The Clifton Record (Clifton, Tex.), Vol. 108, No. 37, Ed. 1 Wednesday, May 7, 2003 Page: 3 of 40
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Phone: (254) 675-3336 • Fax: (254) 675-4090
Wednesday, May 7, 2003 E-mail: nawa@cllftonracord.com • ada@cllftonrecord.com
The Clifton Record
The Clifton Record ONLINE:
http://cllftonrecord.cofn
3
• ADOPTION
- Continued From Page One
l “I’ve known him for only 34 days, and you wouldn’t
Relieve the English he can speak and what he un-
derstands,” added Pederson, enthusiastically. “I
■jean, we had him here in the United States for less
than a week, and I said, ‘Caleb, tell your brother and
Sister to come in and brush their teeth.’ They went
to the screen door and did something, and then I
heard Ann tell Christian, ‘Hey, we need to go in and
■rush our teeth.’ Caleb really has an amazing little
■jind.”
t When the national media first began reporting on
SARS in China, nothing was going to stand in
Pederson or Ratliff’s way of attaining Caleb. They
had invested too much time and energy plowing
through the tedious, year-long adoption process to
stop.
. Before traveling to China, Ratliff and her niece
{ook precautions against the virus, went to their
doctor, and packed face masks, but they didn’t let it
get to their heads, so to speak.
“I didn’t know much about the virus,” admitted
Pederson. “Our pediatrician said that this virus isn’t
much different than a lot of viruses, and there are
other viruses that are far more deadly.
“This virus just got a lot of media* hype and blown
but of proportion. I didn’t have an education about it
tintil I talked to disease doctors at Scott & White
Hospital about it and looked at the CDC website.”
* If anything, Ratliff’s only fear was for the safety of
his wife over himself, but by that time it was too late
to switch the tickets and get his own VISA.
To be safe, once Ratliff and McElmurry stepped
off the plane with Caleb, they drove directly to
their pediatrician for a check-up and quarantined
themselves for five days to see if they developed
symptoms for SARS. They haven’t looked back
since.
; Digging Fbr Adoption
; International Adoption Specialist for Lutheran
• Social Services Konnie Gregg said that in the short
I term, adoptions from China will slow down because
; of the SARS virus in China.
‘ “I just read a memo that said all the employees of
; the CCAA, the federal bureaucracy that judges adop-
; tions, will be working from home from April 25 to
: May 5 in an effort to minimize contact of people with
each other and to get rid of the virus once and for
: all,” said Gregg.
I Gregg will be routinely checking up on Caleb in
i the following months to make sure the Pederson/
• Ratliff’s living conditions are adequate, but already
: thinks highly of his new parents.
: “I would say that Julie and Dewey are unusual
I not only so far as they have adopted older kids,
; boys,” said Gregg, “but the fact that they are will-
»ing to go halfway around the world to take on kids
• with medical challenges because they feel like
: that’s a gift they have that want to share with a
: child who needs it.”
‘ Although experts have no idea when the epi-
• demic will finally diminish, Pederson has consid-
• ered adopting another child from China, but both
: she and her husband want people to know that
: they aren’t heroes or publicity hounds.
• - They would have rather not had a story written
-about them, and pointed to other couples in Clifton
Who have “rescued” whole families on their own.
Ratliff and Pederson just see themselves as the
lucky ones.
“We are the ones who are blessed,” said Ratliff,
a general manager for Texas Unwired Network.
THINKING ABOUT HANNAH — Caleb Ratliff, the
adopted son of Julie Pederson and Dewey Ratliff from
Clifton, grew up in China with a little girl named Hannah
who was adopted by a family in Kansas, and both are
encouraged to continue communicating on the phone
with each other. The two children prefer to speak Chi-
nese with one another. Clifton Record Staff Photo
“I had no idea how much love a child could show a
parent. I had no idea what I had been missing by
not being a parent.”
“We didn’t plan to have Ann after we got mar-
ried. After Ann, we certainly didn’t plan for Chris-
tian,” said Pederson, a nurse who works weekends
at Scott & White’s emergency room. “When we read
about Christian, we strongly felt we were able to
meet his needs. The same thing happened a year-
and-a-half later with Caleb. There maybe more,
we’ll see.”
Pederson keeps her child-rearing philosophy
simple.
