Mazel Toy!

Caitlyn and Amanda

CARI WALDMAN
Special to the Jewish News

I

t takes a mouse call, not a
house call, to see the daily
doings of this Farmington
Hills family.
Online 24 hours per day, you can
catch Amanda eating Cheerios or
Caitlyn getting ready for a nap. As a
21st-century diary, two Web sites for
these biological sisters tell a remark-
able story of four people who went
through a lot to become a family.
Since 2-year-old Amanda arrived a
year and a half ago from Guatemala,
her parents, Keith Kingston, a CPA,
and Linda Kingston, a physical ther-
apist who is currently staying home
as a full-time mom, have been busy
capturing milestones with their digi-
tal camera.
Updating the Web site they creat-
ed for Amanda —
ssrlk.com/miracle.html — "has
been a hobby and wonderful way to
show off our cherished daughter,"
they say. Keith takes charge of the
layout, Linda works on adding the
poems and writing the scripts.
Amanda was born April 16, 1998
in Guatemala as Marisol, which
means "sunflower" in Spanish. While
Amanda was in a private foster

The
Kingstons'
growing
family is
only as far
away as your
computer.

home, Keith and Linda traveled to
Guatemala to meet her when she was
5 months old.
"Having the chance to experience
her heritage, visit a nearby Orthodox
synagogue and to see the hospital
where she was born was an incredi-
ble experience," Linda says. "We
brought back children's stories writ-
ten in Spanish, and plan to educate
the girls about the history of the
country, giving them everything they
would need to know to live in
Guatemala."
A month later, they returned to
Guatemala to bring their daughter
home. Named Rachel Leah in
Hebrew, Amanda is named in mem-
ory of Linda's grandmother, Rachel
Smith, and Keith's great-grandmoth-
er, Lena Beckerman, both formerly
of Oak Park.
Eight months later, Linda got a
call from the director of Amor, the
adoption agency in Guatemala.
Amanda's mother had given birth to
another child, and asked if the
Kingstons would keep the children
together.
"It's a girl!" is how Linda shared
the surprise news with Keith.
Amanda's sister was born as Julia on
June 9, 1999. When the baby was
five and a half months old, Linda
traveled to meet her at the
Hogar, a small private orphan-
age where she was raised.
Last Feb. 11, Keith and
Linda brought eight-month-
old Caitlyn Faith Julia home.
She is named Hannah Samara
in Hebrew, in memory of her
paternal great-grandmother,
Honey Magid, a former
Detroiter, and her maternal
great-grandfather, Samuel
Smith.
If you go to
ssrlk.com/caitlyn.html, you
can sign in Caitlyn's guest
book, see her adoption
announcement, and glimpse
her angelic brown eyes.
Caitlyn's site even has a link
to help you learn more about
Guatemala. ❑

The Kingston family