Mission couple makes a decision of love in adopting orphanage siblings

By Edwina P. Garza

MISSION – Forty years after she was adopted into a new family, Cathy Garcia’s birth mother explained her decision to give up her child.

“She told me, ‘I made a decision of love,’” Garcia said.

Garcia found her mother three years ago after an extensive search. Meeting her birth mother, she said, was the best experience of her life.

Years later, with that same sentiment, Garcia and her husband Eliud, both pastors at the World Center Church on Moorefield Road, found themselves looking to adopt a pair of siblings.

“It’s almost like full circle,” she said.

After meeting her mother, Garcia also met her father and developed a relationship with her half-sister who worked at the same orphanage Garcia was adopted from in Cd. Juárez, Mexico.

When she first saw Juan Carlos and Elizabeth Mirella at a party at the orphanage, she didn’t know they were orphaned, but when she found out, Garcia said something about the two stuck out to her.

“There was a spark in my heart,” she said.

In August 2007, the couple decided to proceed with the adoption process, an event that is not only financially difficult, but one that requires a lot of patience.

One Year, 10 Months, 16 Days

Using The Hague Adoption Service, an agency that assists and trains people considering intercountry adoption, the couple sought every avenue to adopt the children who had been abandoned after their father died.

Local officials, including Mayor Norberto “Beto” Salinas, Mission City Council member Ruben Plata, and Rep. Henry Cuellar (D), among others, assisted writing letters of recommendations for the two.

“It’s so sad,” she said. “The process is so difficult, people will be discouraged.”

Through their journey that lasted “one year, 10 months, 16 days,” the two visited with the children in Juárez about every other month, Eliud said. During the process, they even took a vote with the children, asking if they wanted to be adopted by the couple.

“Because they’ve been in the orphanage for years, and lots of people just want babies,” he said. “We just felt like this was a God given opportunity for us. It’s interesting how God brought us back to that orphanage.”

The couple has been married for 18 years, and with the “hustle and bustle of life” the two have not had any children.

“This was the right time,” Garcia said.

Adjusting To New Home

On June 27, the newly-formed Garcia family was together in the United States. It took a series of unseen, unexplained, and unexpected events to get all the children’s paperwork together, including immunizations, passports and name changes.

“God just opened doors for us,” Eliud said. “We don’t know how we were able to do this.”

The family didn’t immediately return to Mission. They bonded, fishing and swimming in the Hill Country at a friend’s house before stopping in San Antonio to meet friends and their pastor before finally returning home. Friends and neighbors, about 50, gathered that first night for a welcoming party. Days later, the church congregation of about 200 gathered to welcome the siblings, as well. Mayor Salinas also offered the city’s welcoming.

“It was the most amazing party, they were so grateful,” Garcia said.

For the first time in their lives, the children, Juan Carlos now 13, and Elizabeth Mirella 12, have their own bedrooms with beds. They have options for what they want to wear and what they want to eat at every meal.

“It’s even at the point sometimes where you have to say, ‘It’s OK, you don’t have to keep eating’,” she explained. “They just have to adjust to the idea that they will always have food. They’re adjusting well and they seem to love the City of Mission.”

Juan Carlos has even begun to experience pangs of remorse with his new family.

When discussing a future allowance, he asked his father for a piggy bank to save some of his money. Thinking he was a traditional American teenager, Eliud said he thought his son wanted to save up for a bigger toy, like a game set. Instead, Juan Carlos wanted to save his money to buy gifts for children at the Juárez orphanage.

“It’s at the point where he feels guilty that he has so much,” Eliud said. “That’s such a blessing to see in a child; he’s always thinking of other people.

The Garcias say they see the biggest adjustment in themselves, suddenly finding themselves as parents.

“It’s been challenging having to adjust with two kids and what we do and the field we’re in,” he said.

Worth The Wait

Despite the many challenges and road bumps the couple was faced with, Eliud said he’d do it all over again.

“It sounds crazy, I know,” he said, “but this is a chance at life.”

People who are considering adopting children, especially from another country, need to be aware and prepared for the long struggle, Garcia said. Juan Carlos, however, said he found the process surprisingly quick. The children have friends who, nearly three years after meeting a family, are still waiting to be adopted.

While they only suddenly came upon the idea of adoption, they also suggest starting an adoption fund, since the process can be expensive. The Garcias spent anywhere from $17,000 to $20,000 in the adoption.

“If we gave up on them, who’s going to give them a chance?” Garcia asked.

