e call our children our ArkAngels. Many of us who adopted from Arkhangel’sk (translated: Archangel), Russia feel that way about the children there, that they are all Angels from Ark.

In fact, I couldn’t forget the children my husband Michael and I met in the orphanage when we adopted Nicholas and Elena in April of 2003. To be so little, and to have so little hope, it’s just haunting.

Children like Nadyia. She and our daughter Elena had a lot in common. Elena’s brown and white vest was frayed at the edges. Her diaper, really just a thin old baby blanket tied between her legs, sagged with the weight of cold urine. Nadyia’s dress, once dark blue with pink and green flowers, was faded and threadbare. Her thick knit tights bunched at the knees.

The two girls shared similar beginnings: both born in a Soviet era hospital in Arkhangel’sk, Russia in 2001, both abandoned by their mothers and living in the city orphanage. But their futures likely will be vastly different. That’s because my husband Michael and I adopted Elena and her twin brother Nicholas, while Nadyia remains in state care and probably will be for the rest of her life.

Children like Elena and Nicholas are the lucky ones. Most orphans will never find homes and will eventually be released to the streets. Once on their own, the odds are not good - please see Russia and Its Children for statistics.

Thus was born ArkAngels for Russian Orphans and www.arkangels.org, a charity founded to raise money for the children left behind in orphanages in Arkhangel’sk and elsewhere. All of the money raised here, through direct donations and sales, will be donated to help make the lives of these children better. Everyone who helped with this project – Web Developer & Graphic Artist Rita Binns, cookbook Celebrity Coordinator Jane Waldman, Board Members Suzanne Gausman, Kelly Lange and Amy Seganish, and I – have donated our time to make this happen, and to guarantee that every possible penny goes directly to the kids.

ArkAngels for Russian Orphans is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization (Tax ID# 20-8282131)incorporated in the state of Virginia.

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Contacts:

For all inquiries, please email arkangels@arkangels.org.
For any website technical issues, please email webmaster@arkangels.org.
Thank you.