Wooster family reflects on international adoption and the lifelong gift of belonging

Jackie Kunkler of Wooster remembers the moment she first held her son Derek in her arms.

“We started the process to adopt Derek from Kazakhstan in July 1998, and he was adopted Dec. 8, 1998," she said. "I still remember the moment he became ours. On our journey back to the hotel from the orphanage, he would snuggle into my neck. He was content.”

Derek was 5 months old when he was adopted and is now 26 and glad he was adopted.

"For me, being adopted has always been a blessing, and I’ve always felt so grateful for my family," he said.

Jackie Kunkler and her husband Mike began their adoption journey the way many adoptive parents do — struggling with infertility. During those struggles Jackie happened upon an article in a local newspaper about adoption. The article struck a chord with her, and she reached out to the author, who provided her with information on a local international adoption agency.

“I researched fostering and adoption," Jackie Kunkler said. "If we stayed with the fertility specialist, our chance of having a baby was about 20% or less. We felt after the research we did that adoption would assure us we would have a child.”

Once the decision was made to adopt, the question was where to adopt from. After more research and a suggestion by a case worker, they landed on Kazakhstan, located in Central Asia, which at the time was a newly liberated former Soviet bloc country, having achieved independence in 1991. Just a few months after their paperwork was complete, they traveled to Kazakhstan to meet and adopt Derek.

Derek has always known he was adopted, something the Kunklers were advised to be open and honest with him about. This approach seems to have been successful, as Derek also is open and honest with others about his adoption.

"People often ask where I am from, how old was I when I was adopted, do I know my 'real family,' et cetera," Derek said. "It’s pretty cool to explain my story when people ask about it.”

One of the ironies of the Kunklers' adoption story is that after years of struggling with infertility, when Derek was 5, Jackie became pregnant with their daughter Alicia, and then their daughter Lauren came along just a few years later.

“Derek is very protective of his sisters, and they all have a close bond," Jackie Kunkler said. "Their love for each other is unbreakable.”

The Kunklers are proud of the young man Derek has become. But perhaps Derek says it best.

“There’s nothing more special than to know there are people that want you in their life," Derek said. "God worked in mysterious ways to put me in the right family. There’s never been a day that my parents have ever let me feel anything different. Even when I was a kid, my parents encouraged me to be proud of being adopted because it was something special and unique.”

Editor's note: November is National Adoption Awareness Month.