A little child shall lead

Ruth Kogelmann (left in the front row of children) joins relatives at a wedding ceremony in the US.

Since China ratified international adoptions in 1992, tens of thousands of its children have been placed in adoptive homes overseas.

China's family planning policy of one child per couple (though there are various exceptions to the rule) and a traditional mindset that emphasizes the importance of male heirs have led many families, especially in rural areas, to offer up their female infants for adoption.

Some 80,000 Chinese children have ended up in the United States, one of the top adoptive countries, according to US media reports.

After almost six months in Beijing, Kogelmann and Ruth still have trouble eating the spicy local dishes. Kogelmann also struggles to communicate in the basic Mandarin she has picked up at work and at home.

But at the same time, their move has borne fruit. Some of the signs began appearing after only the first couple of months.

"Socially and emotionally, she seems at such ease here, and she loves learning in her Chinese language classes at school," Kogelmann says in an e-mail in mid-September. "This move is really solidifying her identity in ways I couldn't even have imagined when we started this process."

Ruth Kogelmann, 7, attends a Christmas tree lighting ceremony in Beijing earlier this month, along with Santa Claus.

Chris and Aminta Arrington understand Kogelmann's joys and difficulties, as well as her reasons for coming to China. They too are Americans living in China, and they are also parents of an adopted Chinese girl.

The couple, who also has two biological children, brought their family to China in 2006 so that their adopted daughter Grace could intimately understand the Chinese part of being Chinese-American.