Photo By Spc. Jamie Philbrook | JiaQun and his mother Chelle, look through a picture book that they had made of his...... read more read more
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FORT BRAGG, N.C. -- “I fell in love with him,” said Chelle McIntire-Brewer. “But, I wasn’t the only one, Cavan did. He pointed at the screen and said ‘that is my brother’.”
JiaQun was that little boy Cavan pointed to on the computer screen and now has a brighter future thanks to the Brewer family.
Shen JiaQun Josiah McIntyre-Brewer aka Joey or JoJo, is a three-year old boy with special needs, who was adopted from China by Capt. Steven Brewer,1st Theater Sustainment Command, his wife Chelle McIntyre-Brewer and their two other children Cavan, nine and Lorelei, five.
Chelle shared that JiaQun was diagnosed with a number of health issues including tumors and heart problems.
JoJo is not the only special needs child in their house. Their daughter Lorelei also has health problems and has endured three open heart surgeries and 12 other procedures. Their son Cavan is very healthy and helps with his little sister and brother.
“Going through that whole entire experience is life changing,” said Chelle. “It either makes you or breaks you, and I feel like it made us. We are very close.”
“I’ve always known they would adopt at some point,” said Aubrey Stalcup, a childhood friend of Chelle. “So for me, it was just a matter of time. I know that if there is any family on this earth that can care for and love a special needs child, it’s the Brewer family. It is their calling.”
For the Brewers, it was about expanding their Family and they chose international adoption.
Chelle explained that they specifically went into international adoption because in the United States, children are guaranteed medical care and a foster home until they are 18. That is not the case for many orphans around the world.
From helping the littlest victims’ of Hurricane Katrina, to helping orphans around the world, to bringing home their newest little bundle of joy. The Brewers journey was an unexpected but long curvy road that led them to adopting JiaQun.
“After hurricane Katrina I evacuated 23 children from the gulf coast region that had life threatening medical issues and couldn’t get any care,” said Chelle.
Chelle and Steven, who was working with the Department of Welfare at the time, worked with different corporations and organizations to move the children up to Pennsylvania and also worked with the Gov. Edward Rendell to pass $999,999 worth of health care coverage for the children.
“After that it changed us,” said Chelle.
She explained that after Hurricane Katrina she started getting a lot of referrals of people who didn’t understand TRICARE and the exceptional family member program process. While she was working with those referral she would get calls from overseas from deployed Soldiers who would find a kid in Iraq or Afghanistan who needed medical care.
“I would get emails saying ‘Hey this is not something we are allowed to handle. What can you do?’ explained Chelle. “I then started researching how to get them medical visas, get them over here and try and find them surgeons that were willing to take them on pro-bono. So we started moving kids over here for that.”
This was the beginning of Chelle getting involved in the orphan process of finding homes and medical care for orphans around the world.
“So many kids who have health issues are orphans because in a lot of second and third world countries they cannot afford to pay for the medical care,” explained Chelle. “A lot of times the children will be abandoned, something will happen to their parents, or who knows.”
While they were trying to find a family for another little boy Chelle said that JiaQun’s file popped up and she decided to get more information about him.
Chelle said both her and her son fell in love with the little boy on the computer screen that day.
“So I brought it up with Steve and he said ‘I will give you a year, give me a year, and see if we all feel the same’, said Chelle. “We had an agreement that it would take a year to really think about this and make sure we wanted to do this.”
However, JiaQun’s file had been out for a long time and the Chinese were about to rescind it as they do when a child’s file has been out for too long.
“Typically it’s with kids that have more involved needs,” said Chelle “We were coming up against a deadline for him for his file to be returned to the Chinese Council of Adoption Affairs so a decision needed to be made. Steve said ‘ok’ and so we went through the process and that is how we ended up with JiaQun.”
Chelle said that the transition was a fairly good when JiaQun came home to his new family.
However, the first day or so was a little rough for their daughter. “We were scared that Lorelei was not going to get along with him the day he came home, but you see them now. They are fine and have become really, really close,” said Chelle.
Chelle explained that there were some very tough times but most of it was easy.
“He is a great kid,” said Chelle. “It’s taken awhile but we are good.”
“ I can’t imagine having a husband away most of the time through all of this,” said Sharon Tilley, a church friend of the family. “It seems like it just makes Chelle more determined. I know she misses him terribly when he’s gone, but the two of them are an awesome couple and they love all of their children so much.”
“The hardest thing for me when Steve is gone and when the children get sick, especially Lorelei,” said Chelle. “I cannot do anything. I can’t even get groceries. I always make sure I have three weeks worth of groceries at any given time. Most other stuff doesn’t even faze me. Doctors appointments I got that taken care of. Education I take care of both Lorelei and JiaQun and Cavan goes to his school then I have people from church that help take Cavan to his activities.”
Chelle explained that she plans on home-schooling JiaQun for the first year so he can bond with the family and learn to speak some English before he heads into school.
“I will be speaking to him in Chinese and English,” explained Chelle. “Some of the masters’ work I did in education was in world perspective. People have studied these internationally adopted kids when they go into school. Because they were just spoken to in English they learned survival phrases in sentences. They don’t develop prepositions; adjective, etc. I am hoping that through incorporating Chinese television music language that we will be
able to get that down.”
Chelle said that JiaQun enjoys Chinese children’s music, movies, and reading books that are in both English and Chinese.
Chelle gave advice for those considering adoption.
“It’s a personal choice whether you go domestic or international,” said Chelle. “I think that if someone is looking at adoption they need to be honest with themselves. You need to figure out if you want to go domestic or international and make sure you research it. Know your limitations; if you cannot handle a child that has severe medical conditions don’t feel bad if that’s not your thing.”
| Date Taken: | 06.14.2011 |
| Date Posted: | 06.14.2011 14:01 |
| Story ID: | 72074 |
| Location: | FORT BRAGG, NORTH CAROLINA, US |
| Web Views: | 628 |
| Downloads: | 3 |
This work, 1st TSC family adopts special needs child from China, by SPC Jamie Philbrook, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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