Medical Lake's Dingfields dish out second chances

When Audry and Jim Dingfield decided to step into the world of adoption, their mission seemed simple.

To give some deserving children from across the globe a fresh start in the land of opportunity.

Little did they know that along the way, some of the boys they brought into their lives would pay it back and help put their new hometown in the history books.

Just this past Saturday Micah and Jacob Dingfield helped lead Medical Lake's cross country team to its second consecutive 1A state championship.

But a dozen years ago, the athletic limelight was the furthest thing from the Dingfield's minds. After visiting orphanages in Romania on several occasions while doing work for their church, a seed was planted.

Jim and Audry met in the spring of 1973 and married in January 1976. They had three daughters within the first three years of marriage: Jody was born in 1976, Melissa in 1978 and Stacy in 1979.

"The girls were delightful and the years passed all too quickly," Audry said. With the girls all away at out-of-state colleges. "The empty nest years found us living in a bit of a rut: go to work, come home, eat ice cream, go to work, come home, eat ice cream."

Audry Dingfield, who was working as a church secretary at the time, was speaking with the associate pastor's wife who told her they were looking at adopting a child from India.

"They had pictures of several boys, but didn't know which one to get," Jim Dingfield said. In an effort to help the couple decide, the Dingfields went to lunch and came away convinced to adopt on their own.

They adopted 6-year-old Nathan from Bangalore, India on Valentine's Day in 2002.

"I was resistant, at first, then the girls came home, and said 'Yes, we would like a little brother,'" Jim Dingfield said. "I joke about getting ganged up on."

But one little brother was just the beginning.

After Nathan had settled into his new surroundings in Spokane, the same couple that encouraged the Dingfields to adopt in the beginning were considering another adoption, this time from Ethiopia.

"We got the bug, again," Jim Dingfield said. They reasoned it would be helpful to have a younger brother for Nathan.

A video arrived that described a number of different prospective candidates.

"There was a little boy named Sammy on this video and that kid looks like he has mischief in him," Jim Dingfield said to himself. "I think he'd fit in the family."

They sent away for paperwork but when it arrived it did not match what was on the video, Jim Dingfield said.

"A few weeks later another video came and it had two Sammys on it and one of them matched the paperwork," Jim Dingfield said. "OK, how do we decide. Let's go for both of them."

They went to Ethiopia in December, 2004 to pick up the new editions, opting to stay in the East African country for about two weeks as opposed to just a few days in India with Nathan's adoption.

"The difference is, when you adopt from India, they've already done all the paperwork, had medical exams done at the U.S. Embassy and all other requirements," Jim Dingfield said. "In Ethiopia we actually walked the boys through that process."

Jacob Samuel and Micah Samuel Dingfield, each 7-years-old, arrived in Spokane on Christmas Eve, 2004, knowing absolutely no English and having never been in cold weather before.

Nor had they seen much modern technology, either.

"They made burritos in the microwave one time and I thought they came from the microwave," Micah Dingfield said of his parents. "I said, that's cool, let me just press this button and burritos would show up."

The Dingfields were both raised in the Puget Sound area. Jim, a mechanical engineer, graduated from Puyallup High and Bellevue Community College. Audry was in the first graduating class at Juanita High in Kirkland Wash. in 1973. They moved to Spokane in 1997.

"We met at church," after his family moved to the Kirkland area, Jim said.

They were both in their 40s when they took their leap of faith to pluck two youngsters out of Third World uncertainty and poverty. That gesture is not lost on Jacob Dingfield.

"I have to give them a lot of props at the age they are at, after going through kids," Jacob said. "The fact that they wanted to go out and adopt is a pretty big character trait."

Audry Dingfield spent the early years home schooling the new additions, and out of all her efforts, perhaps her best work came teaching the boys to speak English.

Both Micah, now 17 and a senior in high school, and Jacob, a junior, speak clearly and without any accent. As for their native tongue, Micah said he knew "A couple of words here and there, hopefully I might pick it up if I go back."

In general, all Micah Dingfield knew was he came from a small village.

Jacob Dingfield, however, remembered, "It was harder, the poverty level was way different," Jacob said.

Later, as they went from being home schooled and into middle school, Micah and Jacob both embraced athletics of all kinds including soccer, wrestling and football.

But it was cross country that won out, and that was largely because of the coach, Gene Blankenship.

"He's crazy-good at it," Micah Dingfield said of Blankenship. "You don't realize it at first and he starts getting into your head, he makes you believe in yourself."

"His coaching makes it so that cross country is actually fun," Jacob said. "Gene's brought the talent out of Medical Lake."

Collegiate running is likely in Micah Dingfield's future while running for fun and the military - possibly even application to the U.S. Air Force Academy - is on Jacob's radar.

Like all families, nothing ever runs without a hitch or a hiccup and the Dingfield clan, which also includes 11 grandchildren, are no exception.

"Would I do this again knowing what I know now?" Audry Dingfield said. "In a heartbeat," and "Would we trade where we're at now, no," Jim Dingfield added.

Blankenship need not take that as getting what he wished for when he jokingly asked the Dingfields to consider adopting just two more boys from Ethiopia. "They're not having any of it," he said.

"Much to coach Gene's disappointment, our adopting years have ended," Audry confirmed.

Paul Delaney can be reached at [email protected].