The Longhorn Express (Harper, Tex.), Vol. 7, No. 4, Ed. 1 Monday, February 14, 2005 Page: 2 of 20
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Collected by Reporter Jenea J. Esquell
and
3
H;
Mr. H;
you get
■
“Senior
Lindsey
Tooman. ”
10th Grader
Sean Burdick
“Johnny Depp,
because he’s
cute.” 7th
Grader Rachel
Smartt
7th grader
Amber
Barbosa,
because she
would be the
perfect date. ”
6th Grader
Taylor Dawson
of whether or
will try to find
Who would be
|® your dream
Y Valentine?
Strait... because
he's the ultimate
DREAM
COWBOY’!”
Mrs. Tina Blair
..
“My dream
Valentine
would be
Orlando
Bloom” 5th
Grader Ellen
Lasshley
“My husband
Mike.” Mrs.
Tina Moseley
“Paul Walker
from The Fast
and the
Furious. ” 9th
Grader Renee
Garza
y situations that
Casey Sweaney
with her dad, David
, 1
L-:
* w
I O’Malley.”
4th Grader
Kash Bolin
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Josh"and Chris have ,^5
contact with their biolog-
r
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: JE
doing their hair like you makes me
feel proud to be an older sibling,
like Josh and Chris feel.
“I feel special because I have
someone else to look up to me, like
Jayci already does,” Josh said.
*1 feel good because I get to take
care of her (Annie). I
get to feed her a bot-
tle and she squeals
at me,” Chris
added.
Josh, Chris, and
Jay ci are doing a
wonderful job influ-
encing each other
and keeping their
family love and
bond strong.
There are some
t are
not as strong and
comfortable as the
Harper’s. An awk-
ward silence is
sometimes present
when someone finds out a friend is
adopted for the first time, although
they are normal kids like you and I,
with parents who obviously love
them... normal kids who are walk-
ing around the halls of Harper High
School.
One of them is Juan Pablo Miguel
Diego Pace Searle, but we know
him as the talkative, wacky, fun
Diego.
Diego was bom into poverty by
his seventeen-year-old mother who
had no means to support him. The
miracle of Diego ending up with
the Paces started in Guadalajara,
Mexico. Lynn and John Pace trav-
eled south of the border, seeking an
infant, something the states could
not offer at the time
“(They) brought Diego out and
told us this little boy was going to
Italy. He had a little cast on his
arm. He was only four and a half
pounds when he was bom, so he
was just so tiny. We thought he was
cute and everything, but we left,”
Lynn Pace said.
Two days later, the phone rang
saying that Diego would not be
going to Italy after all. Did the
Paces want him?
“We thought about it,” said Lynn,
“and decided yes. He was so cute,
and we’d been waiting for two
years for a baby.”
“At first I wasn’t one hundred
percent for it; I was just going
along with (Lynn). But it’s the
greatest thing we ever did. The
greatest,” John commented.
Another adoptee amongst us is
junior Casey Sweaney. She, along
with her older sister and younger
brother, were all adopted at birth.
Questions come up of whether or
not an adopted child will try to find
their biological parents. Casey has
never had any contact with her par-
ents.
“Someday, I hope to try to find
them. I would want to get to know
them and see what they were like. I
wouldn’t judge them at all. I would
just want to see what kind of peo-
ple they were. If they had my eyes,
my nose, my smile,’’ Casey said.
Then, there are those who have
no interest in finding their biologi-
cal parents. Secretary Tina
Moseley was bom in Germany and
was adopted when she was six
months old.
Mrs. Moseley found out she was
f
1 Vidih
^...i i ii'j ............vi——1„. ?r;-- j
The 2004-2005 Longhorn Express
HARPER* TEXAS 78631
830/864-4044 EXT. 450
nwhite@hsrper.txed .net
I Staff /y
Amanda Randle, Managing Editor;
KI Kee, Senior Editor;
Megan Shepherd, Assistant Editor;
Mrs. Nicole White, Advisor
Reporters: Ambeg Bowlin, Jenea Esquell, Pedro Ferreira,
Jaylyn Hagen, Alice Hayes Tyler Krueger, Jamie Nigh,
Melanie Pascarella, Jett Rogers, Ashlee Smith, and Crystal
, 8„.. Sims
This paper is a production of the Harper ISD journalism class. It is
published every six weeks. We appreciate the Collective effort of teach-
ers, students and community members in compiling the information. A
minimum of 2,800 copies of this paper are printed and distributed for
free to all students and mailed throughout the community. The
Longhorn Express is printed at The Kerrville Daily Times.