“All of these kiddos are God’s gift. Whatever he
has plans for, we just get to stay along for the ride.
It just fun to get a part to seeing them grow,” said
Pederson. “When you look at adopting a kid that
has a background of abuse or special needs, it’s a
whole lot easier to look at it like that. The pressure
is off then.
“I don’t have to make this child into another
Einstein or to go to Harvard. This child needs to
grow up and be happy and do what he wants and
just be the best that he can be.”
Pederson and Ratliff openly encourages people
to seek adoption. They used Lutheran Social Ser-
vices for their home study and Children’s Hope In-
ternational for their adoption agency. For more
information on the adoption process, visit CHI’s
website at (www.childrenshopeint.org).
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Bosque Among 7 Counties To Host
Quail Appreciation Days Event In May
SAN ANGELO — Quail season
may be over, but May is definitely
quail month as Texas Cooperative
Extension readies for seven Quail
Appreciation Days in seven coun-
ties. Bosque County will host such
an event on Tuesday, May 13.
Other events are planned in
Stonewall, Crane, Nolan, Val
Verde, Kerr, and Garza counties.
Dr. Dale Rollins, Extension wild-
life specialist at San Angelo and a
meeting coordinator, said the
meetings are designed to update
quail enthusiasts on matters fac-
ing the state’s most popular game
bird. Each meeting will have a
similar format.
Registration for all the meetings
starts at 8:30 a.m. Two Texas De-
partment of Agriculture continu-
ing educations units will be offered
at each site.
“Last summer’s rains have re-
ally boosted our quail capital,” said
Rollins. “Right now is a prime time
for landowners to make their prop-
erties more ‘quail friendly.’ Attend-
ing one of the appreciation days is
a good place to start,” he said.
“Quail are our native
rangeland’s ‘canaries in the coal
mine.’ Show me land with a vi-
brant quail population, and I’ll
show you a dozen or more other
species that are also benefiting
from proper range management,”
Rollins continued.
Rollins said the quail population
picked up over much of the state
this past year largely due to timely
rainfall, but adds that he believes
concerted quail management edu-
cational programs over the last
five years should get some of the
credit.
“We’ve trained more than 1,200
landowners at 34 quail apprecia-
tion days since 1998. Landowners
are becoming increasingly aware
of how their management affects
quail, plus or minus, and thus are
becoming better able to weigh the
consequences of their land use de-
cisions,” he explained.
Rollins said Texas’ quail aren’t
going to be saved by a government
edict, but that private landowners
are the key to sustaining the quail
wave in the state.
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“Accordingly, we in Extension
put a lot of emphasis on getting
landowners to appreciate’ quail
and their habitat needs. In this
context, I use appreciate’ to mean
not only ‘value or admire highly,’
but also ‘judge with heightened
awareness,”’ said Rollins.
The morning sessions at each
site open at 9 a m. with a pre-test
and lab practical. At 9:15 a m.,
Rollins will present “Quail 101”
Ken Cearley, Extension wildlife
associate also of San Angelo, will
follow with “Getting to Know Your
Quail.” Cearley will then lead a
series of quail dissections aimed
at teaching participants important
points relating to the birds and
habitat management.
The morning session will fea
ture a discussion of such topics as
supplemental feeding, restocking,
and impacts of hunting. Each
morning session ends with a re
port by a member of the Bobwhite
Brigade. The Bobwhite Brigade is
a popular youth program featuring
bobwhite quail as the nucleus for
teaching leadership skills and land
management.
After lunch, the programs con
tinue with field tours at various
sites. Depending on location, the
tours will include stops with varia
tions on such topics as inventory
ing assets, managing quail habitat,
fire ants, and radio telemetry.
Pre-registration is $10 per per
son with ‘at-the-door’ registra
tions jumping to $20. Both
registration fees include the noon
meal and refreshments.
For more information or to reg
ister for the Bosque County event,
contact Bosque County Extension
Agent David Winkler in Meridian
at (254) 435-2331.
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Smith, W. Leon. The Clifton Record (Clifton, Tex.), Vol. 108, No. 37, Ed. 1 Wednesday, May 7, 2003, newspaper, May 7, 2003; Clifton, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth790954/m1/3/: accessed April 19, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Nellie Pederson Civic Library.