Emma's journey: China to S.C.

Child declared unfit for adoption finds family

Published on 07/20/09

BY ALLYSON BIRD

The Post and Courier

When Colleen Brant saw the photo of a Chinese toddler named Emma, what struck her most wasn't the red tumor obscuring nearly half her face. Instead, the Lowcountry mother of three, thought: That is a Brant. That is a Chinese Brant.

At her new permanent home, Emma Brant, who turns 3 this month, seems to remember little of the pain that has filled her short life. She instead focuses on Play-Doh and dress up, Legos and sneaking out at nap time with her new partner-in-crime, a sister of the same age.

Emma's life today began on the steps of a gray-walled orphanage in China's Henan province, possibly the place where poor parents decided their 6-month-old baby would have a better chance at surviving the imposing growth that had ruptured into an open wound.

Mariah Bywater, a Beaufort nurse doing mission work, found Emma there and, after coming home a few weeks later, could not forget her. The Chinese government had deemed the girl unfit for adoption because of the hemangioma, or benign tumor composed of the cells that normally line blood vessels. But Bywater, through local physicians' recommendations, contacted Charleston hemangioma specialist Marcelo Hochman. Hochman, who travels to Third World countries every year to perform surgeries on children, gladly took up Emma's cause as more than just another patient but as an opportunity to effect political change.

Bywater secured medical guardianship, and Emma began a series of surgeries. With her skin all one color but still scarred and in need of further treatments, she seems barely cognizant of the journey behind her. Bywater kept the girl for more than a year but knew Chinese law precluded them from becoming a permanent family. The government only allows couples that have been married for at least five years to adopt.

Soon after meeting the little girl, Bywater sent out an e-mail to friends and family with the subject line "Emma's Hope." Opening the attached photo, Brant — whom Bywater knew from church — saw her daughter. She and husband, Josh, who also received the message, never had considered adopting. In addition to their 3-year-old daughter, they have two sons, ages 5 and 7. After a few brief conversations dancing around her feelings, Brant told her husband about the connection she felt with Emma. His surprising response: "I had the same thought."

The Brants soon began celebrating holidays with the little girl and occasionally kept her overnight. Emma started calling them Mommy and Daddy. They took a family Easter photo and, just last month, traveled to China together to complete the final paperwork and officially become a family.

They come to Charleston in September for Emma's next appointment with Hochman, and they see Bywater at park get-togethers.

After spending more than a year caring for a child she brought to America nestled against her chest, a child she saw through multiple surgeries and laser treatments, Bywater knew the transition would hurt. "You have to work through all the hard emotions to make sure she has the best," Bywater said of Emma.

Since her mission trip and the resulting "Emma's Hope" campaign, the Beaufort nurse has discovered an unexpected calling. She leaves in days to return to China permanently to help oversee a new unit within an orphanage there.     Reach Allyson Bird at 937-5594 or abird@postandcourier.com.