Bringing Joy Home

Children are a blessing, one of life’s greatest joys. Parents, in fierce love for their children, would do anything to protect them: if sick supply healing, if threatened provide defense, if abandoned come for them. This is just what the Chung family, from New Berlin, Wisconsin, did for a child in her time of need. Though theirs is a unique story. The Chungs exhausted their resources to protect the life of a small orphan, living over 8,000 miles away, even if this little girl never came home with them or knew the price they paid to save her life.

In June, 2000, Terry, Chih, and their teenage daughters, Jennifer and Jessica Chung traveled to China on a church sponsored mission to serve at an orphanage for multi-handicapped children. Theyspent months preparing for this trip, what they’d see, how to nurture these special needs children, and ultimately, how to leave them behind. As Chinese natives, familiar with the people and culture, Terry and Chih felt equipped for their task. But when they first walked the gray halls of the orphanage, everything they prepared for fell by the wayside. They saw the maladies and deformities of the children as they walked past row after row of cribs and heard their desperate cries, frail arms reaching up, longing for human touch. The sounds, smells and sights of this place were nothing they’d ever experienced. They wept silent tears for the sheer numbers of discarded and neglected. The Chungs didn’t know where to begin or if any of their individual efforts would be of any help to the masses.

Stephanie, the group's leader, handed Chih her first child. Terry took another. They quickly warmed to the children and felt they could make a difference if only child - by - child. Over the next few days, the Chungs' found their work fulfilling, especially Jennifer, who bonded with a little girl, Tan Qiao, an abandoned newborn found a few months earlier in a train station.

Three weeks later, the Chungs returned to their “ordinary” lives in America. At home things seemed so inconsequential compared to their experiences in China (including the excitement of a two-week-old flooded basement). Exhausted from the basement cleanup, they rested and inserted their China video. One segment showed Jennifer holding Tan Qiao, the orphan that Jennifer and Jessica had already agreed to sponsor. The clip captured the delicate girl’s smile and hopeful eyes. Chih shouted, “Hold that shot!” Terry paused the tape. Tan Qiao’s cheerful face was frozen on the screen before them. Since their return from China, each family member privately held similar thoughts of adoption but remained quiet in fear of others’ reactions to such a dramatic decision. This clip, however, solidified and unified their hopes. It was in that moment that the Chungs collectively agreed to bring Tan Qiao home as an addition to their family.

They contact an adoption agency that returned an honest letter stating that a law had recently been put in place prohibiting pre-identified adoptions and their request was next to impossible. The Chungs were not deterred. “Next to impossible” still meant “possible.” The agency also informed the Chungs of Tan Qiao’s heart condition. Again, the Chungs remained optimistic. She just had a sick heart, something curable, rather than a lasting cognitive or behavioral ailment. They received this news on August 8th, the Chinese Father’s Day, and Terry viewed this as the best present ever.

The Chungs spent the next few months arranging paperwork and working out all in intricacies of this delicate process. Many details, including the location of Tan Qiao’s birth parents (a battle from the start), needed aligning before she could become the Chung’s rightful family.

Terry flew to China in November to bring medical treatment money for Tan Qiao, now in failing health. Her small, undernourished body weathered chicken pox and pneumonia with weakening defense. She was not gaining weight and her color was ashen. In a phone conversation with Chih, Terry said, “Something’s really wrong here.” Chih assured him that everything was going to be fine. Terry wasn’t so sure.

Just before Christmas the Chungs received alarming news. Tan Qiao was gravely ill. She was diagnosed with Ventricular Septal Defect (VSD), which menat she had a hole in her heart, and it was big: 1.2 cm long and 1.6 cm wide. Even if she did survive the procedure, she would still face a harrowing recovery. The Chungs were only her sponsors, yet the closest Tan Qiao had to parents, and since they were willing to finance her hospitalization, the final decision to operate was theirs. They wondered if they could live with themselves if anything happened to this child because of their interference.

They had their decision. Tan Qiao had been abandoned once and the Chungs vowed she would never be abandoned again. Chih and Terry agreed to live in separate countries for the next few months and if necessary exhaust their bank accounts (which meant tapping into Jennifer's college fund to pay for any required medical procedures). All this and they still faced the real possibility that, even if Tan Qiao survived the operation, she may never come home to American with them. Despite this reality, the Chungs believed that if it was God's will to be used as agents to save a little girls life who might otherwise have never had a chance, then their efforts were not in vain.

