Even if I paid a caregiver to go with him, he couldn?t go to school.?

Back in Hillsboro, Leann described her angst to her friend, Connie Fast, wife of Leann?s former pastor.

?She just looked at me and said, ?What does God have to do, Leann? It?s obvious he wants this boy to be your son.?

?I was like, ?No, no, you don?t understand. It?s against the law for singles to adopt in China now. And I?ve never had this deep, empty hole in my heart that I needed to be a mother and have a child.?

?But the truth was this kid seemed to be a bright child, he had a great personality,? Leann added. ?It broke my heart that he was going to live in an orphanage.?

Leann knew of other orphans there with very mild disabilities who would live their entire life and die in the government system.

?It?s heartbreaking,? she said.

Not long after that conversation, Leann heard a sermon in her church based on a passage from Isaiah 43: ?Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.?

?Maybe there?s something bigger and better for me,? Leann remembered thinking at the time. ?Honestly, at age 48 I?ve probably lived for myself long enough. It?s OK with me to settle down.

?That?s when I wrote a letter to the Chinese government and asked for special permission as a single mother to adopt him.?

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Leann knew from the start that her adoption of Wenxi was unlikely to be approved.

?The strikes against us were I was single, he was disabled and I wanted to pre-select,? she said. ?They don?t like any of these things.?

The Chinese government responded to her letter with silence.

?There was no communication,? Leann said. ?That was the hardest part. I?m a doer. If I want something, I try to make it happen. This was almost two years of the Lord saying, ?You know what? This is my thing, not your thing.??

Leann tried to do her part.

?I went back the next summer, hoping to maybe make some headways, meet some people,? Leann said. ?But with a strong language barrier, there wasn?t much I could do.?

So she waited. But it was hard. She understood the fear of parents of the special-needs children she worked with in the Wichita schools.

?The thing I hear parents say all the time is, ?I?m afraid when my child is 15 they?re going to say, ?If you had only done….?? I?m thinking if I wait and wait, and then someone says, ?If you would have just called these people it would have been a done deal,? then what?

?It?s this whole thing of, ?Am I missing something???

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The situation began to change. A government worker Leann met at the orphange in 2009 said she would try to help and told her the name of the man in charge of making the final decision.

?I started praying for him,? Leann said.

Meanwhile, friends in Shenyang told Leann they knew a family in Florida who had used Christian World Adoption in the past, and knew a woman in China who had a special connection with the China Center for Adoption Affairs. That woman told Leann the official in authority was no longer in his position.

?Shortly after that, Wenxi was put on the adoption list,? Leann said. ?The orphange puts the kids on the list, and then somehow?I don?t know if it?s a lottery?but they?re placed with different agencies.?

The agency selected for Wenxi was Christian World Adoption.

Leann received word in late December 2009 that she and Wenxi had been approved for adoption. The paperwork began in January.

Leann said she doesn?t know the official reason the government made so many exceptions in her case. But she knows who was behind it.

?The last time I went to China in 2009, God continuously put in front of me people who spoke about his sovereignty,? she said. ?It seemed every sermon I pulled up online was about the sovereignty of God: ?This is my plan, it?s my timing.??

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Leann and sister Danita Unrau left for China Oct. 22 to complete the necessary paperwork to make the adoption official. It took two weeks, but the three of them arrived in Kansas Nov. 9. They were home at last.

A couple of years earlier, Leann had moved in with her parents, Don and Gladys Funk. Together, they had renovated the old family farmhouse in anticipation of Wenxi?s arrival.

They built on a garage to provide a warm, dry area to help Wenxi in and out of the car in bad weather. Because his bedroom would be upstairs, they added an elevator to the south end of the house. She and her father did the work themselves.

Not able to afford a new elevator, Leann found a used one through some contacts at her school in Wichita. Turns out she knew the guy she bought it from.

?I?ve found out through this whole process that if I just waited, God provided so many things,? she said. ?He provided (Wenxi?s) wheelchairs, too. Those were all donations.?

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Leann used the 10 days the Wichita school system allows an employee for adoption leave. She?s now on unpaid medical leave until she returns to work in January. She gladly accepts the loss of income.

?I just think there?s no price n the world that?s worth taking a chance on a bad start.?

Job One these days is for Wenxi and his mother to bond. On the advice of those who have experience with adopting child?ren from institutions, the two have been sleeping in the same bed each night since his arrival.

?I know there would be a million parents who would tell me you?re starting a habit you can?t break,? Leann said. ?The truth is, he spent six years putting himself to sleep and being alone. The goal right now is to have him be dependent on me.

?He got more love than a typical orphan (because of the Christian volunteers in China), but he didn?t have time in Mama?s or Grandma?s arms, where he?d just sit and sing or had books read to him. We do a lot of that now.?

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Wenxi has already been introduced to his peers at Hillsboro Mennonite Brethren Church. It?s been a positive experience for him and his fellow students, even though Wenxi is just beginning to pick up a few English words.

?They?ve really primed the kids well for him,? Leann said of the workers there. ?And he?s right there with them. When they run out of the room, he?s right behind them (in his wheelchair.)?

Wenxi was exposed to television in China; he knew what McDonald?s was long before he ever saw one. These days, television cartoons are helping him learn English.

?Everybody has told me that?s how kids learn English,? Leann said.

In the meantime, Wenxi and his family communicate with gestures and limited English. Wenxi enjoys singing simple songs he?s learned from Grandma Gladys.

The plan is to have Wenxi begin first grade at Hillsboro Elementary School after the holiday break.

?They?re welcoming him with open arms and are willing to do whatever it takes,? Leann said. ?I think it will go well. I really don?t have any reservations about it at all.?

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Dinner aside, Thanksgiving Day will hold special meaning for Leann, Wenxi and their extended family.

?Obviously, you can?t be thankful enough for a new special life in your family,? Leann said. ?I?m so grateful for the opportunity God has given us to be part of his life.

?A lot of people say he?s so lucky, but you know, we?re so lucky because what we can learn from special kids like him is endless.

?I think as we watch him grow up, how he attacks life full speed, hopefully it will change a lot of lives,? Leann said. ?I think those of us who are around him and see him scooting around so happy and joyful will say, ?Thank you, Lord, you?ve given us so much.??

In regard to her personal journey, Leann said she has arrived exactly where she wants to be.

?I look at my friends and say what am I doing at this age with a 6-year-old?? she said. ?But I don?t have the desires to do a lot of other stuff now. I?m really content to sit at home and play matching colors and spider sequences, and watch his personality just kind of ooze.

?He?s got that sensitive heart. You wouldn?t anticipate that at all, coming from an orphanage.

?It?s just been a wonderful journey, one in which I feel I now have a huge responsibility.?But in Wenxi the Lord has given all of us a wonderful gift.

?He?s the joy of my life. I?m just amazed with the things he does and the ways he communicates, in spite of language barriers.

?I love being a mother now.?

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