Liberal MP soon to expand adopted family

CTV.ca News Staff

A Liberal MP who adopted after serving as an aid worker in conflict-wracked Sudan six years ago will soon have two new members of his family.

Glen Pearson, elected in London last fall in a by-election, adopted Abuk in 2001.

"She enriches my life every day in a million ways," he said.

"We hold out such hope for Sudan that it will be able to find a peaceful future, and I look at Abuk and she reminds me of why I'm doing that."

The seven-year-old girl is from Darfur, where a long-running fight between the Sudanese government, their Janjaweed militia proxies and the tribes of the south has created one of the worst humanitarian crises on earth.

"Her father was Arab and her mother was Dinka, so it was a mixture of two parts of Sudan that have warred with each other," Pearson said.

"And yet I look at Abuk and see in her these two parts in her, and she's one whole person."

Sudanese officials told Pearson and his wife Jane Roy that Abuk's mother was killed in a raid, and that her brother and sister were also dead.

However, they found out two years ago that Abuk's identical twin sister and 10-year-old brother were alive.

Although the 56-year-old Pearson has four grown children from a previous marriage, he and Jane still thought they only had once choice.

"Right now I have five kids, and I have two more coming," he said.

"And the two that are coming are 10 and seven respectively, so if you think I'm bald now, just wait a few more years."

They have been waiting for the adoption process to wind its way to completion.

However, they did manage to visit with their soon-to-be-new children in Nairobi, Kenya in late January.

The hope is that the children can be returned to Canada by sometime in May.