SINCE China opened its doors to overseas adoption of Chinese children in 1992, about 100,000 children have been taken in by U.S. families. In the Bay Area, around 2,000 Chinese children are living in American households, according to Chinese Consul General Luo Linquan.

    On Dec. 5, 2015, Luo and his wife Qiao Li held a reception for 29 U.S. families who adopted children from China, where the parents, more than 30 children and the consulate staff as well as their families gathered to celebrate the success of adoption.

    During the annual event at the consul general’s residence in San Francisco, Luo thanked the American parents for their “enduring love and selfless devotion to the Chinese children, bringing them (in) with warmth and happiness.”

    Among them is Alicia Johnson, 14, who was adopted at 11 months old by Gary Johnson, a director of corporate finance living in the Bay Area, and his wife. The couple also has a 27-year-old son. “To me, adoption is all about the person who got loved inside, not the person we need outside,” said Johnson. “The relationships that we build across the borders, across from the U.S. to China, love will prevail.”

    The couple also took the girl on a cultural trip to China two years ago to help her connect with her roots. “I know it’s important to learn about the culture and language,” said Johnson, though she doesn’t yet speak Chinese.

    “A Chinese saying goes, ‘Love knows no boundaries.’ What the American parents have done is a living example of this Chinese saying. Their compassion and love have changed the Chinese children’s lives,” Qiao said.

    According to China’s Ministry of Civil Affairs, about 550,000 orphans lived in China in 2013; 24,460 families adopted children, and 3,230 of them are overseas families.

    Of the overseas applicants willing to adopt Chinese children, the majority are from the United States.

    Ken Yeung, founder of POP’s Foundation, has helped more than 100 U.S. families in the Bay Area adopt children from China since the early 1980s.

    In 1994, he established the foundation with the goal of helping abandoned and disabled children in China. Ten years later, he set up an orphanage in China’s Tianjin Province — Prince of Peace Children’s Home — with an investment of more than US$1 million. (China Daily)