Twin sisters in Chattanooga adopt Chinese infants with cleft palates

Rebecca Dean, a first-grader at Grace Baptist Academy, was adopted from China by Donna and Tim Dean in May 2011. The family lives in Lafayette, Ga.
Rebecca Dean, a first-grader at Grace Baptist Academy, was adopted from China by Donna and Tim Dean in May 2011. The family lives in Lafayette, Ga.

Elizabeth Cooke, age 7, is as pretty as the spring crocuses she loves to draw. Her adoptive mother Launa Cooke describes her as an "uncut diamond that other parents couldn't see because they kept grabbing shiny gems around her," carrying away topazes, amethysts and opals that sparkled but were not as rare or dazzling as Elizabeth.

Looking at Elizabeth now in her crisp white shirt and tidy school uniform, it's hard to comprehend what Launa and her husband, Terry, saw when she first held the little Chinese girl who had been so ignored because she had a cleft palate.

"Her teeth and gums were black from blood and caked-on debris; it looked as if no one had ever cleaned her teeth properly," Launa remembers, her heart clearly still aching for that baby from the past. "The orphanage staff said, 'We do not have time to brush teeth.'"

Rebecca Dean, who also was born with a cleft palate, was living with foster parents, not in an orphanage, when Donna Dean, Launa's twin sister, and her husband, Tim, first saw the adoption agency photo of the then two-year-old. During the only time Chinese officials allowed the Deans and the foster family to meet, the foster mother gave them a photo of Rebecca as a gift.

"On the plane taking us home, I found a little pocket hidden behind the photo and the foster mother had slipped a photo of herself inside, so I know she must have really cared for Rebecca," Donna says. "And Rebecca did ask in Mandarin where her foster mother was.

"The first few weeks she was with us must have felt strange for her. We treated her like a celebrity, and she must have wondered what was going on."

In 2011, one day after Mother's Day, Rebecca was at home with her new family in Lafayette, Ga. Several months earlier, in November 2010, Elizabeth had a new home with the Cookes in Ringgold, Ga.

Both girls now attend first grade at Grace Baptist Academy in Chattanooga where Launa is a teacher. Donna is also a teacher but is a full-time mom at this time.

Coming to America

In China, parents often ostracize children with cleft palates, so the country expedites foreign adoptions of them. The Cookes and Deans already had teenage children when they decided to adopt. Both had read and heard a great deal about the plight of cleft-palate children in China.

Elizabeth was born with a cleft palate so severe she could not speak. She was so thin, the orphanage staff stuffed her jumpsuit with paper towels to make her look plumper before they took a photo of her to send to her prospective adoptive family.

"We could tell they had stuffed her suit so they must have been in a hurry," Launa says with a rueful smile. "The next time I saw her was when I had her in my arms. And I knew she was the baby God meant for me."

When Launa's 15-year-old son learned that his mom and his dad wanted to adopt a baby from China, he burst into the house and confronted Launa, saying, "Mom are you crazy? We're not rich. We're middle class - we have no money."

And the Deans and the Cookes each had two children already - kids who wanted to go to college and own cars - when they considered adoption. But Launa's son, now 20, has become a devoted big brother to Elizabeth, and he's hoping to enroll in the Chattanooga Police Academy soon. He did have to forego a car as a teenager but feels the sacrifice was worth getting a new baby sister.

Each adoption cost the Cookes and the Deans $25,000, a price that included travel arrangements to China, which were made by Chinese officials. Bethany Christian Services helped the families through the adoptive process.

Launa acknowledges that her family was blessed with great health insurance that covered Elizabeth's surgeries with less than a $2,000 deductible. But the two sisters also had the support of their church and a community that includes one anonymous donor who gave Donna and Launa each a $5,000 check on their birthdays.

Twin support

On a day this week, Launa is dressed in a stylish black-and-white dress with bohemian crystal earrings and a necklace while Donna looks like a surfer chick in a T-shirt and jeans. They ask a visitor to photograph them with their girls. When they see the photo, shock flashes across the twins' faces.

"For a minute, I had trouble telling us apart even though we're dressed differently," Donna says.

"Me, too," Launa replies.

Launa loves Grace Baptist, which she says has made her daughter and niece feel so at home. The school's hallways are decorated with magical murals of a vintage red car parked at a 1950s gas station, a Broadway theater and a hobbit-like house in a forest, while the foyer has a shiny grass-green floor facing a mural of a lavish flower garden. In art class, the children draw pictures of Charlie Brown characters; Rebecca carefully draws Lucy.

"What day is today?" Launa Cooke asks Rebecca on Tuesday when the two spot each other at the academy.

"It's my Gotcha Day," Rebecca replies softly, her eyes glowing.

Elizabeth and Rebecca each celebrate a different birthday and a Gotcha Day, the latter being the day they were safely snuggled in their new American homes. On Gotcha Day, the families take the girls out to eat at a Chinese restaurant, where each is given a small gift.

Launa and Donna hope their families can inspire other Americans to consider adoption, particularly of special-needs children. They insist that they both pondered how to adopt a baby from China before each ever mentioned it to the other.

As they've grown older, they wonder more about the psychological bond many twins seem to have. They adore their devoted husbands, but there is a special strength that comes from having a twin.

"We're 45, and we are basically starting over as mothers. Adoption is hard, and you can get overwhelmed," Donna says. "But with God and strong support system from church and family, adoption has been an adventure and spiritually fulfilling."

The future

So far, Rebecca has had one surgery and Elizabeth has had multiple operations to correct their cleft palates. But their doctors believe they will be pretty and healthy girls as their futures unfold. They will need some additional surgeries as their faces grow, but they have an expert in cleft-palate surgery in Chattanooga.

"I've been on mission trips to Mexico, Panama and South America, and normally there is little access to surgery to correct cleft palate for much of the population, particularly when it is spread out over a large geographic area," says Dr. Larry Sargent, who performed surgery on Rebecca and Elizabeth. "These children are frequently abandoned due to their cleft palates, which is a shame because this condition is completely treatable."

Sargent is the head of the University of Tennessee Health Science Center's Plastic Surgery Department, where he trains future surgeons; he also is senior partner of the Plastic Surgery Group at Erlanger hospital.

His practice has a team in place to help families address special needs that occur after the surgery. Many kids have ear infections and sinus or dental problems that resolve as they grow and their faces form into their adult shape. The team also includes speech therapists to help patients after surgery.

Rebecca and Elizabeth are both soft-spoken and a bit shy, but at Grace the other children clearly enjoy their company. There is a zero tolerance policy toward bullying at the school.

Still, some kids can be rude simply by being thoughtless. One girl continually asks Elizabeth why she has a thin scar on her lip, referring to the remnant of the operation that fixed her cleft palate. Launa spoke with the child's mother, who was mortified, but the girl continues to ask the question.

"We've talked about it with Elizabeth because, in our society, girls are so judged by their appearance that any little difference can be perceived as a flaw," Launa says. "Bullying happens in real life inside and outside of schools, so we want her to be confident enough to know that what someone else says does not define who she is."

Once when she was feeling discouraged about how Elizabeth would handle the many surgeries, Launa went to another teacher who had adopted a boy from overseas.

"Let me show you a picture," the teacher said, taking a photo from her purse and handing it to Launa. "That is my son, whose birth mother set him on fire when he was a baby."

Launa realized Elizabeth would be fine.

Contact Lynda Edwards at 423-757-6391 or ledwards@timesfreepress.com.

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