"Beep! Beep!" It’s nap time, but the 3-year-old who needs one is way
more excited about making sound effects with his shiny stack of toy cars
than closing his eyes. While mom Jennifer Arnold snuggles up, he’s
squirming, laughing and driving his cars over his bedspread. Despite
this classic adult-kid-sleep struggle, Mom blissfully smiles at her son.
"Being a parent," Arnold says, beaming, "is so much better than I
expected."
For Arnold and her husband, Bill Klein, stars of TLC’s hit reality show The Little Couple, years of longing to be parents are finally over. On March 5 the pair traveled to Beijing to adopt their new son, William Rijin ("golden sun" in Chinese). Like his parents, Will has a form of dwarfism; it had lessened his chances of being adopted. But for Arnold, it was love at first sight: "The moment I saw his picture, I wanted him to be ours."
The road to parenthood had been heart-wrenching for Arnold, 39, a neonatologist at Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston and Klein, 38, who owns a pet accessories store. After doctors said a pregnancy could be lethal to Arnold and a baby due to her form of dwarfism, they worked with a surrogate to have a biological child – and twice suffered miscarriages. "We had been so hopeful, and we were devastated," says Arnold. Still grieving, she found the international adoption website Rainbow Kids (rainbowkids.com), linking children with special needs with adoptive parents. "I am not," she says, "a person who gives up."
Over 11,000 miles away, Will (born Feng Ri Jin) was in a foster home in the Hohhot province of China after being abandoned at a hospital at birth. Last fall they were matched, and in March the couple headed to Beijing to bring their son home. "I was nervous," she says. "Would he connect with us?"
But when they met, Will called Arnold "Mama" and Klein "Baba" (Chinese for "father"), recognizing them from the photo album they’d sent – and his new parents wept happy tears. "We sat down on the floor and played a game," says Klein. "I was just lost in him after that." Agrees Arnold: "It was instant, our connection. My relationship with Will is something I didn’t expect."
Source: http://www.people.com
For Arnold and her husband, Bill Klein, stars of TLC’s hit reality show The Little Couple, years of longing to be parents are finally over. On March 5 the pair traveled to Beijing to adopt their new son, William Rijin ("golden sun" in Chinese). Like his parents, Will has a form of dwarfism; it had lessened his chances of being adopted. But for Arnold, it was love at first sight: "The moment I saw his picture, I wanted him to be ours."
The road to parenthood had been heart-wrenching for Arnold, 39, a neonatologist at Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston and Klein, 38, who owns a pet accessories store. After doctors said a pregnancy could be lethal to Arnold and a baby due to her form of dwarfism, they worked with a surrogate to have a biological child – and twice suffered miscarriages. "We had been so hopeful, and we were devastated," says Arnold. Still grieving, she found the international adoption website Rainbow Kids (rainbowkids.com), linking children with special needs with adoptive parents. "I am not," she says, "a person who gives up."
Over 11,000 miles away, Will (born Feng Ri Jin) was in a foster home in the Hohhot province of China after being abandoned at a hospital at birth. Last fall they were matched, and in March the couple headed to Beijing to bring their son home. "I was nervous," she says. "Would he connect with us?"
But when they met, Will called Arnold "Mama" and Klein "Baba" (Chinese for "father"), recognizing them from the photo album they’d sent – and his new parents wept happy tears. "We sat down on the floor and played a game," says Klein. "I was just lost in him after that." Agrees Arnold: "It was instant, our connection. My relationship with Will is something I didn’t expect."
Source: http://www.people.com
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