When Jim and Marita Watson were married in 2000, they were already looking for ways to grow their family. Three days after their honeymoon, they began the paperwork to bring their first child home from China.The Watsons met through the singles Sunday school class of Jacksonville’s First United Methodist Church. Marita, who had been married before, had two high school age children at the time, but knew Jim wanted to experience raising children of his own.
They began to look at their options for adopting a child and found their ideal solution when Jim’s aunt, Sandy Primm, who works for Sav-A-Life in Birmingham, told them about the children in China.
“In America, the babies a lot of times are put up for adoption because the situation at home is really bad. In China, they just really want boys,” said Jim, explaining that Chinese babies are often very healthy when adopted because it is politics, rather than their home situation, which dictates the need for the adoption.
They met their first roadblock in Alabama’s Department of Human Resources. The DHR told the couple they couldn’t adopt until they were married at least a year.
“With Madison, we had started immediately and then we were contacted in March after we had completed all the paperwork and were told by the state of Alabama DHR that if you had been married under a year couldn’t adopt,” said Jim.
Chomping at the bit, the Watsons waited. A few weeks before their first anniversary they resumed the adoption paperwork, re-filling out time sensitive documents which had expired in the interim.
“I was insanely mad,” said Jim. “And then we had to redo all our health forms because those are only good for six months. We had to redo all our financial paperwork, because we had passed April 15.”
In April 2003 they were finally able to go to China and bring home Madison. Her birth name was Qi Chun Fei and the Watsons, wanting to keep part of her Chinese name, created a new spelling for Faith and Madison Feith Watson was born.
By this time, Marita’s daughter, Miranda, was 23 and heavily involved in missionary work, so she was proud of her mother and stepfather’s decision.
Marita’s son, Keaton, who was still in high school at the time, was also supportive of the adoption.
“You just have to realize that you’re not in control of someone else’s life and if they want to make those decisions then I would support them because I know they would do the same for me,” said Keaton of his mother’s remarriage and the subsequent adoptions.
Arriving in China, the Watsons met with their daughter just before her first birthday. Prior to the trip they had received photos and letters about her, documenting her health and had visited the country on one other occasion.
After leaving the orphanage, the Watsons spent the next two weeks in China filling out more paperwork.
“It takes about two weeks to get everything together, so you’re in China for about two weeks,” said Marita. “Most of that time is spent waiting on paperwork to be completed.”
They had to apply for a passport and visa for Madison and take an oath with both China and The United States. The oath, which is essentially the same for both countries, makes parents promise to take good care to their new charges.
After the wait and the paperwork, they were finally ready to take their new daughter home.
“We made it a point to buy them their own plane seat back,” said Jim as he and Marita related tales of other parents on the same trip who had to pass their new baby back and forth throughout the long flight.
Soon after they arrived home, they were once again moved to begin the adoption process. This time, they would bring home Jaden Hope. Her Chinese name was Long Mei Rou and the Watsons didn’t see a way to fit a piece of her Chinese identity into her new American name.
“I liked Jade, but Jade Hope didn’t sound that well, it didn’t flow,” said Marita. “Mei Rou is what they would call her and it just wouldn’t work. I mean, how do you put that into Jaden Hope?”
During the process, before they received their packet or knew which child would be theirs, the Watsons already knew she would be Jaden Hope. And Madison was already praying for her new little sister.
“Every night we would pray for Jade,” said Marita. Madison, remembering the prayer for her sister, chimed in, “Dear God, please help Jade.”
Though the two girls were born and spent their first year in China, they are American girls.
“They’re American girls and that’s the way we’ve raised them,” said Jim; though they have told the girls they were born in China.
Madison, who will turn five later this month, is a typical inquisitive five-year-old girl. Her favorite colors are pink and purple and she loves the story of Cinderella. She is already reading and loves to play Leapster video games on her LMax.
Jaden still seems to hold on to a bit of her Chinese heritage. Her favorite thing to hold onto is a silk blanket and the feel of silk has always comforted her – a bit of the familiar even in her new country.
She and Madison love to play their little piano and read books. Marita, who retired in 2002 from her job as an administrator for the Calhoun County Board of Education, is contemplating home schooling the duo. After all, before her time as an administrator, she spent years in the classroom teaching other parents’ children.
