Duo (center), adopted by the Raney family in Portland, Oregon, plays with his new siblings. Photos Provided to China Daily

Jack arrived in the United States in the summer with one wish — and in late July, as he celebrated his 10th birthday surrounded by the Johnson family of Garland, Texas, he knew it had been granted. He’d found a new home.

The Johnsons met Jack through Great Wall China Adoption (GWCA), an agency in Austin, Texas, that has run hosting programs in the U.S. for Chinese orphans with special needs aged 5 to 12 for the past three years. Thirty children took part this summer, with most placed in the Lone Star State.

"We have a success rate of 75 to 80 percent," said the agency’s director, Shannon Phillips. "With each program, we learn more on how to get people interested in hosting and how to find the right family for each child."

Jill Johnson, an elementary school teacher, who has four boys aged 16 to 22 with her software engineer husband, Thomas, said she came across the GWCA program in February.

"We’ve wanted to adopt an orphan for a very long time because we have a heart for them," she said. "When I saw Jack’s profile, I just knew this was a boy we could bring into our home. There is something about him that says to me, ‘This is your son.’"

Even though Jack is not yet officially a member of the Johnson family, she said she has started to plan his future. "I want to keep his cultural heritage alive," she said. "We’ll get him in a class to continue to learn Mandarin. We’ll figure out … what his passion is, where he is going to excel most, and encourage him in that."

Some families volunteer to host a child to help increase his or her chances of adoption, like Michelle Morell, a physical therapist in Allen, Texas, who welcomed Jay, a 13-year-old with a mild liver condition. With her husband, Scott, she has five adopted children aged 7 to 14, three from the U.S. and two from China. The couple is also adopting another Chinese boy, a 3-year-old with a colon malformation.

"Last summer we thought, 'Our family is done, but how can we help more?' We found out about this program and figured we could help other kids to find families," said Morell. Last summer, they hosted 6-year-old Teddy, who has cerebral palsy, and set up a website to share his story.