Amber and Larry Pendleton
(Group 5)
Larry and Amber Pendleton fell in love with the culture and children of China when they visited the country on their honeymoon sixteen years ago. “After we came home I remember telling a friend of mine from Colorado, that if the Chinese Government ever allowed Americans to adopt, we would be at the front of the line” says Larry.
Five years later, in 1995, his comment seemed almost premonitory as the Pendleton’s traveled with CCAI group #5 to Chong Quing to adopt a two and a half-year-old little girl whom they would call Karissa Elise-Jing.
“The process was somewhat different back then” says Larry, “and it only took five and a half months from start to finish” he says with amazement.
Karissa was the first Chinese child in Tallahassee to be adopted through CCAI, and she has been blazing the trail for others to follow ever since. When the Pendletons attempted to enroll their daughter in the private school where she is now a seventh grader, they learned the school had a policy of requiring parents to put their child on a waiting list at birth.. “ How could we put her on the waiting list at birth when we didn’t even get her until she was a toddler?” Larry exclaims. “We really had to lobby hard to get that policy changed, and now there are quite a few children adopted from China at Karissa’s school.”
Thanks in large part to the positive example set by the Pendleton’s,
there are also more children adopted from China who now call Tallahassee
their home than anywhere else in Florida. “It’s really amazing
to see all these beautiful little girls running around at the Tallahassee
Families with Asian Children meetings and other events” says Larry.
“I may be biased, but I think every single one of
them is absolutely beautiful”.
No argument there.