Family finds its heart in China

The Horton family of Stanley is no stranger to a busy life in a home filled with love and laughter.

And this month, the family grows by one more when Elaine Horton travels to China to pick up their fifth adopted daughter, 2-year-old Savannah Faith.

Elaine Horton is traveling for three weeks with her daughters Michaela and Anna Grace to Beijing. They return March 23.

She said they will tour the Great Wall of China, Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City and other tourist attractions before they go on to Jinan, China, to pick up Savannah Faith.

Elaine Horton, 48, and Phillip Horton, 52, assistant head of school at Southlake Christian Academy, have seven daughters: Torie 22; Michaela, 17; Anna Grace, 12; Sarah Mei; 6, Lily Rose, 5; Isabelle, 4; and Savannah Faith, 2.

Torie and Michaela are the Horton’s biological daughters and the Horton’s adoption story began when they adopted Anna Grace in 2001. They chose to adopt from China because of the country’s one-child policy.

After adopting Anna Grace they had an idea to begin an orphan ministry at their church. They attended an “If You Were Mine” conference, which focuses on global adoptions and the plight of some 140 million orphans worldwide.

Elaine Horton said this conference opened her eyes to adoption and after this meeting the couple realized they wanted to adopt again.

They brought home Sarah Mei in 2007 and learned she had a heart defect. She was cyanotic, which means blue in color and her heart was not pumping enough oxygen, Elaine Horton said.

Horton said a child in the United States with this condition would be treated within two weeks of birth.

With the help of Dr. William Hammill of Presbyterian Pediatrics Cardiology in Charlotte, Sarah Mei had life-saving surgery.

“Most families are wary of adopting children with heart disease,” Hammill said. “It’s a lot to take on for a new family member.”

Hammill said that worldwide one in 100 babies are born with congenital heart disease. In China, a baby with heart disease can be a big burden for families so they drop them at orphanages.

Hammill said that children in the United States will get the surgeries they need regardless of whether they have health insurance.

“I don’t think any child is different than another, it doesn’t matter what community they’re in,” Hammill said.

Hammill said he has had the opportunity to know the Horton family in far deeper ways than being a doctor to the girls.

“I’m in awe of their passion and commitment and desire to give these girls a fighting chance at life,” Hammill said.

Praising their doctor, Horton said “Bill Hammill will drop everything to help us. He is a good man and believes in helping these kids.”

Because they learned children with heart defects were hard to place into adoptive homes the Horton’s then adopted Isabelle, who had only one working ventricle at the time of her adoption.

Elaine Horton said Isabelle’s oxygen was at a level 50, when a normal level should be 98 to 100.

“It’s a miracle these children survived on such little oxygen,” Horton said.

In 2011, Lily Rose was the Horton’s next adoption. She had a double outlet right ventricle, a rare congenital heart disease where the heart’s two main arteries both come from the right ventricle.

Horton said there have been five open heart surgeries between three of her girls since 2007.

And now, with the adoption of Savannah Faith who has transposition of the great arteries, she will need one or more surgeries to repair her heart, Horton said. Savannah Faith will see Hammill when she arrives in the United States and based on his findings will proceed to surgery.

“I cannot wait to get her in my arms and have her join our family,” she said.

There are so many children waiting for good homes, Horton said, and in many of the Soviet bloc countries many children are turned onto the streets at the age of 16 and thereby forced to resort to drugs or prostitution to survive.

She said for families interested in adopting, there are many creative ways to fund an adoption.

Horton said her family makes sacrifices. They drive older cars, they don’t eat out a lot, they don’t have all the technological gadgets, she said.

She said they think this will be their last adoption; however, they have said that since the last three adoptions.

“We never say never,” Horton said. “As Christians we put our faith into practice.”

Their goals are to help others interested in adoption and to make sure their girls continue to get the health care they need.

Elaine Horton is a volunteer medical financial coordinator for Love without Boundaries Foundation, an Oklahoma-based charity helping transform the lives of orphans worldwide.

“When you hear the giggles in your house, it makes it all worth it,” Horton said. “You make a commitment but it’s worth every minute of the sacrifice.”