If you are interested in advertising in The Longhorn Express,
each business card-size advertisement is $15 per issue. Please
fax your logo to (830) 864-4748.
...Adoption continued
“When the call came about
Annie, I was ready. We told our
caseworker yes immediately,” Mr.
Harper added.
When choosing to adoot, a fami-
ly must decide if the adop-
tion is going to be open or
closed. Josh and Cnris’s
adoption is partially open
while Jayci*s is open.
ical grandparents and
their two older sisters.
Jayci’s biological mother
visits her on her birthday
and at Christmas with
both Mr. and Mrs.
Harper present.
The Harpers gathered
information from the
Gladney Adoption
Center and Methodist
Mission Home, but
decided to go through the
Department of Family
Children Protective Service.
The hardest thing about going
through protective services is that
it is very painful to think that the
children can be sent back home.
However, the Harpers want the
best for their children and if that
means that they have the option to
go back with their family, then
that’s a risk they are willing to take.
Like any parent, lives are
changed when children become
part of the picture.
“The hardest thing for me was
giving up my freedom because
Robin and I were used to doing
what we wanted for ten years,” Mr.
Harper said
The easiest thing for the Harpers
in choosing to adopt has been car-
ing for them and loving them with
all their hearts.
“The easiest thing was that we
fell in love with all of them and
wanted to give them a better life,”
Mr. Harper saidd.
The Harpers lead a very busy
lifestyle. With the boys entering
junior high, Jay ci in Pre-K, and a
newborn at the house, things are
never boring.
Their busy lifestyles haven’t
changed the Harper’s perspective
on how to be a strong family.
“The most special thing about my
family is that they care for me
whenever I feel like no one loves
me,” Josh Harper said.
“Being adopted is special because
you get a family that cares for
you,” commented Chris Harper.
Jayci believes that the most spe-
cial thing about her family is, “We
eat ice-cream sandwiches togeth-
er.”
Hundreds of loving memories
have been made since the Harpers
adopted Chris, Josh, Jayci, and
soon, Annie.
“My favorite family memory is
when I went fishing with Daddy,”
Jay ci said.
“My favorite family memory is
the day I got adopted. It was my
favorite memory because I got to
move in with a new family, and I
don’t’ get yelled at like I used to,”
Chris said.
Younger siblings always look to
big brothers and sisters for guid-
ance, influence, and ways to do
things. Catching your younger sib-
lings wearing your clothes, and
adopted when she was eighteen.
D
found
Her parents had not told her she
was adopted. Adoption was just
starting to become popular in that
era. Before that, adoption was
looked down upon, almost as a
shame, not like today where there
are adoptions happening everyday.
“I am grateful to my parents for
adopting me. I was the fourth child
from my biological mother, and I
would have grown up in an orphan-
age, which would have been
awful,” Mosley commented.
“I have never had any interest in
finding my biological parents. Who
raises you is who you are. You
make your own roots,” she added.
These families and children have
been through changes for the good,
and some that took some getting
used to. Adoption is a process that
takes time, money, and tons of
paperwork, but more importantly,
it takes the undying and unselfish
love you are willing to give.
When I asked four-year-old Jayci
if she could describe her family in
one word, she immediately
responded without hesitation,
“Heart.” Despite being barely
being old enough to read, Jayci
knows that her family loves her
and. she loves them.
“All four of our children are spe-
cial to me and I wouldn’t trade
them for anything in the world. I
truly know that God meant for us to
be with these kids, and for them to
be with us,” Mr. Harper said.
“Times will be tough and you
will have to use tough love strate-
gies. However, the joy they bring
daily far out measures the tough
times we have,” he added.
1 Corinthians 13:13 could not
have summed these situations up
better, “And now these three
remain: faith, hope and love. But
thegreatest of these is love.”
These families have had the faith
that everything
will work out,
hope that this is
for the best, but
most '
post important- fVWJ?
ly, they have \-Ogg
surely found
love. W1n ®j
FEBRUARY 14,2005
THE LONGHORN EXPRESS
PAGE 2
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Harper Independent School District Journalism Class. The Longhorn Express (Harper, Tex.), Vol. 7, No. 4, Ed. 1 Monday, February 14, 2005, newspaper, February 14, 2005; Harper, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1327925/m1/2/?q=Lamar+University: accessed June 4, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Harper Library.