Hillcrest Hospital Nurse Shares Adoption Experience

To her great surprise, registered nurse Noelle Clark has become a world traveler. In 2007, she and her husband Andrew spent two weeks in China where they met and brought home their son Noah, now 8 years old.

Earlier this year, the couple completed its second foreign adoption, this time traveling to Rwanda, Africa, to bring home a baby girl. Little Tabitha, now 2 years old, is child No. 3 for the Clarks. Their biological son Isaac, 17, loves being a big brother to his adopted siblings at home in Mayfield Heights.

An oncology nurse at , Noelle wants people to know that adoption is neither far-fetched nor too expensive. Cleveland Clinic offers its employees one of the best adoption benefits in the country at $10,000, and she could not be more grateful — it is what made Tabitha’s adoption possible.

“Each adoption took a little more than a year to complete and there was a good deal of paperwork,” Noelle says, “but it was more than worth it when you see the great need of these orphans.” The Foreign Adoption Network prepares new parents of these children with the appropriate training and access to resources and contacts they need. Cleveland Clinic’s adoption benefit is good for both domestic and foreign adoptions.

“It’s a wonderful way to give children a home and to have a family,” says Noelle, who says she always “had a heart for the children of Africa” who were fighting poverty and HIV. She says the Rwandan countryside was naturally beautiful and that the people were so friendly and thankful to them for adopting one of theirs. She explains that she and Andrew had tried a domestic adoption, and when it fell through, they decided that foreign adoption was the way to go. Now, she says, they spend time teaching Noah about his Chinese culture and, as she gets older, they will teach Tabitha about her African roots.

 “It’s amazing to see the difference in the kids since coming here,” Noelle says.

“You can see the change on Tabitha’s face — she’s so relaxed now. And they are both healthy and growing and talking more and more.” She says another great advantage of working at Cleveland Clinic is having access to wonderful health care for the children. They were helped with the medical records before the adoptions, and the children have had special care since coming to the U.S. As a special needs child, young Noah has had surgery and implants to correct his hearing disability and, because he was born without earlobes, he will eventually have lobe implants when he’s bigger.

Today, the family continues to get to know each other and enjoys camping, being outdoors and going to watch Isaac’s sporting events at school. “We are a typical family,” Noelle says with joy. “Sure, we get stopped in the store and people have questions when they see our differences, but we’re just the same when it comes to love.”