IONE – The Thanksgiving holiday is a time when most families come together and reflect on all they have to be grateful for.

Two Ione families, the Petersons and the Rietmanns, have more to be thankful for than they ever imagined.

The families grew in number through the adoption of girls from India and the Ukraine. They shared the ups and downs, heartache and joy of bringing a child into their families.

Lea Matheu-Peterson and Shelly Rietmann have been friends from “way back.” Lea is the godmother of the Rietmann’s oldest son, 11-year-old Tanner. Gregg Rietmann and Joel Peterson both grew up in Ione and both farm in the area. Lea is a teacher at Boardman High School and is an ordained minister. Shelly, also an ordained minister, recently started her own business, Soul Food, as a special-events coordinator and caterer.

Both women waited until they were older to start having children and both always knew they wanted to adopt.

The Petersons began the adoption “primarily as a gender balance.” They have two sons, Gus, 9, and Oskar, 7. Lea was unable to have more children, so the best way to guarantee a daughter was to adopt, she said.

They began the adoption process in April 2003, and almost exactly a year later the couple traveled to Pune, India, to bring home 5-year-old Babali.

The Petersons used Holt International Children’s Services based in Eugene. The process began when Lea was browsing the Holt Web site and found a description of a young girl. Lea and Joel knew immediately who their daughter would be.

“It takes a lot of blind faith,” Lea said. “I went on the Internet at Holt, was led to the little girl and we were hooked. There was something about Babali’s description. That was it.”

Babali started out as a girl for mom, but she just loves her dad and her brothers, Lea said. Oskar and Gus take their job as older brother very seriously.

“Oskar checks on her every morning,” Lea said. “Oskar and Babali get dressed at the same time, he waits for her to get up. She is in kindergarten. Her first report card was just great. She’s amazing. At age 4 she was just learning English.”

“I’ve thought about adopting forever,” Shelly said. “We talked about adopting after we had our kids, so I always knew we’d adopt. I think Lea and I had this in our hearts for a long time.”

The Rietmanns also have two boys, Tanner, 11, and Evan, 10. Their journey took longer than the Petersons. They also used Holt International.

“Ours was a straight line,” Lea said.

“Ours wasn’t,” Shelly said.

When the Rietmanns began the process, Ola was not even born.

“I told Gregg I wanted to do this,” Shelly said. “It took him a little while. I was 43 and if we were going to do this we needed to do it now before we got too old, so he jumped on board.”

The family became excited about the prospect of a daughter and little sister. The process didn’t happen overnight, the Rietmann adoption took more than two years.

“It was a timing thing,” Shelly said. “We had really serious talks with the boys. We talked about worse case and best case scenarios.”

There were times in during the two years when Shelly questioned whether they were doing the right thing.

If they had given up they wouldn’t have Ola today. There was a lot of heartache and it takes a lot of patience to adopt, Shelly said.

When Ola first met her new parents she was shy. Ola’s trust took time to build.

“She is a different baby than the one we picked,” Gregg said.

“She has gone from totally terrified to a little ham,” Shelly added. “She has become a part of the family so easily.”

Both girls have turned into “Daddy Girls,” the mothers said. Both love to go out on the farm with their fathers.

“Lea and I had these big plans – theater, shows, musicals, shopping,” Shelly said. “I’ll be going to the theater by myself and Ola will be on the farm with her dad.”

Both girls have settled in well. Ola adores her brothers. She cries when they catch the bus each morning.

Babali was home in Ione for a week when the family attended a local baseball game.

“We read all the books, you can’t bombard these kids,” Lea said. “She shows up laughing and hugging on Joel. We went to the snack shack.”

“She says ‘do you have tea?'” Shelly said. “The girl in the snack shack went home and got her a tea bag. The snack shack now has tea.”

When Babali came home and told her parents they needed another baby girl, her parents convinced her there were many advantages to being the “only princess” in the family.

Babali loves to shop with her mother, loves jewelry, loves to shop, Lea said.

“It was ordained,” Lea said. “It didn’t take her long to become Americanized.”

“Gregg doesn’t quite understand why Ola needs a wardrobe and 20 pairs of shoes,” Shelly said. “I’m having so much fun. One thing with Ola is doing all the firsts. She’d never seen snow, never seen grass.”

When Babali turns 16 she and her mother plan to return to India to volunteer in the orphanage where she spent the first of her life.

There were adjustments at first, both families said.

“The first week home Oskar did something and Babali said ‘I hate Oskar,” Joel said. “But she emulates Oskar and copies Oskar.”

Ola was insecure at first and demanded a lot of time and attention, and she will still throw a fit if Tanner of Evan climb on their parents laps, but within weeks both girls were like any other sibling.

Both families have plans for their daughters’ first Thanksgiving.

Ola will be christened on Thanksgiving Day. The family is meeting Shelly’s sisters at a cabin they have in the mountains for the event.

“I will do the christening to welcome this person to our family, to reaffirm our family,” Shelly said.

“We are having Thanksgiving at home with Joel’s family,” Lea said. “We will go to church the night before. Very low key. Before Babali came every family prayer ended with ‘and bless Babali.’ Now they end with ‘and bless us all.’ “

Interested in adoption?

Joel and Lea Mathieu-Peterson and Gregg and Shelly Rietmann both received their daughters through adoption. Both families used Holt International as their adoption agency and traveled overseas to receive their children.

Despite the red tape involved, both women are willing to help anyone interested in adoption. The total cost of adopting for the Peterson family was $20,000, which included travel expenses.

“Adoption isn’t easy,” Lea said. “If we can encourage even one family, it is so worth it. We want to be advocates for adoption.”

Anyone wanting more information can call Shelly Rietmann at 422-7243 or Lea Mathieu at 422-7215. The Holt international Web site address is www.holtintl.org.

“If you really want to do this there is a way,” Shelly said.