Children Help Raise Money for Adoption

Children's voices help bring far-flung families together
Joel and Kirsten Wees will fly to Hong Kong early next year to adopt their sixth child and third daughter from China.

The couple decided to adopt after Joel Wees took a mission trip to China more than a decade ago. He stayed in the same hotel as families who were adopting girls and learned about China's one-child policy...

The Wees family's oldest daughter, Brianna, 13, and her friend Amy Thomas, also 13, learned about the cost of adoption - $16,000 - and wanted to help.

So they organized a fundraiser Saturday night for the Wees family and for Tim and Lisa Stults of Olympia, who are in the process of adopting 4-year-old Mai Li.

"I think it's really neat because they've already adopted two girls," Amy said of the Wees family.

Amy and Brianna had each decided on their own that they wanted to do something to benefit someone in need. It wasn't until their moms started talking that they realized they had a common goal.