Becoming a
b y S t e phani e D e ti l l i e r
Dawn and Gary Felger adopted four children from Ukraine and quickly grew into a close-knit farming family.
photos by angelique hunter
S
ome moms would have been angry. Others would have been worried. But when Dawn Felger saw her children crying and holding their brother Samuel at the back door, she took a minute to savor the moment and felt relieved that the three older kids had rallied together to care for their younger sibling. When her four kids had darted out of the door earlier on that blustery day in winter 2004, Dawn had known where they were headed. The family’s Fort Wayne, Ind., property had a spot that was prone to flooding and often froze into an ice sheet when the temperature shivered below zero. The kids enjoyed pounding away at the ice, but that day 3-year-old Samuel broke through. Next thing Dawn knew, the whole bunch was standing at the back door. Joshua was carrying the sopping wet Samuel. Hannah and Luke stood next to them in support. “They were all taking care of Sam and at the same time making sure Mom wasn’t mad,” Dawn recalls. “It was such a neat moment, especially considering that it happened only five or six months after Sam had been home in the United States.” Dawn and her husband, Gary, adopted all four of their children from Ukraine: two in 2002 and two more in 2004. Hannah, 17; Joshua, 16; Luke, 11; and Samuel, 10, spent the first few years of their lives in orphanages. The Russian- and Ukrainian-speaking kids initially struggled to understand their English-speaking parents and American culture. But it didn’t take long for them to become tight-knit siblings who enjoy eating together as a family and exploring their nearly 100-acre farm in Lohman, where the Felgers moved three years ago.
Choosing adoption When Dawn learned she wouldn’t be able to have biological children of her own, she and Gary didn’t automatically turn to adoption. For several months, they stayed in a holding pattern, waiting for the right moment. They wanted kids but not until they were at a point when they viewed adoption as something they truly wanted rather than as a secondary choice. columbiahomemagazine.com | 51