As we are celebrating 15 years of helping families bring their children home, we will be revisiting some of these ordinary families who took this exceptional step and gave a child a family. With this new twice-monthly column, we will share stories and photos of those children who were previously advocated for and are now home. Feel free to share our Rainbow Reports on social media!
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Jade Calkins glanced around the Ukrainian courtroom. There was the judge, baby house director, Calkins’ adoption facilitator, a transcriber and two witnesses. |
Calkins grew up without knowing her biological father, constantly curious over that missing portion of her heritage. She didn’t want that blankness for her newest daughter. |
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All normal for the adoption hearing of Natalie, a beautiful toddler with Down Syndrome. The hearing went as expected, with the judge declaring Jade and her husband Michael as Natalie’s adoptive parents. They were now officially a family of nine: seven kids from teenagers down to Natalie, then 20 months.
But as she left the courtroom, she noticed a couple seemingly waiting for her. Calkins knew no one in Ukraine. Who were these people?
That’s when the baby house director introduced the man and woman: Natalie’s biological parents. And they wanted a word before Calkins took Natalie back to Michigan forever.
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Gulp. She had initially told the director that she was open to a relationship with the biological family, and now here they were. Would they be angry at her? Violent? Bitter?
Thankfully, the couple hadn’t come to stop the adoption.
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Instead, they wanted to share their story. Natalie — “Yvette” on Reece’s Rainbow —was their only child, and they had learned of her extra 21st chromosome late in the pregnancy.
“They were heartbroken over the situation and didn’t feel they could raise her,” Calkins says. “So they were really excited that she was being adopted. They love her just as much as a parent has loved their kid anywhere.”
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Calkins grew up without knowing her biological father, constantly curious over that missing portion of her heritage. She didn’t want that blankness for her newest daughter.
So she said yes.
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“Natalie never has to wonder; she will always know who they are and that they love her,” Calkins says. “And that’s important to me.”
Calkins flew home with Natalie in February 2021. Since then, she speaks with Natalie’s first parents at least weekly, without a translator. “They’re working on their English, and I’m working on my Russian,” she says.
The relationship was immediately fruitful: the couple shared an ultrasound photo with Calkins, as well as the correct time Natalie was born. They sent gifts for her first birthday. They’ve supplied medical history Calkins would never have had access to otherwise.
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“It’s the most important thing she could have, this relationship with them, even if it’s not in the way it could have worked out,” Calkins says. “It would kill me if I couldn’t give her that.”
It’s an unusual situation amidst an already-unusual decision to adopt a child with special needs, Calkins knows. But that’s been par for the course for the nursing student.
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Inspired by adoptive and foster families at her church as a teen, she long knew she wanted to adopt. She made it clear early in her relationship with Michael. But what truly morphed that desire into action was Luna, their daughter with Edwards Syndrome who died in utero.
“When you’re faced with a genetic syndrome, you pray it’s Down Syndrome,” Calkins explains.
She had already followed Reece’s Rainbow for some time when she saw Natalie’s photo on the site. She couldn’t stop thinking about her. Approximately six weeks later — in the middle of “the worst financial year we had ever had,” she laughs — she and Michael committed to adopting Natalie.
Today, Natalie is two, mischievous and mocking her siblings at every turn. Life has been hectic Calkins says: Natalie’s tonsils and adenoids removed, multiple sleep studies, learning to crawl, chattering in Russian and English, gaining weight and luster.
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“I would do it all over again to be with her.” |
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As she cuddles with her new mother, Calkins thinks of Natalie’s first mother. It’s bittersweet, this knowing that while she is missing Luna, another woman is missing Natalie.
And yet both women are ultimately grateful — and the link is Natalie.
“Adopting Natalie was the best decision I’ve ever made in my life,” Calkins says. “I would do it a million times over — go through all the crazy heartache a million times over.”
“I would do it all over again to be with her.”
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Crystal Kupper is a freelance writer specializing in magazines and special projects. Since earning her journalism degree, she has written for clients such as Zondervan, Focus on the Family and the Salvation Army, among many others. |
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REECE'S RAINBOW | www.reecesrainbow.org |
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