Advertisement Neighbor criticizes couple for 'importing' special needs kids from China Adoption controversy brews in Arlington Share Shares Copy Link Copy

Some might applaud an Arlington couple's decision to adopt two special needs girls from China, but one neighbor accused them of putting an unnecessary financial burden on the town and its school system.Mary is 11 months old and has a brain disorder. Meili, 2 years old, has congenital heart disease. Just a few weeks ago, Nicole and Dan O'Connell and their four girls found out the two Chinese girls from Henan will join their family.They can afford the $40,000 it will cost, but thought they would look for help to ease the burden, so they launched a website two days ago.Most respondents offered encouragement and even donations. But Mark Kaepplein, who lives across town, accused them of burdening the town with their elective choice to adopt kids from China with special needs."It was very disheartening. It was very disheartening. I, particularly, take offense to the comment of 'importing special needs children from China.' I thought that was very heartless," Nicole O'Connell said.Dan O'Connell said they are unlikely to need any special services since they've never used the school system."Why I was surprised was all the assumptions he made that were off-base," he said. "Just the fact that we home-school our children saves our town thousands of thousands of dollars a year."They said their decision was not made lightly. They always knew they would adopt. Dan O'Connell has been traveling to China for 13 years for business. Nicole O'Connell used to work with special needs children.The two girls, now on the other side of the world, already have been incorporated into their family.Kaepplein refused an on camera interview, but he did speak to NewsCenter 5 in person. He said he has no problems with the O'Connell's decision to adopt from China now that he knows they won't be a major financial burden on their neighbors.He said if he had had all the information up front, he would have never posted his concerns.