We could not be more blessed
Our story stars at year ago when we (my husband and four biological kids ages 5-9) decided
that we had enough room in our hearts and home for more kids and were, in fact, desperate
to complete our wonderful family. We found Adoption Ark on the Internet while looking for a
program through which we could adopt from Hungary. My husband speaks Hungarian and we
were impressed with their adoption policies.
Eleven months later we found ourselves traveling to Hungary to meet and adopt 3 year
old Anna! The six of us went first to the orphanage where she came running to meet us
shouting "Mama! Papa!" having seen our pictures for several weeks. The orphanage was a
very impressive place. It looked like a Montessori preschool and they had done everything
possible to foster attachment. We visited her at the orphanage for a week and then traveled
to Budapest with our new daughter for 6 weeks of foster care before finalizing her adoption.
The orphanage held a tearful goodbye party for her and gave her all of her clothes and toys, CDs
and DVDs for her to listen to and watch, a daily journal they had kept of her life, and her photo
album.
The 7 of us came home and have had a great first summer together. Anna speaks English as well
as Hungarian now and is just thriving. We are so grateful to the orphanage for caring so well
for our daughter, to the country coordinator for making the trip so easy and for helping Anna
with the transition, and to Alla at Adoption Ark for guiding us through that we thought was the
impossible - a seamless adoption. We could not be more blessed. Thank you everyone!
Emily and Kenneth Mulder
Poultney, Vermont