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parent Love Has No Boundaries L fredericksburg & family PRODUCTION PUBLISHER Leigh Anne Van Doren Tabitha & Jamie Nelle' s mom DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS & MARKETING Heidi DiEugenio, Duke & Dane's mom DIRECTOR OF ADVERTISING Leanne Dalton Justin, Steven & Rebeka's mom ADVERTISING SALES REPRESENTATIVES Kathy Vaughan; Becca & Sarah's Mom Amanda Radford; Blythe, Corey-Lee, & Kaden's Mom OFFICE MANAGER Nancy Massanat Emily & Kyle' s Mom EDITOR Chris Jones Jordan, Quincy, & Hayden's dad GRAPHIC DESIGNER Cheryl Carter Alex, Kate & Jackie' s mom WEBMASTER Karen Charney Joshua & Spencer' s mom s mom CALENDAR EDITOR Leigha Pecher Jake & Luke' DIRECTOR OF CIRCULATION Krista Starosta Nick, Andrew, Kaylin & Kensington's mom PROGRAM MANAGER, SCIENCE SATURDAYS Victoria McCollum Ian & Malcolm's mom COMMUNITY BLOG MANAGER Mary Becelia Katherine Laura & Robert Joseph's mom FACEBOOK COMMUNITY MANAGERS Elizabeth Jones; Jordan, Quincy & Hayden's mom Pamela Quinones: Corinn, Michael, Isabella & Dalton ADVERTISING PHONE 540/374-1495 E-MAIL adsales@fredericksburgparent.net CALENDAR & RESOURCE REQUESTS E-MAIL calendar@fredericksburgparent.net E-MAIL resources@fredericksburgparent.net EDITORIAL PHONE 540/374-1495 • FAX 540/374-1672 E-MAIL editor@fredericksburgparent.net publisher@fredericksburgparent.net SNAIL MAIL P.O. Box 7884, Fred'bg, VA 22404 www.fredericksburgparent.net The publishers reserve the right to reject any advertisement, editorial or listing that does not meet the publication's standards. No part of this magazine may be reproduced with out permission. Listing and advertising rates are available upon request. Every effort has been made to assure the accuracy of the information contained herein, however, the publisher cannot guarantee such accuracy. Listings and advertisements are subject to typo- graphical errors, ommissions and/or change without notice. © Copyright 2012 Nurture, Inc. All rights reserved. Entrepreneur of the Year Proud Founding Member BY LEANNE DALTON I'm reminded of my dreams to go to college, marry into wealth and have six children. I did go to college and even though I did not marry into wealth, the wonderful husband and three children that I have is all the wealth that I need. And about those six children; little did I know that we would be told that we could never have biological children. Never say never. We were fortunate enough to beat the odds and after two high risk pregnancies have two biological sons; but I always yearned for a daughter. While ooking at my High School yearbook, became good friends with several families that had adopted daugh- ters from China. living in Okinawa we pursue this further and joined an Okinawa adoption group that one of my friends belonged to. After a trip to China, Ron and I discussed starting the paperwork to adopt from China. We started the process while still stationed in Japan and hoped to travel before moving back to the States, but the SARS epidemic broke out and American military personnel were not allowed travel into China. We decided to we moved back to Virginia and travelled a year later to go pick up our sweet little Hui Li Ying, who is now Rebeka Li Ying. I will never forget how we waited two years to get our referral and then another four weeks before we traveled to adopt Rebeka in May of 2004. So, During the two weeks in China, Rebeka wanted nothing to do with me; she only wanted her father or her new brothers. heartbroken thinking how I waited all this time and my new daughter hates me. When we got back to Virginia we were greeted by three sets of friends, their families, and my parents. What a joyous time. I was 8 Fredericksburg Parent and Family • November 2012 letter to readers The funniest thing was our dog, Chewy, Rebeka looking back at Chewy. You could tell they both were thinking, "Who are you?" Adoption for us has been such wonderful looking at Rebeka and a was 16 months old when we adopted her and will be 10 in January. experience. ing over the years with some of the questions that have been asked to me or my boys. "Is that your sister?" "Is your father or husband Asian?" "Does she speak English?" and I say, "Why don't you ask her." I love to volunteer in Rebeka's class and when the teacher says Mrs. Dalton is here to volunteer I hear, "That's your mother? You do not look anything like her." That really makes me chuckle. It has been quite amus- Rebeka is proud of her Chinese heritage and in third grade she even got up and told her adoption story as I had told it to her. Ever since she was little we have talked about what we were told about how she ended up at her orphanage in China. We tell her how her biological mother loved her so much that she left her on the orphanage door step and watched from a distance until she was discovered, knowing that she'd most likely be adopted by a loving family from America. has totally been a blessing in our lives and we cannot imagine our lives without her. now in She to be an empty nester. sweet little daughter is going to keep us young, or kill us trying. college, I was not ready So our With both sons Rebeka