By Shauna Scott Rhone
The Cincinnati Enquirer

The urge to build a family can be a powerful thing. Just ask Barry Congrove and his wife, Penny Kee, of Columbia Tusculum. The birth parents of one 4-year-old, Vallie, and adoptive parents of Sunny, also 4, born in Anhui, China. The couple recently returned from that nation's Urumqi Province with a newly adopted little girl, 3 1/2-year-old Ruby.

Barry Congrove and Penny Kee with children Ruby, Sunny and Vallie at Guangzhou, China, Botanical Gardens in March. (Congroves photo) | ZOOM |

Before they left in mid-March, family and friends questioned Congrove, 44, and Kee, 42, on the timing of a journey to the epicenter of the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak. Both said they never let the disease threat deter them.

"They become your daughter long before you get there," said Congrove. "I don't know of a parent that wouldn't have gone. It was never an issue of 'do we go?' We had to go get our daughter."

Matt Tepe of North Bend agrees. He brought his 10-month-old daughter, Maggie, home on April 4 from her birthplace in Chong-

qing, a city in southwest China. Wife Tracy, 31, and sons Matthew, 8, and Cole, 5, welcomed her with open arms.

He said information about SARS was scant as he traveled through the country.

"In Guangdong," says the 33-year-old Tepe, "it was very different" compared to what he saw when he and Maggie got to Hong Kong's spacious airport.

"It was a ghost town," he says of the airport. "The few people who were there, especially the locals, had surgical masks on."

Like Congrove, Tepe never considered postponing his trip, even though it was an option recommended by the Centers for Disease Control.

He said he followed the common-sense advisories given by Families Thru International Adoption, the local organization that helped bring Maggie to Cincinnati.

"Basically, you go with what your gut says." He said they washed their hands often and limited contact with others.

"I can't imagine not going," said Tepe. "Once you get there, it's worth your while. We had the opportunity to actually go to the orphanage where Maggie came from. There were 300 children there; we saw 50 of them. I felt so bad for them. I wanted to take more of them home with us."

Tom and Cathy Davenport of Flemingburg, Ky., are awaiting their travel papers for a return trip to China. They plan to bring another child into their family.

The couple, now parents of 5-year-old Rebecca Joy Chunfang Davenport, are waiting for the green light to bring 11-month-old Sara Grace Lifeng Davenport home.

The Davenports went to China five years ago for Rebecca. They know things will be different on this trip.

"We probably won't go shopping as much this time," says Tom. "We know to avoid crowds and take all the precautions the health people are telling us.

"My doctor says 'be as healthy as you can' before you get there to keep your immune system up. I also made sure all my shots are up to date."

He says it's all about perspective.

"I just take things slow. I know people are coming home from China every day healthy. I got an e-mail from a couple who's there right now. They're trying to maintain perspective about this" and not get caught up in the panic.

"The adoption process is a lengthy one," sometimes up to two years, he says. "Plus, a lot can happen between now and when we go. We just have to take certain things on faith.

"People ask me all the time if I'm still going. I tell them, 'How can I not go?' "

"We've been waiting for so long," says Cathy Davenport, "we've got to go get her and bring her home."

Matt Tepe has a better answer for the drive that keeps adoptive parents willing to travel to China and Hong Kong, despite the risks, in order to build their family.

"Somebody asked my sister-in-law why she went to China to adopt a child and she said, 'Because that's where she was.' "

Travelers, be alert, careful