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Now she�s �beautiful sister� Mail Tribune / Bob Pennell Two-year-old Kaylee is right at home with her new parents, Lori and David Hagemaier, in their east Medford home. The Hagemaiers adopted Kaylee from an orphanage in China and hope to help sponsor more adoptions and "spread the word." Chinese girl adopted by Medford couple takes quickly to her new surroundings By John Darling It seemed as if the doors opened magically for David and Linda Hagemaier.The Medford couple had no spare funds to adopt a Chinese baby, but money � $18,000 of it � seemed to flow to them. Then China suddenly changed its restrictive rules, allowing Americans to adopt even if they already had children (the Hagemaiers have two) and lowering parental adoption age from 35 to 30 (David was 34). Once the Hagemaiers were in China, the director of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service � who just happened to be visiting � met them and pushed through their visas and the baby�s exit visa in an eyeblink. Only one big question remained about the baby, a 2-year-old girl who was abandoned at a steel plant when she was 2 days old and spent the last year and a half in foster care: Was she physically healthy, developmentally "on task," and able to adjust to new parents from a very different culture? The answer was immediately apparent. "It was just overwhelming," said Lori, a nurse at Rogue Valley Medical Center who leads seminars on women�s health. "We were so afraid she�d reject us. We prayed she wouldn�t be stressed and grieving. "They (adoption officials) explained that we were her new mom and dad and she just came to us." Back at home in Medford for just two days, Kaylee XiuMei ("beautiful sister," as they named her) runs laughing and shouting through the house with her new brother, Jacob, 10, and sister Shayla, 7 � the picture of happy, well-adjusted childhood. Kaylee likes tofu, rice and noodles, but is picking up American tastes � and words � fast. She says "mama" (same word in Chinese), "baba" (Chinese for "daddy"), "bye-bye," "baby," "please," "thank you" and that favorite word of 2-year olds, "no." The family, who worked through Holt International for Kaylee�s adoption, will soon join the Panda Club, a Rogue Valley organization of families with children from the Orient, which helps parents and adoptees get in step with their new situations. "I was adopted at 7 and always felt I would adopt a child. Lori was resistant until two years ago," said David, a third-grade teacher at Abraham Lincoln Elementary School in Medford and summer lecturer at Ontrax, which teaches American English and customs to exchange students from the Far East. "Something happened. God led us to this," said Lori. "A friend at work told me about going to China to adopt and said we had a lot of love to give. We researched it and found out the requirements and thought we weren�t eligible. Then the Chinese changed the requirements. Signs kept coming to us about it." Friends and family donated to the cause. A guest lecturer at Lori�s seminars, Dr. John Lee (author of "What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Menopause"), wrote her a check for $4,000. Lori started a health products business and did well. The Hagemaiers toured China, including the Great Wall, for a week to absorb the culture, then, with Kaylee, toured another week. They found most Chinese living with appalling poverty, pollution and overpopulation, they said. Kaylee�s orphanage in Jiangxi province in southwest China had 100-200 children living in conditions of extreme heat and marginal sanitation, and many had scabies, David said. Most orphanage babies seemed disconnected and delayed in their development, he added, but Kaylee was well socialized by her foster mother, who ran a shop. "Chinese people love their children," said Lori. "They would come up to us and touch Kaylee and say, �lucky baby, lucky baby� because they saw she was going to America to have a good life." Adopting Kaylee has immensely changed the family�s outlook, David said. "Before this, our goal was to put a pool in the back yard. That�s how our thinking was. Now, we just feel so blessed. We want to help sponsor more adoptions and spread the word." Those wishing more information on adoptions or sponsorships may phone Holt International at (541) 687-2202. Obituaries | Sports | Business | Classifieds | Tempo | Prime Times | So Oregon Sites | Outdoor Journal | Subscribe | Contact | Movies | Advertise | Real Estate Showcase | Archive | Editorials | Letters to the editor | Religion | Wake-up Call | NIE | Cyber Chef | Job Network | So Oregon Weather | WSJ Northwest | Forums | AP Wire | AP Money | F.A.Q. | Awards Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. The Community Newspaper Subsidiary of Dow Jones & Co, Inc Copyright �The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA