Just one of the family: The Brant family of Cedarville happily welcomed a new addition to their family, three-year-old Noelle, who officially became a Brant Thursday, November 10. Pictured (in back, from left) grandmother Shirley Borski of Wisconsin, new mother Pamela, Noelle, new father Terry, and (in front) Noelle’s two new sisters, Felicia and Leah. Thanksgiving meant a little more this year for the Brant family of Cedarville, the Penner family of St. Ignace, and Betty Sherwood and Rickie Buskirk of Gould City, who have adopted children into their families. The local adoptions were finalized at the Mackinac County courthouse in November, coinciding with adoptions taking place across the state to mark Michigan “Adoption Day.”

IIIn Mackinac County, a three-year old girl permanently joined the family of her aunt and uncle, two little sisters were adopted to their longtime foster parents, the only parents they’ve ever known, and a baby girl from China was welcomed to a home in St. Ignace.

The Children

Three-year-old Noelle had lived in four homes before she was a year old. Medical problems kept her biological mother and father, who live separately in Wisconsin, from caring for her, so she became “a child of the system,” according to her grandmother, Shirley Borski, and was provided foster care by Wisconsin.

The Penner family: (at left) Tom, two-year-old Elisabeth, and Lisa. The Penners adopted Elisabeth from China last year and are in the process of adopting another child. Marissa was placed in a foster home at the age of two months, and her sister, Morgan, followed her when she was only three weeks old. Their biological parents terminated all parental rights of the two girls two years ago and have moved out of the state. They took a third sister with them.

A year ago, Elisabeth was one of thousands of Chinese girls who had either been abandoned or left for adoption. Abandonment of girls is common in China, since families are permitted only one child and couples are eager to conceive a son to carry on the family name.

Little is known about Elisabeth’s biological parents.

Through the China Center of Adoption Affairs, the country’s central authority overseeing all adoptions in China, adoption requirements are different, more expensive, and more demanding than in the United States, which made Elisabeth’s chances of finding a permanent family all the more challenging.

Sisters Marissa and Morgan became the daughters of Betty Sherwood of Gould City Tuesday, November 22. Pictured are (from left) are Rickie Busrick, two-year-old Morgan, three-year-old Marissa, and Ms. Sherwood.

The Families

Terry Brant transferred in 2003 from his Coast Guard station at Cape Cod, Massachusetts, to the cutter Biscayne Bay in St. Ignace. He and his wife, Pamela, moved to Cedarville with their daughters, Leah, 15, and Felicia, 13. They hope to remain in the Upper Peninsula following Mr. Brant’s retirement.

Betty Sherwood of Gould City has been a foster parent for six years and has cared for 28 children, ranging from birth to 17 years of age. Foster children have been a good substitute for the children she could never birth herself.

She and Rickie Buskirk, a long-time trucker, also from Gould City, have been together 14 years and he has babysat her foster children when he could. His own daughter and three sons are now grown and beginning their own families.

Tom Penner has been the pastor at Straits Evangelical Free Church for six years. He and his wife, Lisa, tried for eight years to conceive a child but knew, he said, that their faith in God would lead them to their destiny.

Overcoming the Obstacles

The Brants found out in May 2003, a month before they were to move to Michigan, that they had a niece in Wisconsin’s foster care system. Immediately, said Mrs. Brant, they knew they had to rescue her.

“She was blood,” said Mrs. Brant. “I couldn’t just ignore it. We discussed it and we agreed right away that we wanted to take her in.”

Mrs. Brant’s parents, Ray and Shirley Borski, had moved to Wisconsin in 2000 to take custody of her son’s daughter, Noelle, when she was four months old. When the Brants moved to Cedarville three years later, as planned with the Borskis, they took temporary custody of Noelle through what the state agencies recognize as “kinship care.”

Acquiring legal, permanent custody would take almost another three years, and the Brants had to meet state requirements for both Wisconsin and Michigan while helping Noelle adjust to her fourth home and adjusting to caring for a toddler all over again in their late 40s.

“She had four homes and so she was withdrawn and lethargic at first,” explained Mrs. Brant. “The background checks and home studies were long and extensive, plus, we’re both 46 years old, three years from retirement. We knew it was the right thing to do, but we knew it wasn’t going to be easy.”

