By Hanna Giegerich-
On August 28th, 1995 Cathy and Mark Risse started to file for a adoption from another part of the world. That same day halfway across the world in Nanning, China Yuan Pei Rong was born. A little over a year later Cathy, Mark and fifteen other couples from all over the United States flew to China to adopt their babies. Alaina Risse, age 16, now attends Mount Vernon High school as a sophomore. “I don’t remember anything from when I was little,” said Alaina, “All I know is that I was very sick when I was little, the conditions were not very good. No one taught me how to walk or showed me how to do anything.”
Even now Alaina doubts she will ever know who her biological parents are. “We know Alaina’s mom loved her very dearly, but had no choice to send her to a foster care. From what the note said, I often imagined she was a teen mom, but of course we will never know,” said Cathy, Alaina’s adopted mother.
“No I don’t think I’ll ever meet them, but I hope one day I will be able to go back and meet them.” Alaina said.
Ever since she’s been adopted she has grown up as a normal American girl. She fights with her two older brothers, enjoys hanging out with her friends and dances in her spare time. Rachel Engel, a friend of Alaina’s and a sophomore at Mount Vernon said, “I met Alaina about nine years ago, she does occasionally talk about her adoption, though more so when she was younger. I would definitely say that she is the nicest person I have ever met and I would love to see her grow into a more confident young woman.”
Even though Alaina has grown up in the United States she still thinks about what life would have been like back in China. “I would have known Chinese,” Alaina said, “I imagine how I would be different and what my personality would be like.” Growing up in American doesn’t stop Alaina from staying connected to her past. Out of the other fifteen families that adopted their babies on that same trip about eight of them still stay in contact. “We were in China for three weeks, since there were innumerable regulations and paperwork, and policies associated with the adoption that the Chinese government required. We got to be very good friends with the others in our travel group, since we were literally together all the time. Our friendships have endured through the years, and we’ve had annual reunions in the 15 years since we all met in China,” Cathy Risse said.
The first six or seven years they went to Michigan for a reunion and have now gone to Iowa, Chicago and New Jersey. The trip to Iowa occured two summers ago where all eight familys’ came to see where Alaina lived and vacationed here for a few days. When the families came to visit Iowa they thought it was “really boring” because there was nothing to do. “We mainly just went shopping in Mount Vernon, Iowa City and Cedar Rapids,” Alaina said. While they are here all of the kids get to have a big sleepover at the host family’s house. Alaina said that the parents will stay at the host’s families house if there is room but usually just stay in a hotel. When asked about her favorite memory she recalls playing the card game Spoons. “There’s a lot of screaming and it’s so much fun!” said Alaina. Overall Alaina says she feels like she’s more connected to these kids than others. “We’re all on the same boat and we also get to see each other every year,” Alaina said.
