The best Christmas gift of all

Decades later, Dave Nicholson remembered his first encounter with Asia’s forgotten children.

Havelock’s public works director had visited an orphanage while deployed to Korea as a young second lieutenant in the Marine Corps. After he’d married and had four children of his own, Nicholson’s thoughts turned to adoption.

“That was really the first time that it struck me — the very real need,” he said. “The first thought of adopting struck me before I was married.”

The Nicholsons’ children discussed adopting a child from China last summer, and the family decided to apply through the America World Adoption Association in June. After five months of red tape, they flew to China last month.

“The paperwork is so onerous, so unbelievably complicated, that you have to really want to do this to do it,” Nicholson said. “Our wait, frankly, was relatively short.”

Dave and Wendy Nicholson met their new daughter in the Guangzhou province of China. The 16-month-old girl, Hua Cai, was given an English name of Anna Rose.

Most Chinese orphans are girls because of the cultural preference for male children, Nicholson said. China, which leads the world in population with more than 1.3 billion people, limits most couples to one child each.

“It was amazing. We couldn’t believe we were in China,” said Wendy Nicholson. “Just being there in itself was so incredible, and then to come back with a baby, the whole thing was just kind of surreal.”

Anna Rose has some special needs, and Dave Nicholson said such a girl would endure a difficult life in a Chinese orphanage system with few accommodations.

“It was not something that we planned to do for years and years, but it was something that we felt a calling to do,” he said. “I don’t want to sound dramatic, but we’ve given her a life. An orphan girl in China with some minor handicaps would have an incredibly difficult life based on what I’ve heard and what I’ve read.”

The Nicholsons brought Anna Rose home on Nov. 17. She now has a mother and father, three brothers ages 16, 11 and 8, and a 19-year-old sister.

“All her brothers and sisters have blond hair and blue eyes, so that’s a culture shock,” Nicholson said. “We want her to be part of our family and feel loved.”

Now 17 months old, Anna Rose is growing up quickly. She recently stood up by herself for the first time. And, her dad says, she’s developing an appetite.

“We’ve had her in our family for a little over a month, and it’s just amazing the sense of attachment you can get in a short amount of time,” he said. “The biggest adjustment for her was the constant and undiminishing quantity of food. She’s always hungry.”

Nicholson retired as a Marine lieutenant colonel at Cherry Point and worked for Atlantic Marine Corps Communities before accepting a position with Havelock’s Public Services Department. He was recently hired as capabilities director for an engineering school at Camp Lejeune.

He said the family is looking forward to Anna Rose’s first Christmas morning.

“This will be her first Christmas because they don’t celebrate it in China like we do,” he said. “We don’t know what it’s going to be like, but we can hardly wait to find out. We’re excited about it. She has been a great gift to our family.”

Holding her new daughter as ornaments sparkled on the towering Christmas tree behind her, Wendy Nicholson agreed.

“We are thrilled to have her,” she said. “It’s definitely the highlight of our Christmas.”