Year after year, orphans from around the world hope and pray for a family to call their own. As the years pass, their dreams start to fade when they begin to realize that the older they get, the less likely they will be adopted. Still, hope exists for some and especially for one thirteen-year-old Chinese boy named “Gong Chu”. He still dreamed of a family.

Kimberly Craddock is a social worker for the Gladney Center for Adoption in Fort Worth. She learned about Gong Chu at a staff meeting. “His only request in a family was someone who would not abandon him,” she reflects. “The staff also had some art pieces that he had made.”

One in particular was picture that he had drawn which was passed around the room. Kimberly was the last person to hold it and she held it for the remainder of the staff meeting. On this picture, he had drawn a house with a mom and dad and a boy in the middle. “He wrote the word ‘FAMILY’ in English and Chinese characters beneath it,” say Kim. “And I thought – you know – we can do this.”

Kim and Joe Craddick were very familiar with adoption. They had adopted two children as infants from South Korea. With another 21 year old biological child – the Craddick family seemed complete. But when Kim heard about a soon-to-be fourteen year old boy who wanted a family, Kim could not look away.

There exists a law in China that once a child turns fourteen they are no longer eligible to be adopted. Kim was convinced this was the right thing to do, but she had to convince her husband Joe.

“Initially I had a lot of reservations and all our whole family dynamics were going to change on us and we had to consider that”, says Joe. “I don’t know why I didn’t say no. But, she put it like this – do you feel better about leaving him there or bringing him home – so the decision was made at that point.”

Things moved quickly and Kim and Joe, working closely with the Gladney Center for Adoption in Fort Worth, found themselves in China meeting their son – whom they would call Conner – for the very first time.

“We literally hit the ground in China and our facilitator met us at the airport and drove us straight to the orphanages,” Joe remembers. Tears fall from his eyes as he says, “The next thing you know, the door opens and Conner standing there with two bags. And walks up to me and walks up to me and says ‘Hello father” and walks up to Kim and says “Hello mother”.

Conner’s dream for a family came true in the form of a birthday wish. For when the plane touched down in the United States, it was Conner’s birthday – his fourteenth birthday to be exact. On that day, Conner’s Portrait of Family became his real family.

For more information on adoption services, go to www.gladney.org.