Meet The Press

This is coming out in the Thanksgiving edition of our local newspaper...they have a few things a bit wrong, like her name....but, overall, a decent job. And, we are SO thankful for her!!!

(sorry for the formatting......the paragraphs wouldn't stick!!!)

Happy Thanksgiving from Mike, Michelle & Maelie!!!!!!!!

Baby's adoption comes through for couple
By CHARLES RAMSAYRegional Editor
Published: Wednesday, November 26, 2008 9:50 PM CST

VIRGINIA — Mike and Michelle Zadra are grateful this holiday season for their new baby, Maeli.Michelle Zadra journeyed to Vietnam and returned home in early October with the 8-month-old newcomer they’ve adopted as their first child. The two had been going together for several years before their marriage more than eight years ago.They were some of the more fortunate couples from the U.S. to be able to adopt a child from another country, as recently very severe restrictions or outright bans have been imposed. A typical wait for a couple to adopt from China had been up to five years before recent changes.Their efforts began in March 2006. They submitted paperwork to an adoption agency for a baby in China. After a year of waiting, the couple decided to also apply to Vietnam for a child. While some countries do not allow applications to other places while one is pending with them, Michelle Zadra said that China did allow it.The adoption process is thorough, and the paperwork is extensive. Medical letters, background checks, FBI fingerprints on file, photos of themselves, checkups on financial means to support a child all must be submitted as part of the documentation. They met with a social worker from the U.S. adoption agency, who made a home visit, collected background on the community and schools and submitted a report.Then last December, they were matched with an available child. But a barrier was soon raised. The province where the child was from was alleged to be involved in baby trafficking, or selling babies for money. The report was determined later to be unfounded, Michelle Zadra said.The couple was told that the agreement to adopt the baby was ended as a result.“I was heartbroken,” Michelle said.“She was going to give up,” Mike said.But then in May, on Mother’s Day 2008 weekend, they got word that a new baby was available for them in Vietnam.“It was the best Mother’s Day gift a person could get,” Michelle Zadra said.More time passed in waiting, more forms were filled and procedures were followed to get ready for the adoption. U.S. Immigration had to be notified, Homeland Security and the FBI were dealt with.Then came the e-mail — come within 1-1/2 weeks.“You wait. You wait,” Mike explained. “When it pops, it’s like the Army’’ in its “hurry up and wait” methods, he added.One more item was needed right away — a passport for Mike, even though he was staying home to work at his job at Dom-Ex in Hibbing. The passport had to be taken along as part of the adoption. “I’m very thankful for the passport people,” he said, as it was received within a week, where normally a passport takes six to eight weeks to process.Medical shots had been obtained during the summer. The only items needed yet were visas, as Vietnam is still a Communist country.Michelle left on her journey Sept. 19, accompanied by her mother, Bonnie Prigge, 70, and her sister, Kim Grippe, 48.“Her very first plane trip ever,” Michelle said of her mother.They arrived in Hanoi after a long flight, met with five other American families who were adopting, and took several side trips while waiting the first few days for paperwork to proceed.Their lodgings were not what one might expect.The three women stayed at the “Hanoi Hilton’’ downtown, where U.S. prisoners of war including Sen. John McCain were held during the Vietnam War.The complex has been refurbished, into condominiums, a hotel and shops. The three women stayed in a two-bedroom apartment, with a balcony, kitchen and laundry. Their apartment overlooked the old prison area where U.S. POWs were held.Besides the heat, traffic in downtown Hanoi can be overwhelming, with thousands of motorbikes burning exhaust and motorists honking a lot, Michelle recalled.Finally the day arrived. The three journeyed out to Bac Ninh Orphanage, the province being about an hour’s drive from Hanoi. It was not the province where their first adoption process had fallen through.They went on a tour of the spartan orphanage, where numerous babies were waiting to be adopted. Their first live glimpse of the baby they would name Maeli came during the giving and receiving ceremony, where a child is given to the new family.There is a bond between orphanage staffers and their charges, Michelle noted, as “when the nanny handed her to me she (the staffer) cried.’’Maeli had been left outside the orphanage during the early morning of March 9, when a security guard noticed her. Michelle estimates Maeli was probably about 20 days old then. Mike said they consider March 9 as her birthday, so “we’ll stick with her found day.”While the reasons for Maeli’s being given over to the orphanage aren’t known, Michelle said that the “people there are very friendly,’’ polite and hospitable and caring for children. Unlike other countries where babies may be sold for a profit, in Vietnam, the major reason for babies given up for adoption is economic, where some parents might not be able to afford to support a child.“It’s a poor country,” she said.The couple believes they adopted Maeli at a very good age. In China, many children adopted are usually more than a year old, often 16 months, a time when language development in Chinese has already started.“When you grow up in an orphanage, you have a lot of developmental delays,” Michelle explained. A child is not usually worked with one on one, and the ratio between kids and staffers is often five to one.But they have seen Maeli demonstrate an active interest in things around her. “She’s quite ahead in many areas,” Michelle said, as Maeli busily scooted about the floor of a conference room and stopped to study a similar-looking baby in a mirror.The three women and Maeli stayed in Hanoi a few more days, while more paperwork was processed, and a visa for Maeli was obtained from the U.S. embassy. They arrived back in the U.S. and reached the Range by early October.Naming Maeli Jolianne Zadra resulted from relatives on both sides of the family. Michelle’s grandmother, Bessie Mae, has her birthday on March 10, a day away from Maeli’s birthday. Mae is Michelle’s grandmother’s middle name, and the Chinese word Maelui means in part, “beautiful.”The middle name was arrived at from two people: Jodi Desin, a good family friend, and Mike’s grandmother’s first name, Ann.Raising Maeli so far has been easy for the first-time parents, who were allowed to practice by babysitting the children of friends who operate an Asian restaurant.When Maeli first arrived, “she was strictly a formula baby,” Mike said. Now, pureed baby food containing “chicken, beef and turkey is what she wants.”Whether they would adopt a second baby gives Michelle reason to pause. “It took a lot out of me emotionally,” she said. “It was good for the experience.”If they did go through the process again, Michelle said, “You have to be determined. You have to be patient.”The cost for everything, from adoption to the plane fare to Vietnam and back, probably was in the range of $25,000, Mike estimated.This Thanksgiving, the couple feels they have much to be grateful for, from her mother and sister who went with Michelle, to Mike’s employer, Dom-ex, for giving him family leave to help after Maeli arrived, to kindnesses from many people.Most of all, “we’re very thankful for her,” Michelle said. “Such a very good baby.”
Copyright © 2008 - Mesabi Daily News - Virginia, MN