Today's Chiropractic Lifestyle

Discussion Board

Survey

Passions & Pursuits

Things To Do Before You Die #46
By Brittaney Carter

Travel to China

Kevin Fogarty, D.C., and his wife Shari were born in the United States, but they consider themselves citizens of the world. Traveling to China several times since 1995, they have ventured into exotic places and captured images that many people only dream of. Upon their return, they are always able to tell stories of having snake for dinner, feeding the homeless, standing among hundreds of terra cotta warriors and literally letting another man walk in their shoes, all while learning the beautiful and unpredictable culture of China. But their favorite experiences are the ones that they are reminded of each day while caring for their two Chinese daughters, Sara and Kaitlin. Recalling the events that inspired him and his wife to adopt, Fogarty summons up a lifetime’s worth of unforgettable stories from his three trips to the Far East.

What kind of expectations did you have for your first trip to China?
There were no expectations. It was really just about being open-minded about a culture and people that was halfway around the world. With that attitude, we were rewarded tenfold with the people that were very friendly and open. They were just as curious about us as we were about them.

What were some of your favorite moments from the first trip?
On the first trip, no matter where we went, everyone was friendly. They were curious about us. My wife has blond hair, and they were fascinated by her hair. They would actually come up and touch her. There’s no social distance in China. Everybody is used to being in very close proximity with each other, and everybody is touchy feely, which for chiropractors is great. There were lots of parks around, full of people in the early morning doing Tai Chi and exercising. Many Chinese would just come up to me and attempt to communicate, asking me questions about America and what my purpose was in their country. Remember, back then there were not many Westerners in China so we were a novelty. In many instances, we were the first white people that they had ever seen other than in books or in the movies.

How did you end up adjusting people on the Great Wall of China?
The Great Wall was one of the diversions on our first trip, which was a working exchange program. When we got there, my wife had a little jetlag, so naturally I had her lie down on the Great Wall for a chiropractic adjustment. I was making an adjustment on her, and there were several people watching what I’d done to her spine and wanted it done for them. The Chinese at the time were very much used to getting in line for services or goods, so people formed a line. After a while, we made several adjustments to several pleased people. In China, at the time, you were not allowed to draw a crowd larger than five, and we were drawing a crowd. So a policeman saw us and eventually asked us to move on. That was only after he got his adjustment.

What prompted you to go back and adopt two girls?
In China, they don’t have a very high regard for women, especially little girls. It’s a cultural thing. Because the Communist government mandates that families are only allowed to have one child, the Chinese people want a male child to carry on the family name. Also, the parents would many times live with the male child when they got older. So often, little girls are abandoned, and their life is not very good. Many, once in the orphanage system, will be fortunate to have a sixth grade education and will many times be forced to work at the institution they grew up in for the rest of their lives. Someone from another delegation was explaining that on a trip they had taken there, they witnessed the birth of a female child, and the hospital allowed the child to die. They were upset because just because the baby was underweight and was not thriving at the hospital, the doctor did nothing to help her. So we knew then that it was important to make a difference.

What was the second trip like when you went to adopt your first child in 1998?
The second trip was so different because we were allowed more freedom to travel by ourselves and talk to people openly. We didn’t have to travel with a communist cultural officer. I would get up early and again go to the parks where there were so many people who wanted to talk to me and ask questions. When I told them that we were there to adopt a child, they were almost in tears because they thought it was so wonderful—allowing a child of China to live the American dream.

What was it like to meet your child for the first time?
Our first daughter’s name is Sara, and when we met her she was very tiny and underweight, and she came with double ear infections and pneumonia. She ran these horrendous fevers, like 105 or 106. But as soon as you laid eyes on this baby, the bond was instantaneous. She was ours just as if we had her ourselves. From the moment I held her, I started adjusting her. We had to stay in China for another two weeks for the paperwork to go through. By the time we left the country, she was one of the healthiest babies in our adoption group, responding almost immediately to the chiropractic adjustments. She was able to hold her head up, cross crawl and laugh. So much that many of the families that were with us were asking for me to adjust them and their new child. A short time later, we decided that we wanted to adopt a second child, and there was no doubt in our minds that China was where we wanted to go. We went back in 2000 to adopt Kaitlin.

Have you brought any of the culture from China into your home?
We kept the names given to them from the orphanage as their middle names. Sara’s middle name is Zhijing and Kaitlin’s is Yuhui. We celebrate Chinese New Year. There are a few of the families that adopted at the same time as we did that we bonded with really well, so whenever we can, we get the kids together so that they can hang out. It gives the kids not only a chance to see someone else who looks like them but also the chance to be around other people who have been adopted and have gone through the same thing. It helps them realize that it’s OK to be adopted and that there’s nothing wrong with it.

How has China changed you and your wife?
I think it has made us realize that the world really is a small place and that we’re all a part of it. It’s not about being American or Chinese or European. It’s about being human, and that human potential for health and good will is within all of us. If we realize that we’re all human beings first, with a healthy nervous system through chiropractic adjustment, this world would be a better place and a lot more peaceful.

Are you planning any more trips to the ?Far East?
When the girls get a little older, we’re definitely going to go back to China. They haven’t seen the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, Guilin and all the wonders China has to offer along with its wonderful people. I think it’s important to allow them to experience those sites and the culture of their homeland, along with other cultures of the world. The Great Wall is really great, when you get to the next rise [of the wall], and you realize it goes on forever. It’s 2,000 miles long! Shari and I are travelers and adventurers by nature and are passing that curiosity of our planet to our two daughters. We have a big world map that is hanging up in our home, which we show them and say, “Look, this is where we’ve been, and this is where we’re going.” It really is a small world, Carpe diem!