By Angela Marshall
The door opens into a cozy Maple Avenue apartment meticulously decorated with oriental furniture and artwork.
Jerry and Susan Sullivan had tried to have children, but when it became clear that they couldn't conceive, they decided to travel instead. Their first trip was to China.
They loved the country and its people. It was a great way to celebrate their 20th wedding anniversary.
When they returned home, Susan began to think about having a baby again. This time she wasn't thinking about having one of her own but of adopting.
Susan knew of the Chinese laws concerning children. Due to overpopulation, the government had begun to limit families to one child in 1979. In their culture, parents spend their senior years living with their oldest son. So, many families opt not to keep daughters in the hopes of having a son on the second try. While it is illegal to abandon the girls, it often happens. They are carefully placed where they will be found and taken to orphanages.
One day Susan turned to Jerry and said, What would you think about adopting a little girl from China?
He said, Okay without hesitation.
That was six years ago.
Discovering an ocean flower
Of course it wasn't that simple. They talked more and began to investigate adoption agencies. One day Susan met a Caucasian couple with an Asian daughter at a pet fair. They told her about the agency they used, New Beginnings.
Ultimately, the Sullivans chose New Beginnings in Mineola because it was local and would be able to help them meet other families like their own.
It normally takes 10-to-12 months for the adoption process, but China shut down the program in order to revise it just after the Sullivans began their paperwork. That cost them an additional seven-to-nine months of waiting.
In the end, Jerry thinks that was best because it allowed Susan to retire from her job with the Nassau County Health Department so she could be a full-time mother.
The call they were waiting for finally came on Nov. 24, 1997. Susan was sitting at her desk when her social worker called. You have a daughter and she's a cutie.
Susan said she was so happy she literally fell on one of her coworkers. She called Jerry and they rushed to the social worker's office. There they were greeted with a small photo of their soon-to-be daughter. A precious plump face with wise eyes stared up at them.
Her name was Hai Hua, which means ocean flower, and she was two years old. She had been abandoned outside of what Susan believes was a police station when she was about three days old.
For Susan the bond was instant. I was in love and I couldn't wait to hold her.
But she would wait for almost four months for the final approval.
