Hansel adopts new child from China

After a year of waiting, business teacher Mike Hansel welcomed a new baby boy into his and his wife’s home. They named the little one-year-old boy Levi, and he was adopted from China.

Business teacher Mike Hansel, his wife and daughter Faith recently returned from China with their adopted son, Levi. (Submitted photo)

The desire to adopt all started when the Hansels had troubles having children. “We initially decided to adopt after losing two boys. They were born premature 17 and 19 weeks. We decided to adopt internationally because of the U.S. adoption laws. In the U.S. a mother has up to three days to change her mind. We have known some couples that were at the hospital, spent time with the baby and named it, only to have the mother change her mind at the last minute of the last day. We did not want to potentially go through that,” Hansel said.

“The whole experience has been very rewarding, educational and exhausting”. – Mike Hansel, Business Teacher

 

After the year of waiting, Levi was theirs to bring home. “We started the adoption process over a year ago. We contacted Holt Adoption Agency and began the initial paperwork to start the adoption process. The process moves slowly to ensure the potential parents are ready to adopt a child from another country. In addition, the paper work must be approved by our government and in our case, the Chinese government, and this takes a lot of time,” Hansel said.

The Hansels are no strangers to adoption as they have adopted a daughter in the past. “Our daughter Faith is from Guatemala, but that country has been closed because it is not Hague compliant. This is an international adoption treaty. Since that country was closed, we selected China. We had previously thought about China the first time and decided it best fit our situation,” Hansel said.

Hansel and his wife are a part of a program for children with health issues. That is how they are matched up with a child. “As a result, Levi was diagnosed with a heart murmur, which could close on its own and not require any surgery. Levi was matched with us based on the information we provided Holt. We completed a checklist of health issues we were comfortable with and indicated we would take either a boy or a girl. Levi was abandoned at a bus stop and found on April 3. It is estimated that he was born on March 30. He spent two to three weeks at the hospital and then was transferred to the orphanage.”

The family just returned from China with their new son. Levi is quickly adjusting to his new family and home.  “Levi is adapting great. He had his check-up when we got back, and they did not hear any issues with his heart. He is eating well, but not sleeping the best at night yet. We are 13 hours behind China, and I think he is still getting his clock set right. Because he was in an orphanage, he is behind on his motor skill development. He is one but is not crawling or walking yet and does not feed himself. However, he has made leaps and bounds in this area, and we suspect he will catch up quickly. He is a happy baby boy, and Faith loves being a big sister,” Hansel said.

“The whole experience has been very rewarding, educational and exhausting. We spent three weeks in China. The culture was very different, but the people were very kind and helpful to us at all times,” Hansel said.

You must be logged in to post a comment Login

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.