Ms. Sherwood and Mr. Buskirk were really the only parental figures Marissa and Morgan ever knew. Their biological parents continued to visit them, infrequently at first, then not at all. When the girls’ biological parents finally moved, Ms. Sherwood could not bear the thought of them being adopted by another family, especially since she had reared them practically since birth. She began the process of adoption.

She and Mr. Buskirk had to go through a standard two year process of filling out documents and waiting while a state agency investigated their private lives and their family histories to make sure they would be fit to adopt Marissa and Morgan.

God’s plan for the Penners became more apparent during the winter of 2003, when Mrs. Penner came across an advertisement for international adoption. After several months of discussion, the couple decided to adopt a Chinese baby.

“We had good reports from our Pennsylvania adoption agency about adopting Chinese babies,” said Mr. Penner. “They did all the work with the Chinese agency.”

Legal documents and state-certified background and history checks would have to be created, sent to their adoption agent in Pennsylvania, which then sent them on to the Chinese adoption agency, where Chinese officials began their own arduous verification process.

“International adoption is a lot more paperwork and a lot of trips to Lansing,” said Mrs. Penner. “Waiting and not knowing were the harder things to handle.”

The process took 16 months.

China does not allow adopting parents to take custody of a child until the child is at least six months old. Once they are notified that a child is available, they must spend at least five days with the child in China to get to know the child and the culture.

Reaching the Happy Ending

Thursday, November 10, marked the beginning of a new life for Noelle Brant, as Pam and Terry finalized the adoption through the Mackinac County Probate Court in St. Ignace.

“She sees us as mom and dad,” said Noelle’s new mother.

Mrs. Brant said her brother, Noelle’s biological father, is happy for Noelle and continues to be a part of her life.

“She calls him Uncle Ralph,” said Mrs. Brant.

Noelle’s new sisters, Leah and Felicia, “treat her like a little Cabbage Patch doll,” she said. “They have definitely taken her in.”

“It’s the greatest thing that probably has ever happened to me,” said Mr. Brant, fighting back tears of joy. “I’m very proud of her. It’s an awesome feeling to be able to help her and get her out of the state system and make her one of ours.”

“It’s a wonderful feeling,” said Noelle’s grandmother, Mrs. Borski. “The process took so long, but it was so worth it.”

Mr. Brant said the family eagerly awaits Christmas and plan to make Noelle’s first Christmas with her new family a special one.

Noelle, who will celebrate her fourth birthday on New Year’s Day, will begin school next fall.

To Morgan, now two, and Marissa, now three, life is “business as usual,” said Ms. Sherwood. She completed the adoption process Tuesday, November 22, and for her and Mr. Buskirk, life after the adoption process is now a little sweeter.

“We’ve always been mommy and daddy to them,” said Ms. Sherwood. “It’s been a long process, but I’m very happy for them. It feels great.”

The girls even call him by his nickname, “Buzzy,” said Mr. Buskirk.

“I have 10 grandkids, so raising them won’t bother me a bit,” he said. “My family has welcomed them in. Most of them have already babysitted the girls, even my ex-wife!”

Seeing Elisabeth for the first time was a bit difficult, said Mrs. Penner, mostly because they were unsure what she looked like, having only been given a small portrait of her when she was younger. But once Elisabeth was brought into the arms of Mrs. Penner, their bond became strong.

“For the first few minutes, she held on tight to me,” said Mrs. Penner. “She cried a bit in the beginning, but it was only for like 10 seconds.”

After spending almost a week with Elisabeth in China, the Penners began helping their new daughter get accustomed to her home in St. Ignace.

At first, she did not go to her new father much, mostly because she was used to being cared for by females, said Mr. Penner. She gradually warmed up to both of them, however.

Today, the two-year-old happily clings to her mother and father, reserving no signs of shyness to them or to others, asking for kisses and hugs, and warming to new people with the repeated greeting, “Hi.”

“I don’t feel like this was a second-best choice for us,” Mr. Penner said. “Looking back at it all, we are very glad God worked it out this way. It was God’s best plan to have Elisabeth in our lives. He worked out all the details.”

The Penners are now in the process of adopting another baby from China.