Lia Jones was adopted from China at four years old and will soon graduate from Decatur High School in the top 10 percent of her class. AUSTIN JACKSON | WCMESSENGER
Nearly 14 years ago, Suzette and David Jones returned home to Decatur with the newest member of their family.
After an 18 month process and 13 hour flight home from China, the couple had officially adopted Lia Feith. Now, Lia is preparing to walk to the stage as she graduates from Decatur High School.
“I’ve loved it here,” Lia said. “I have supportive family and friends, and everything I do, they’ve always pushed me to be my best. I like the small-knit community that I’ve grown up with since pre-K, and it’s kind of crazy that we’re all graduating now.”
At 18 months old, Lia’s parents abandoned her at a hospital in China as they could not afford to care for her. She suffered from tricuspid atresia, a heart defect that blocks blood flow from the right atrium to the right ventricle.
At four years old, Lia was adopted by the Jones family who welcomed her with open arms as soon as she arrived in Dallas. But it was not an easy journey once they touched down at DFW airport.
“She came home in 2010 and she pretty much immediately went into her open heart surgery,” Suzette said. “She had her first open heart surgery in China and then had her next open heart surgery here. And when we came home, she was just four and a half years old. But kids seem to bounce back quicker than some of us would.”
After the surgery, which kept Lia in the hospital for 17 days, she started pre-K at Carson Elementary School in Decatur.
“In the very beginning, there was a language barrier,” Suzette said. “When she came home, she didn’t even speak a lot of Chinese because she was in an orphanage and I think they just kept her very confined. So there was a big language barrier, but by the time she started pre-K and after she’d gone through school for a year, it was fine.”
Fast forward 14 years, Lia has become a leader in her community and will graduate in the top 10 percent of her class.
She will attend the University of Arkansas and major in biology with the ultimate goal of becoming a pediatric cardiologist.
While Lia has not had a surgery since she was young, her heart condition still influences her life. Her decision to go to Arkansas was in part determined by its proximity to a heart hospital and the availability of an adult congenital heart defect doctor. Additionally, her journey has inspired her to become a doctor herself.
“Since I grew up with a congenital heart defect, I got really interested in the medical field,” Lia said. “In the last several years, I’ve gotten involved in Cook Children’s, I’ve been in the health science course at the high school, and I got my CCMA. Right now I’m taking a pharmacology technician class, and I want to be able to use that when I go to college.”
Lia is the youngest in her family of five and has been surrounded by support from the moment she touched down in DFW.
“She’s had a whole community support,” Suzette said. “People always talked about, you’re going to come into a small town and it’s going to be very prejudiced and all that kind of thing, but people have just been amazing. They’ve been so supportive of her journey through school, but she’s very driven too and has always been a hard worker.”
The senior class president at Decatur, Lia has never shied away from getting involved. Throughout high school, she has been involved with the golf team, Cook Children’s Youth Advisory Council-Patients Advising for Change (YAC-PAC), HOSA, an organization for future health professionals, and more.
“She’s been very successful, and we’re very proud of her and all her accomplishments,” Suzette said. “She has not let the limitations that she’s had hold her back. A lot of kids use excuses and she hasn’t let some of her health conditions limit her success. She’s pushed beyond it and keeps going.”
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