Earth Shakes as Couple Meet Son

Kari (Wilson) College, Class of '91


By Michael Kelly, published June 1, 2008 in the Omaha World Herald

Eight minutes after a joyous Omaha couple met their first child, adopted in China, the earth began to shake and the joy turned to fear “We’ll always remember the earthquake as the time we met our boy,” said Scott College . “Unfortunately, it was such a time of loss for others.”

More than 68,000 died in China’s May 12 earthquake, and 15 million-plus have been relocated. Fears are that lakes formed after the quake will burst their banks and cause floods.

Scott and wife Kari met 2-year-old Elijah at 2:20 p.m. on that Monday in Chengdu. They sat on a floor, getting to know this “amazingly adorable” child. At 2:28 p.m., the building shook. Kari grabbed Elijah and all ran outside, soon to see thousands of others running to the streets. The rumbling, 57 miles from the epicenter, lasted two minutes. “All of a sudden we had the instant bond of a family,” Scott said. “We quickly had gone from two people to three in a crisis.”

Today, for the first time, Scott and Kari will bring Elijah to their Omaha church, Christ Community, where the adventure of becoming a family began. A year ago, Kari joined a group from the church to volunteer in a Beijing orphanage. She and Scott , who married in 1996, had talked about an international adoption, but her trip cemented the idea of applying to China.

When she returned home, Kari went online late one night and saw a special-needs child. She woke Scott , telling him she felt as though the boy — who had a cleft palate and lip — was looking back at her. His name was Zhongfu. Because of his health problem, the adoption process was expedited to less than a year. Scott , who works in the actuarial department at Physicians Mutual, and Kari , a kindergarten teacher at Saratoga Elementary, left Omaha for China on May 6, spending a few days in Beijing. They flew to Chengdu, a city of 10 million, two days before seeing the child they would name Elijah Zhongfu College .

The earthquake cracked buildings in Chengdu, but most weren’t severely damaged. Aftershocks, though, frightened many people. The Colleges, staying on the 18th floor of a hotel, were advised to sleep in their clothes and keep a bag of essentials handy for a quick exit. They couldn’t immediately reach their worried parents, Gene and June College and Don and Dee Wilson, but eventually did so. Scott and Kari left Chengdu with little Eli four days after the quake, spent five days near Hong Kong getting the child’s visa in order and flew 14 hours to Chicago. Eli slept seven hours, and didn’t cry the whole way. The family then flew to Omaha, arriving to a welcome by relatives at 8 p.m. on May 22.

Kari plans to take next year off from teaching. Scott returned to work last week, and at home the child walked from room to room, looking for his father. If all goes well, Elijah will have surgery this summer on his cleft palate. He probably will need speech therapy, Scott said, but his health otherwise is good. Scott said he and Kari have felt God’s presence and comfort and a renewed spiritual connection with each other.

Today, the director of the Chinese orphanage where Kari worked last summer will speak at Christ Community Church, and people will remember the victims of the May 12 quake and others who have suffered. The Colleges, meanwhile, will get to show off their new son. That won’t make world news, but Eli means the world to them.

■ Contact the writer:
444-1132, michael.kelly@owh.com