Lots of Local Stories!

China's orphan is Pepperell couple's joy: Nineteen months after they decided to adopt a Chinese child, Chestnut Street residents Seth and Debra Durno can now watch their 10-month-old daughter, Myalia Louise Yu-Jie Durno, play in the family room Seth had built in anticipation of her arrival.

Helping to hold up half the sky: A Gilroy father is returning to China, to the place where three and a half years ago he and his wife met and held for the first time their newly adopted daughter. . . . Burke will return to China for two weeks on Oct. 10 with an organization called Half the Sky, which is building preschools for orphanages in Guilin and in another city called Wuzhou.

With adoption final, joys of parenting begin: Joy best describes our home since I returned May 24 with Renell. The trip to China to pick up our adoptive daughter, then 10 months old, was harrowing. I traveled at the height of the SARS scare, and I certainly was glad to be back in the United States.

Two sisters, four adopted children make for one happy Ralston home: Their life may be more hectic and their house not as organized, but two Ralston women wouldn't change a thing when it comes to the past five years. It was almost five years ago when sisters Roberta and Theresa Noah decided they wanted to start a family. Single with no plans of getting married, the two turned to adoption.

Sars outbreak delays adoption: After mowing the lawn and sprucing up the house in advance of her parents' return to the United States and their Independence Township home, 23-year-old Lisa Kowalski hung a sign with Chinese characters she copied from a Chinese calendar. "On the one side, I wrote 'happiness,' and, on the other side, I wrote, 'together,' " she told her aunts and uncles Thursday.

Lambeth couple can't wait for Christmas: Two years ago, Craig and Kim Jones received the best Christmas gift they could ever wished for—the first pictures of their baby girl. Four weeks later, the Lambeth couple flew to China to bring the baby in those photos home. Now, they are waiting for pictures of the second Chinese baby to become the next member of their family.