Topeka ? A little over three years ago, Sophie and Gary Hisle had all but given up on having a child of their own.

Fertility treatments had failed, and being approved for adoption in Kansas seemed unlikely because of their ages — Sophie is 40; Gary, 70.

Then the Richland couple read an essay that appeared in a Kansas newspaper on Aug. 14, 2005.

The essay, written by Washburn University political science professor Bob Beatty, described the process he and his wife, Stacey, had gone through to adopt a little girl from China.

Sophie didn’t waste any time in calling the Beattys to find out more about adopting a child from China.

“Within three weeks, we were approved and the paperwork had begun,” she said.

The Hisles adopted their daughter, 8-month-old Zia, through Great Wall China Adoption, the same Austin, Texas-based nonprofit international adoption agency used by the Beattys to bring home their daughter Laura, now 4.

Stacey Beatty now serves as the Kansas regional office director for Great Wall China Adoption. Since the agency’s founding in 1996, it has facilitated more than 7,000 adoptions from China, including 110 children who have come to homes in Kansas.

About 95 percent of the children available for adoption in China are female. The government restricts parents to having one child.

Male children are preferred because they carry on the family name, are more suitable for farming and are expected to care for their elders when they are older. Parents may abandon a daughter in order to try to have a boy.

The Hisles met with a Great Wall China Adoption representative on Sept. 24, 2005, and the next day signed and sent in an adoption contract.

The couple’s dossier was mailed to China on Dec. 30, 2005, and logged in with the China Center of Adoption Affairs on Jan. 23, 2006. A nursery was already being decorated in their home, and they chose their daughter’s name, Zia Joy.

Stacey Beatty said the one downside to adopting a child from China is the wait between filing paperwork and the granting of adoption. The average wait is about 2 1/2 years.

But at 2:14 p.m. July 7, the couple received a phone call from Beth Reeves, of Great Wall China Adoption, telling them a little girl, born Dec. 26, 2007, in Hunan Province and living at the Chenzhou Social Welfare Institute, was waiting for them.

The Hisles boarded a plane on Sept. 8 to go to Changsha in Hunan Province — their first trip to Asia. They were to pick up Zia on Sept. 11 at the Hunan Civil Affairs office in Chenzhou.

The Hisles were among 10 couples who were at the Chenzhou office to claim their adopted children. Eighteen other couples went to another town to pick up their children.

The Hisles stayed in Changsha for 10 days to complete paperwork and learn more about the Chinese culture and attractions. They then flew to Guangzhou, where they completed paperwork at the U.S. consulate and took an oath to never abandon Zia.

The Hisles and Zia arrived back in the United States on Sept. 25 — exactly three years after they had signed the initial contract to adopt a child from China. Zia became a U.S. citizen the minute the family stepped back onto American soil.