Twice Blessedby Linda Jean ChasteenMy husband Tom and I decided to adopt a child from Korea. We completed our homestudy. We prepared our two birthchildren, Kayla, 5, and Lucas, 2, for the new baby. We were all anxiously waiting for that wonderful phone call with our referral. Then our plans took a thrilling twist. On the first Sunday of January we went to church as usual. A friend of ours from church, Beth, said her baby was in the church nursery. My mind raced as I walked to the nursery. I thought Beth had placed her baby for private adoption. Had she decided to parent Cameron? How would she manage being single and unemployed? In the nursery I held the little boy. A friend of Beth's explained that since Cameron had been premature and ill his first few weeks of life, two adoptive couples were afraid to adopt him. When he recovered, the hospital released Cameron to Beth. Although she loved him, Beth still thought adoption would be best for 5-week-old Cameron. As I studied Cameron's face, questions popped into my head. Why had my husband and I completed a homestudy for an international adoption? Why was the baby's room almost ready? Why was I holding a child waiting for an adoption when my family so desperately wanted a child? I knew then that Cameron was our son. After showing Cameron to Tom and briefing him about the circumstances, he suggested we talk to Beth right away. Beth was thrilled with our desire to adopt Cameron.
In the days following that Sunday, a lot happened. Beth called her attorney. We hired an attorney. Our agency mailed our homestudy and references to the county. The county social worker visited our home. Beth then signed the release papers, and our attorney delivered Cameron to our door four days later. Our excitement and elation could never be duplicated.
Cameron on homecoming day - 6 weeks old Although we were thrilled about adopting Cameron, Tom and I both felt a twinge of regret. We saw our dream of an international adoption fading away. When we told Kayla we wouldn't be getting a baby from Korea since we had adopted Cameron, she said, "Yes we are. We have to adopt our baby from Korea because Jesus and God said so." Kayla - like the rest of our family - had already bonded with the idea of a Korean baby. I called the director of the adoption agency we were working with to talk about our situation and discuss our options. I learned that after Cameron's adoption was finalized, we could still adopt from Korea. That information both surprised and scared us. If we adopted an infant from Korea, our family would have four children under the age of 7. Two of the children would be infants. And money would be tight.
We decided to proceed with the Korean adoption. Fortunately, our referral came quickly, and our 3-month-old baby girl arrived September 30, 1990 - just seven weeks after we accepted her referral. We named her Julia Ann Jin, and our lives feel full and complete.
Julia at 3 months - the day after her arrival home Julia is healthy and advanced developmentally. Cameron is a big boy; he weighed 25 pounds at 1 year. Although Cameron looks healthy, he easily becomes ill because of being born prematurely. So Julia and Cameron act a lot like twins. Both crawl and walk around the furniture. They share food, bottles, toys, and a family. I love to tell people who see me pushing Cameron and julia in our double stroller, "Oh, they're fraternal twins; he's Irish and she's Korean." 
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