People (March 2004)

Rosa MingLiang Chadwick-Dias is our People of the Month for March 2004. Rosa is a 6-year old girl. As other kids at this age, she is active and curious. What makes her so special is that she has lots of unusual experience in her life.

Rosa Ming's original name is Ming Liang, meaning Bright Light in Chinese. Yes, she is a Chinese girl. She was born in China on November 12, 1997 and abandoned at birth. An orphanage in Chenzhou, Hunan Province, became Rosa's first home afterwards. At the age of two months, she lost sight in one eye due to an accident in the orphanage. One would wonder why the fate is not favor to this poor girl.

Rosa's life suddenly changed when Patricia Chadwick and Stephen Dias, an American couple adopted her in May 1999. At that time, Rosa was one-and-half year old. Pat and Steve are one of the kindest and nicest people. Steve himself is a wheel-chair person and they wanted to adopt a child with disability. The decision was not surprising to their friends and families because they always devote themselves to disability community. They maintain a web site for Disability Social History Project. They also created a website for Rosa.

Rosa has been living with her loving and caring parents for almost 5 years now. She is very cute and smart. She goes to a chartered school in Eureka, California. There are several other families having adopted children from China in Eureka. She also learns Chinese from videotapes and will explore China when she grows up. Pat and Steve have decided to adopt another child with disability from the orphanage where Rosa came from.

Best Wishes to Rosa and her family!