It took a trip around the world to complete Tina Malone’s
family. The single mother of three teens added a toddler to the
family this summer
– a small, young girl with wispy, light brown hair and bright
eyes born in Russia nearly three years ago.
Gilroy – It took a trip around the world to complete Tina Malone’s family. The single mother of three teens added a toddler to the family this summer – a small, young girl with wispy, light brown hair and bright eyes born in Russia nearly three years ago.
The little girl romping around the Malone house, chasing around the family’s small Yorkshire terrier, Stuart, and splashing in her pink bathing suit in her tiny kiddie pool in the backyard, is indistinguishable from the baby Tina fist met in January. Natalia spent her days in an orphanage, wrapped in four layers of clothing while sitting in a playpen with three other toddlers for most of the day, eating only broth with mashed vegetables at meal times.
Though Natalia’s doctors here in the United States have assessed her as developmentally the age of a 1-year-old, Tina isn’t phased – but she knows she has a lot of work ahead of her to help little Natalia catch up to her peers.
“Everyday something is a little better,” Tina said. “She’s learning something new.”
For Tina, the completion of her international adoption on May 22 brought her full circle with her own childhood. Tina’s parents Robert and Jean Kull sat her and her younger brother, David, down for a talk when they were 10 and 9, revealing that the two were adopted.
Tina knew that someday she wanted to give another child the same gift she received from her adoptive parents – a family. But as a mother of three, Jordan, 18, Adam, 15, and Gigi’s, 13, and after 15 years of marriage, she hesitated over the cost of adoption to her family both financially and emotionally.
“They were all really positive and I was surprised because I anticipated some possible negative questions,” Tina said, when she first broached the subject of adding a new member to the family through adoption.
She came back to them with the idea often, trying to discern how comfortable they really were with the idea for more than six months.
“I kept telling them this is really going to change their lives,” Tina said. “Are you really sure you can do this?”
All three of the kids assured Tina they wanted to move forward.
“Because I’m adopted and my brother is adopted, it’s a word they live with,” Tina said. “They see David is 100 percent my brother. I love him and they love him.”
Tina started the search for children overseas after looking at the Fost-Adopt program through Santa Clara County. She realized she didn’t want to take the risk of her family growing attached to a child and then having the child returned to biological parents.
“I wanted something permanent, where what is done is done,” Tina said.
“But I never intended to go that far away,” she added, of finding Natalia in Russia.
Tina combed RainbowKids.com, a site that lists children from around the world available for adoption from dozens of agencies for hours each day, sifting through Asian babies with cleft palates, Down Syndrome children from Eastern Europe and plenty of healthy children of all ages from around the world with parents who are unable to care for them.
“We saw a profile of her and as soon as we saw her that was it,” Tina said. “Then we found out she was in Russia.”
“She looked most like our family,” Gigi said, remembering when she saw a photograph for the first time.
Tina contacted Life Adoption Services, Inc., an agency located in Tustin, to find out more about Natalia. Tina received discounted fees for her adoption because she is a single parent and Natalia is considered a special needs child. She has an extra finger that will require surgery when she is older.
Still, Tina had to dip into her savings to cover the $16,000 in adoption fees. She paid extra for her two trips to Russia, as well as help from translators and drivers while in the Eastern European country.
“It will impact us somewhat over the next few years,” Tina said. “But … it’s something we discussed ahead of time.”
When Tina remembers her life as an adopted child, she hopes Natalia and her children will form the same close bond she had with her family.
“My mother said we were so special because we were chosen,” Tina said.
