To adopt
AGCI can be contacted at its Portland office
by calling (503) 282-7652 or by fax at (503) 282-2582.
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If, on Saturday afternoon at Woodland Mound Park, you had seen the laughing little girl with the painted heart on her cheek, cookie in her hand, you would have had no hint of what she left 5,000 miles behind her.
Loneliness. Pain. The emptiness of no parent to hold you when you're sick, comfort you when you're scared.
Anne Marie Hoopes, 3 1/2, will never have to know that.
She is, most likely, too young to remember the earliest days of her life in an orphanage in her native Bulgaria, facing the prospect of growing up alone.
Kathy Hoopes, a retail executive from Hyde Park, reached across those 5,000 miles a year ago and made sure Anne Marie would never be alone, bringing the little girl into her home and her heart.
She did it through an international adoption and orphanage relief agency called All God's Children International (AGCI). On Saturday, she and her daughter were among the 200 or so children, parents and grandparents enjoying the group's second annual picnic at Woodland Mound.
''The day she came home to me was the most wonderful day of my life,'' said Ms. Hoopes, a single parent. ''There have been a lot of wonderful days since then.''
AGCI, based in Portland, Ore., was started seven years ago by Ron Beazley and his daughter Hannah, who, at the age of 18, had traveled to eastern Europe and personally arranged the adoption of a Romanian girl for her parents.
The Beazleys' adoption of a child from a country just recently freed from the Soviet bloc attracted national media attention and started the Beazleys on a crusade to help others adopt children.
Mr. Beazley said the agency has arranged about 200 adoptions of children from Romania, Bulgaria, and, in recent months, from Hungary and China.
''Outside of Oregon, Cincinnati is the area where we have been the most active,'' Mr. Beazley said. At least a dozen families here have adopted through AGCI, he said.
Saturday, families from Pennsylvania, Ontario, Michigan and other locales east of the Mississippi River joined the Cincinnati families at the Anderson Township picnic.
Tim and Kay Jabin of Anderson Township were among the parents feasting on hamburgers and hot dogs at the park shelter. Two-and-a-half years ago, they adopted Vanya, from a Bulgarian orphanage.
Mr. Jabin said that after he and his wife contacted AGCI, they were put in touch with Steve and Laura Curran of Mount Washington, the first Cincinnati area couple to adopt through the agency.
The Currans helped the Jabins through the process. The Currans have twin daughters from Bulgaria, 6-year-old Hope and Leah.
Mr. Jabin, a lawyer, said he and his wife had one child of their own and wanted to adopt another.
Vanya, now 5, ''made the transition easily,'' Mr. Jabin said. Next month, she will go to kindergarten.
''She's still a little weak on her language skills, but that will come,'' Mr. Jabin said. ''She has been a joy to us. She is a joy.''
Mr. Beazley said AGCI is more than an adoption agency - it raises money for food and medical relief in countries where it arranges adoptions.
Mr. Curran, a dentist, travels to Bulgaria twice a year on behalf of AGCI to provide free dental treatment in the orphanages.
''We have gotten so much,'' he said, ''we feel like we need to give something back.''
