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Kaitlyn Pegram has spent just a little more than one of her 14 years of life in America, adopted in July 2013 by a Liberty Lake family from an orphanage in Yantai, China. This past June, she returned with a local team to the country of her birth, assisting the poor and disabled in North China.

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Profiles: Chinese teen gives back to homeland
10/30/2014

By Treva Lind
Splash Contributor

A year after being adopted from China by a Liberty Lake family, 14-year-old Kaitlyn Pegram found a way to give back to her home country and its people.

Last June, Kaitlyn and her father joined 14 others from Spokane to assist the poor and disabled in north China, as well as visit kids at two orphanages near the Beijing area.

"For Kaitlyn, the thing I saw in her is she is this young girl a year away from being adopted, and she found a way to give back," said Steve Allen, a former pastor and current high school teacher who organized the China trip. "She did this by loving kids, by translating for 15 straight days nonstop and finding a way to help build bridges between Americans and Chinese."

Allen, who has adopted three children from China with his wife, praised Kaitlyn for her care of others in China during the journey.

"As a young girl with every excuse to have a hard heart and to reject the culture from which she came, I think she's realized that's just part of her story," Allen said, "and the story continues through her ability now to return and be able to love people."

When Kaitlyn moved here 14 months ago, she joined a sister, Allison, 9 (also adopted from China), two brothers (Colton, 17, and Nathan, 16) and her parents Dennis and Kathy Pegram. Before her adoption date of July 1, 2013, Kaitlyn had lived at a large orphanage in Yantai.

Now an avid reader and student at Greenacres Middle School, Kaitlyn already pulls straight "A" grades, and she has come far in learning to speak English. 

The Pegrams stay in touch with other families here with children adopted from China. One connection is Allen, a former pastor at Liberty Lake Community Church who is now a Central Valley High School English teacher.

Last summer, Kaitlyn and her dad joined a team from Spokane; three other Central Valley students were in the group, but Kaitlyn was one of only two teens who had been adopted from China.

"We go to the orphanages to see the other kids, and then we do home visits," said Kaitlyn, in describing the trip. "And we teach the Chinese kids how to speak English. It was like just a class."

Dennis Pegram credited Allen for putting together a trip that focused on including students, mainly as an outreach to visit the disabled and children who are fatherless. In Anshan, the group went on home visits with Dr. Zhang Xu, who works to support the disabled in his country.

A former orthopedic surgeon, Xu became quadriplegic after being injured in a diving accident. He now advocates for disabled children to remain in their own homes, and generally for disabled people who often are shut-ins because handicap access is very limited in China, Dennis Pegram said. 

While on the trip, the U.S. travelers presented funds to purchase three wheelchairs for people in China. After their return, additional funds were raised to purchase up to eight wheelchairs, Allen said. The group also pitched in for orphaned children to go to summer camps, through the Bring Me Hope program. 

In Anshan, the Americans also took a group of people with disabilities to visit the ocean, something those people had never done before, Dennis Pegram said.

Kathy Pegram said a special part of the trip for Kaitlyn came as a surprise. She said her husband helped arrange a visit from Kaitlyn's friend, Anna Xing, a woman in her 20s who lives in Yantai and served as her advocate while Kaitlyn was in the orphanage.

"Kaitlyn got to spend her adoption day with Anna," Kathy Pegram said. "Anna is affiliated with the group, Bring Me Hope, and they take groups of people over to China to provide a camp, like a VBS, to different orphanages."

Kaitlyn described good memories from her times at Bring Me Hope camps. "They have American people come to play with us. I go to the camp like three times. They teach you English, you swim and go shopping with them," she said.

Dennis Pegram said Allen's family and their story of adoption helped them pursue the decision to welcome their two daughters from China. Allen's daughter gave a heartfelt testimony at church about "what the love of family can give." Family can have a powerful impact, he said.

• • • 

Profiles: Kaitlyn Pegram

Age
14

Favorite books
Harry Potter series in Chinese, the Narnia series and The Secret Garden

Possible future career
"I wanted to be a teacher but now I don't know."

Favorite school subject
Math   

Best family activity
"I like to go to the ocean (Cannon Beach)."

First impression of U.S.
"It looks different here. For Chinese, their houses are really, really high and they're really small."

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