By Jennifer Brinker
Carly Weik bounced around the house, asking anyone who would listen: “Where are my goggles?”
Eager to show a visitor her swimming pool from the window of her living room, the five-year-old had one thing on her mind that rainy afternoon — when she could next go outside for a splash.
Her energy and spunky personality were what stood out to Dave and Maggie Weik of Webster Groves. The couple adopted her from an orphanage in China, and she made the journey to her forever home in March.
As providence would have it, Carly wasn’t the only one who came home with the Weiks. They were turning in the paperwork for her adoption when Maggie Weik found a Facebook page for a little boy from China, whom some advocates were trying to place with an adoptive family. The Weiks immediately knew eight-year-old Daniel also was meant to be part of their clan.
The children arrived in St. Louis to meet their nine new siblings — yes, nine, all of them also adopted from China — who showed them their rooms and helped them settle in. The welcome home celebration included cake and pizza and a hand-lettered message drawn on the oversized chalkboard in the kitchen.
Earlier this year, the Weiks received a $7,000 grant from the Archbishop Robert J. Carlson Adoption Fund to help offset the cost of their adoptions of Carly and Daniel. A friend told the couple about the grant, which was established in 2010 by the archdiocesan Office of Natural Family Planning to assist families going through the adoption process. Since its inception, the fund has awarded $75,000 in grants to 16 adoptive families in the Archdiocese of St. Louis.
In their grant application, the Weiks described themselves as the atypical example of an adoptive family. “What we are is a married couple for the last 27 years who decided to radically shake up our comfortable lives after 10 years of marriage and follow God’s call to adoption of an orphan from China.” They were open to new life through the use of natural family planning, but health issues led them to seek adoption — which actually was part of their plan from the beginning.
The Weiks were drawn to China — their first daughter was adopted from there in 1998 — largely because of the effects of the one-child policy and the cultural preference for baby boys over girls. “We saw reports and read articles about the baby girl situation in China,” said Maggie Weik. “They were being thrown away, basically. Culturally, the boy takes care of the parents as they age. He is the social security and critical to the family.”
Many of their children have special needs, ranging from severe eyesight issues, autism, a heart defect, dwarfism and spina bifida.
“There’s no value for human life at all” in China, Maggie Weik said. “They’re looking for ways to send sick children out of the country. There’s so many of them, and so many of them won’t find homes.”
The Weiks incurred debt, used credit cards, cashed in insurance plans and did fund-raising — including handmade ornaments and decorative signs — to fund the adoptions. The Archbishop Carlson grant was the first time they sought outside assistance.
People often ask how they handle having 11 children, who range in age from 18 to five. “It’s not like we adopted 11 at one time,” Maggie Weik said. And of course the older children help with the younger ones. “Soon it became, ‘What’s one more? We have seven — what’s eight? We have eight — what’s nine?’ God has really blessed us. He’s had His hands all of these adoptions.”
Archbishop Robert J. Carlson Adoption Fund
Since 2010, the fund has awarded $75,000 in grants to 16 adoptive families in the Archdiocese of St. Louis. The fund is administered by the archdiocesan Office of Natural Family Planning.
Eligible applicants include those who have adopted within the past year of the application deadline and those pursuing adoption. Preference is given to couples who experience infertility and to practicing Catholics and Christians.
Editor’s note. This appeared in the St. Louis Review, the publication of the Archdiocese of St. Louis.