In a Christmas letter to family and friends Terry wrote, "Through Tan Qiao's fight, we learn the true value of life. Through our trials, God lets use know His mercy and love." The Chungs chose to trust God and put their personal agendas aside. It was at this time, they changed Tan Qiaos name to Joy.

The American troops were mobilized. The Chungs home church started raising money, Jennifer and Jessica spread the word to family and friends, Chih's bible study fasted and prepared meals for the Chungs, even local News Stations were contacted for story coverage. God was bringing together a community for the sake of His one precious lamb.

A few days after the New Year, Terry returned to China for Joy’s catheter surgery. In the five nights Terry was with Joy before surgery, he slept a total of ten hours. He spared his “future daughter,” as he referred to her, nothing of his attention and love. Terry sensed her trust for him returning. She was so small, nine months old, and only weighed 11 pounds.

This surgery was a success. Though at one point, when Joy started to bleed and numerous medical personnel came running and hovered over her, Terry felt his strings pulled tight. In a few days she would undergo the critical surgery to repair her heart. He wondered if he could take much more. For distraction, he ran to the bank, shopped and arranged a room for Chih and Joy to stay over the coming months. That night Joy slept alone. She slept well and for the first time smiled in her sleep.

Four days later, Terry was with Joy, holding her hand making eye contact with her, (her seeming to tell him "thank you daddy") just before she was wheeled into the operating room. As she looked back at him over the nurse's shoulder, he prayed that he would have the chance to see those bright eyes again.

This time she emerged from surgery asleep. It would be several days before anyone would know if this operation was a success.

Terry visited Joy in ICU two days later. Her face was turned from him but when she turned back and saw Terry, she cast a genuine smile. It was a memory that would be etched in Terry’s mind for the rest of his life. Joy was going to make it.

Joy spent the following two months in Chih’s care. They resided in a small hospital room, the only amenities a pull-out bed, a tiny refrigerator and an inoperative cook-top. Without transportation, no one to visit and no place to go, these were the walls that held them 24/7. All the while the Chungs never lost faith and prayed continually for strength and guidance. Within this time, Joy gained 4 pounds and grew 1.5 inches.

Their faith was tested however when in late March they learned of Joy’s stalled paperwork, held hostage in the Chinese Adoption System. Terry traveled to China again, prepared to do whatever it took to assure Joy’s homecoming. But again he faced the insurmountable task of getting to the bottom of the needless delays and broken promises.

Heartbreaking news arrived April 19th. Upon the Chungs desperate prompting not to have Joy returned to the orphanage, foster parents were located and willing to take Joy into their care indefinitely. The thousands the Chung’s paid, the energies and prayers that were sent on Joy’s behalf had come to this. This was a hopeful yet devastating event. Joy would be assured a safe place far from her grim beginnings, but she would not come home with the Chungs. Their hearts broke and they wanted to continue in their efforts to claim their daughter, but they finally felt a crumpling of their own resolve and a yielding to God’s higher ways. Adopting Joy was their plan, but maybe God’s plan was simple obedience in coming to the aid of “the least of these.” They had done their part and had been faithful. It was enough. They allowed the agency to go ahead with the foster care.

However, God had different plans. Just five days later, the Chung’s agent received a referral with Joy’s name on it. Terry was wary, and if he hadn’t still been in China, and hadn’t seen for himself her name and accompanying picture on the document, he would never have believed it. This confirmation arrived just in time to stop the foster care arrangement. Immediately, Terry called Chih back in the States, where it was the middle of the night, woke her from sleep and yelled into the phone, “We have her! We have her!” Chih remembers getting up from bed that night and kneeling on the floor, crying out in gratitude to God. “Father, you never left us nor forsaken us. Thank you.”

E-mails of triumph swam across the lines, phone’s lit up, friends and family eagerly embraced each other, and hands clasped together in prayers of thankfulness for God’s provision.

On June 4, 2001, Joy arrived in America with her proud parents. Just as they stepped off the plane, they were greeted with a warm reception, complete with News Station cameras. What followed was a scene only God could have orchestrated. Bright camera lights flashed, and smiles of a community of believers who shared in the Chung’s hope to bring a family together illuminated the room. There was also a special glow in heaven. A small but precious lamb, Joy, was finally home.