GIVEN A CHANCE, THESE FOSTER CHILDREN BEAT ALL ODDS

Sisters were abused in Taiwan, then shuttled among caretakers in the U.S. before finding a foster mother who helped change their lives.
By Carla Rivera, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
June 14, 2008
Maggie and Rachel Lin have faced unimaginable adversity: As youngsters, the girls lost their father, who was murdered by a street gang in their native Taiwan; they suffered abuse at the hands of family members, made a harrowing journey to the U.S. and spent most of their childhood in a succession of foster homes, some where they suffered new cruelties.

Against those odds, Maggie headed off last year to Dartmouth College, and after graduating Friday from Pacific Hills School, Rachel will attend Vassar. Both have received nearly full scholarships from the schools.

Their success has been hard won. It is rare for a foster child to attend a private prep school like Pacific Hills in West Hollywood. In California, about 54% of foster children graduate from high school and only about 10% enroll in college. Fewer still are admitted to elite universities.

Yet somehow the stars aligned for Maggie, 19, and Rachel, 18, two strong-minded and resilient girls who found a foster mother who believed in them and a school that allowed them to blossom.

Growing up, neither one could have imagined this outcome.

When the girls moved in almost five years ago, Rachel was blunt: Thanks for giving me a place to stay, but I'm a renter and will always be just a tenant here, recalls the girls' foster mother, Kate Moulene.

"I didn't even bother to try to establish a relationship; I didn't even try," Rachel said.

"She was like a feral cat," Moulene said. "She trusted no one."

Moulene put locks on the windows of her Hollywood Hills home to keep the sisters from sneaking out at night. Rachel was in the habit of visiting her boyfriend in Walnut, where she had been living.

Maggie was scared but hopeful.

"Even though I deal with all of these trust issues, part of my way of coping with things is to believe that it's going to be different," she said. "I go into another home thinking, this is going to be all right."

Moulene, a former journalist and founder of a marketing firm, was a single mother of sons Cameron, 14, and Pierre, 12, and adopted daughter Anna Mei, 7, who was born in China and orphaned. The family had watched the movie "Cheaper by the Dozen" when the boys experienced an epiphany: Wouldn't it be fun to have more kids?

Moulene went to a website featuring foster children and within minutes saw a picture of Maggie and Rachel.

The two were used to getting calls, sometimes in the middle of the night, from social workers telling them to pack up to move. They were in the process of meeting another family when they were told of Moulene's interest.

After they met, Cameron confided to his mom that the only thing he wanted that Christmas was for Maggie and Rachel to move in.

The sisters paid a final visit to Moulene's home and the children huddled.

"They all talked about it and came down and said they decided to do it," Moulene said.

"She bought us online for free," jokes Rachel.

A self-described pessimist who doesn't easily make friends, Rachel is all in-your-face honesty and biting wit, which she uses like a wary fighter to keep an opponent off guard. She accuses Maggie of hiding behind a mask of pleasantry.

"Sometimes you need to put on different personas," counters Maggie. "It was required when we were moving around to different foster homes to keep sane."