You just don’t ever quit, Eliud added.

“We don’t feel like we’re heroes, this has been an honor for us,” she said. “But, how could we not adopt these kids?”

World Center Church, at their weekly services, offers cards for church members to write prayer requests or any comments. On a recent Sunday, Elizabeth Mirella wrote a note about being thankful.

“It said, ‘I thank God that we have a family now’,” Eliud said. “And that’s what it’s all about.”

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Tea Party Protest

The McAllen Tea Party and other Valley citizens are planning protest rallies at Rep. Henry Cuellar’s and Rep. Ruben Hinojosa’s offices in McAllen and Edinburg today from 11 a.m. to 12 noon. This is part of a nationwide movement Friday to protest “Obamacare” as well as other legislation, such as Cap and Trade, that according to the McAllen Tea Party newsletter, “Congress is trying to shove down our throats in another ‘crisis’ call.”

The protest at Rep. Cuellar’s office will be held at 320 N. Main Street, McAllen. At the same time, a protest will be held at Rep. Hinojosa’s Edinburg office, located at 2864 West Trenton Road.

Tea Party organizers urge concerned citizens to attend the rally and to bring relatives and friends. Those who desire to do so may also deliver letters addressed to their representatives.

For more information about the McAllen Tea Party or the protest rally visit www.mcallenteaparty.net/eventsactivities.htm

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Mission resident to be inducted into Old Time Country Music Hall of Fame

By Edwina Garza

MISSION – Tommy Helms has country music in his blood.

His grandfather, George Helms, played the hoedown fiddle until his fingers could no longer manage as a result of arthritis. Helms’ father, Marion, sang at church and  taught Helms how to play the guitar.

“My grandfather was the most influential,” Helms said in a telephone interview while on the road in Idaho this week.

Growing up in Crocker, Miss., Helms, at the age of eight, often played music with his grandfather, acting as the rhythm section.

“I spent a lot of time on grandpa’s front porch,” he said.

Although he has cousins and uncles who have performed with known artists like Toby Keith, or have been invited to play at prestigious venues like the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Helms may be outdoing them all, earning one of the biggest awards of his music career as an inductee to the Old Time Country Music Hall of Fame.

“I thought it was super,” Helms said of the award. “I was quite surprised.”

Bob Everhart, the president of the National Traditional Country Music Association, said the award is given to people who have made significant contributions to the music and dance of pioneer settlers and homesteaders.

Helms is known mostly for keeping the music of Burl Ives, a writer and folk singer, alive, Everhart said.

“As he grew into the part, he not only now sounds like Ives, he looks like him,” he said. “He is a suitably qualified individual to receive the honors of America's Old Time Country Music Hall of Fame."

Everhart said Helms would be inducted during the NTCMA annual convention of bluegrass-country-folk music, festival, contest, ag-expo, and dance in LeMars, Idaho. The convention takes place Aug. 31 through Sept. 6.

"We are absolutely thrilled to be able to induct Tommy Helms into the Hall of Fame at our festival this year,” said Sheila Everhart, a co-director of the event. “We've been honoring thousands of deserving individuals over the years.”

Patti Page, who in the early 1950s had a hit with “(How Much Is That) Doggie In the Window,” will also be inducted this year.

Kentuckian Slim Bryant, a 100-year-old guitar teacher, and the only living musician that recorded with Jimmie Rodgers will be honored, as well. Rodgers, who was popular in the 1920s and 1930s, was well known for his yodeling and is also known as the Father of Country Music.

Although Helms performed throughout his teenage years, he eventually quit the music business in the 1960s following the birth of his first child.

“I decided I had better try to make a better living, and I did as an insurance agent,” he said, explaining that he still performed with family.

It wasn’t until 2003 that Helms returned to the professional stage, after a failed attempt to enter the politics arena in 2002. At the end of 2005, Helms made a studio album of his work titled, “Dedications.” After that, a Mission friend told him if he included Burl Ives in his set, he’d do well here in the Rio Grande Valley.

“I really enjoy interacting with the folks, especially in the Rio Grande Valley,” he said. “I try to mix up my Burl Ives tribute with Dean Martin.”

During his performances, Helms said he likes to play on the floor with the crowd for the ultimate interaction.

“A lot of the songs are fun songs that people like to sing along to,” he said.

Helms will return to the Valley in the late fall and begin performing in December, with appearances in Rio Hondo, McAllen and Mission by January.

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