Adoptive Parents: SARS Didn't Deter Us

Despite a federal warning urging Americans to avoid travel to China because of the SARS outbreak, a Salt Lake City, Utah, family recently returned from there bringing home their new adopted daughter, Hannah Rose.

Amid the excitement of meeting their little bundle of joy came the concern over contracting the deadly virus. But now that they are back, the family told The Early Show co-anchor Julie Chen their trip was a normal one.

Chen had spoken to Michelle and Michael-Paul Haag and their son Reily before they left for China. On Tueday, Chen found out that the SARS threat did shorten their stay.

If it were not for SARS, Michael-Paul Haag said, he would have loved to stay a month.

"We were wearing masks and had surgical hand cleaner that we used all the time," he said. "But once we got into China we didn't see as many people as we thought wearing masks. It eased us quite a bit. It became a little bit more relaxed."

Getting their new baby kept then occupied, Michelle Haag said. "After 20 months of waiting, it was a very fulfilling feeling," she said. "Finally, the circle was complete."

Now 10 months old, Hannah Rose looks a lot bigger and healthier than her parents had been led to expect from pictures.

And their 5 -year-old son, Reily, told Chen, "I like being a big brother."

Overall the couple said the trip was wonderful. "We were just precautious and had an absolutely wonderful trip," Michael-Paul Haag said. The Haags cut several weeks of touring in China off of their trip. They spent 10 days there for the adoption.

The couple found out they could adopt Hannah Rose on Feb. 21 of this year and have since gotten her pictures and medical report, Michelle Haag said in an earlier interview.

"She was found in the doorway of a shop the morning she was born in a marketplace in an area called Guang Chang, China. And she was taken that day to the orphanage, and immediately she was healthy, and she was immediately placed in foster care and she's been in foster care for the last nine months," Michelle Haag explained.

The family says the trip is very exciting. "I think I'm past the nervous stage," said Michelle Haag.