A sweet embrace
Local woman adopts 3 children from Haiti

Evensky Kros, 8, foreground, and his sister Genese Kros,10, navigate the tires at the Rehoboth campus playground, Thursday. Evensky, Genese and sister Lily, 13, not pictured have been adopted from Haiti by Karen Kros in Rehoboth. — © 2009 Gallup Independent / Adron Gardner

Copyright © 2009
Gallup Independent
By Elizabeth Hardin-Burrola
Staff writer

REHOBOTH — In a matter of six years, one local woman’s life as a mother of three adopted children has come full circle.

In the spring of 2003, Karen Kros was a single woman, working as the food service director for Rehoboth Christian School, and longing to adopt a young daughter. On her birthday, May 17, a package arrived in the mail with photographs of children from Haiti who were eligible for adoption. When Kros inquired about adopting a girl, she was told all the children had been selected for adoption except for one little girl named Genese.

“God chose her for me,” Kros said of that fateful news. “God had that planned out.”

By the end of the year, Genese had arrived at Rehoboth, and Kros thought her family was complete.

Genese, however, had other plans. She kept talking about her beloved little brother, Evensky, and her desire for Kros to adopt him too. “If God provides the funds, we’ll get him,” Kros recalled telling Genese. “And he did.”

After an 18-month adoption process, Evensky joined the family in March 2006. Although he didn’t know “a stitch of English,” Kros said Evensky fit into the family right away and picked up English quickly. “I owe that all to Genese,” Kros admitted. “She made it easy.”

As a single working mother with two young children, Kros had her hands full. However, there was another child still nagging at Kros’ heart — Lily, an older sibling who had been placed in an orphanage three years previously. Kros started the adoption process once again. Although Genese’s adoption had experienced some delays because of political strife in Haiti, and Evensky’s had been delayed because of passport problems, Lily’s adoption dragged out for three years because her entire adoption file was lost and officials required new documents like DNA test results and her birth father’s death certificate.

But just a little over two weeks ago — Kros’ birthday again — Kros was in Haiti to finally complete Lily’s adoption. While in Haiti, Kros met her children’s birth mother, a woman who has released some of her children for adoption because she’s been financially unable to care for them.

With the school year over, Kros said she and the children plan to stay home for the summer and adjust to life as a family of four. Genese, 10, will be going into the fifth grade; Evensky, 9, is heading into third; and Lily, 13, will probably also go into the fifth grade so she can catch up on her academics. All of her children seem to be athletically talented, Kros said, adding the girls enjoy math and Evensky has an affinity for reading.

In an interview at the family’s home, Genese had a different perspective on her brother, who was away, playing at a friend’s house. “Evensky is a reading and writing nerd,” she proclaimed.

When asked what she liked best about being adopted and living with her brother and sister, Lily had a quick response.

“The best is fighting with Genese,” she joked. Eating ice cream came in as a close second.

Lily said she would like to be a ballerina when she grows up, while Genese said she intends to return to Haiti when she is an adult. Although she’s interested in delivering babies or being a missionary, Genese has one very specific goal in mind — becoming president of Haiti. “I will someday,” she said, explaining adamantly some very grown-up frustrations with the current political situation in the country.

“She was very, very excited to meet me and know where her children were going,” she explained. Kros, who gave the birth mother a photo album filled with 100 photos of Genese and Evensky, said she will send photographs and letters on a regular basis for the orphanage to pass onto the birth mother.

She also hopes to eventually take the children back to Haiti for a visit when they’re older.

The Kros family will have an open house from 2 to 4 p.m. on June 13 at Bethany Church, 1110 S. Strong Dr., to officially welcome Lily into the local community. Anyone is welcome to attend the gathering to meet the family and welcome Lily here.