Adopting an orphan: Singapore family adopts China boy with no ears

Little Wu Keyuan was born with no ears. He was abandoned at an orphanage when he was just a few days old. 

It was the Channel NewsAsia documentary Get Real that exposed the story of orphans like Keyuan – children who got abandoned because of their disabilities.

Keyuan only learnt to speak at the age of 5, after he received a hearing implant.

At the time of filming the documentary, he was already 7, and considered ‘too old’ for adoption by prospective parents. In China, children become ineligible for adoption once they turn 14.

Keyuan’s caregivers at Alenah’s Home in Beijing often worried about him, as other children he grew up with, left with new mummies and daddies. The young boy however, remained optimistic.

“My mum and dad will come and take me away on a plane,” he would say. And take they did, finally, in time for Chinese New Year. 

Read one of the most heartwarming stories of the year.

Singapore couple adopt China orphan

Mr Yap Vong Hin, 60, and Dr Lim Poh Lian, 52 never had plans of adopting an orphan. They already had 3 children in their teens. But the story of Keyuan moved them to tears…

Dr. Lim describes her thoughts, “What if everyone thought that someone was going to do something, and nobody did anything, and he just ended up waiting and waiting — and nobody came?”

It broke her heart to think of such a possibility. And so, they decided to adopt Keyuan.

It was not the first time these parents had adopted a child – 16 years back, they had adopted another boy from China.

So off they went to to Beijing, to meet Keyuan and to get the adoption process going. This included going back to his birth province to complete the adoption, getting him a passport, and putting him through a medical test for the necessary travel visas.

The Yaps also had to undergo a home study to ensure theirs was a suitable home, and take an online course about taking care of an adopted child.

Dr. Lim tells Channel NewsAsia, “The adoption process (in China) is way more difficult now as compared to 15 years ago. Background checks are very comprehensive and onerous.”

New family, new dreams

Meanwhile, Keyuan was thrilled about his new family but he also knew that he had to be patient. He kept in touch with his new mummy and daddy through letters and over Skype, even know the Yap’s who are US citizens and Singapore PR, hardly spoke Chinese.

Finally, after lots of formalities, Keyuan was officially adopted into the Yap family on Jan 29, 2018.

They reached Singapore on Feb 10, in time to celebrate Chinese New Year together. Keyuan is now officially “Lucas Yap Keyuan”.

Right now, mummy and daddy have lots of dreams for this new member of their family.

They hope to get new hearing aids surgically implanted for Keyuan, which will help him hear better and improve his ability to process language. 

Dr. Lim reveals that his disability has left the child “a little bit behind educationally. But he looks like he’s pretty normally intelligent. He has a great attitude and a great personality. A lot of kids, when they have the right situation and opportunities, they catch up tremendously.”

Mr. Yap plans to home-school him for 1 or 2 years until he can catch up with his peers.

Keyuan has got along fabulously well with his siblings, who take turns to sleep in his room at night, because he’s afraid of sleeping alone. He’s enjoying all the love an attention now, and taking great interest in learning new things.

Dr. Lim tells Channel NewsAsia, “We knew that taking on a child with special needs who’s an eight-year-old would be a major change in our lives.” 

“If you’re really in love with that person, you take them as they are and you deal with all the implications.”

Here is the video of this beautiful story:

Also READ: The story of this Ban Mian seller mum in Singapore will move you

(Source: Channel NewsAsia)

Republished with permission from: theAsianParent Singapore