'All of a sudden she was in my arms': Cork family recall Echo article that led to Aimee's adoption from Kazakhstan

A CORK teenager has opened up about The Echo article that led to her adoption 19 years ago as part of an emotional reunion with the charity founder who made it all possible.

The bitter-sweet occasion comes more than a year after Kinsale college of Further Education student Aimee Kenneally lost her adopted mother Margaret. Aimee’s father Jack spoke about how Margaret had known she wanted to adopt from the age of 12-years-old. 

However, it was an Echo article published on March 25, 2003 featuring Fiona Corcoran from the Greater Chernobyl Cause that set the process in motion.

Margaret was so moved by the piece, which highlighted Aimee’s home of Semipalatinsk Kazakhstan, she immediately wanted to help. The area had been the site of Russian nuclear weapon testing for 40 years and was one few locations where the death rate far exceeded the birth rate.

The first thing Margaret did after reading the piece was pack a bag with clothes and dolls for children in the orphanage.

She somehow felt connected to the babies and decided it was the right time to adopt. Her husband Jack said it was an option they had been discussing for decades. However, the couple already had four children - Shane, Andrew, Colm and Niamh - to provide for.

That desire to rescue a child only strengthened with age. Margaret (51) and Jack (55) were already grandparents to Morgane, who was six at the time and three-year-old Mael before adopting. However, nothing was going to deter them from their goal.

“When the children were small we had our hands full and knew that it would be difficult financially to adopt”, Jack explained. 

“We decided it was something we would do when they were older. We thought that might be six years later but 23 years passed. Every so often something would trigger a conversation about adoption. Margaret spotted the article in The Echo. She said she wanted to do something to help and I knew exactly what she meant”.

Fiona described her first encounter with Margaret who recently passed away years after a heart transplant.

FIRST ENCOUNTER

“I was told that a woman had called to the office”, Fiona said. 

“When I asked for a description of the woman all they could tell me was that “she was carrying a handbag”. 

I remember really hoping that she would call again because I sensed this was something important. However, there was no way I was going to be able to narrow it down just from “the woman with the handbag. Luckily, she returned an hour later. She told me that she wanted to adopt a child and had already discussed it with her husband”.

Not long after that the director of the Semipalatinsk baby home presented Fiona with a four-month-old baby asking if she could “get her out of there”.

 His fear was that her medical situation would scupper her chances of survival in the system. Babies at the facility, which was supported by the Greater Chernobyl Cause, faced a transition as children to Ayaga Orphanage. The building was referred to in those days as a “living hell” with outdoor toilet facilities and temperatures plummeting to below minus 40 degrees due to an inadequate heating system. Aimee - who was then known as Aiman Kopkeava - also required medical treatment which would have been impossible under these conditions.

Fiona, who joined Jack and Aimee to speak to The Echo, said she will never forget meeting Aimee for the first time.

“They handed me this infant and told me she was very special. The director of the orphanage saw the bright spark in her. He knew she would be okay if she only had a chance in life. He asked me if I could find a family for her but I knew that I already had. Aimee was born just a month after Jack and Margaret read that Echo article. There were so many things that happened that year that were very unusual and can only be put down to fate”.

Fiona contacted the couple, explaining that Aimee had Spina Bifida meaning she would grow up with complex needs.

Jack remembers the moment like it was yesterday.

“Margaret and I only had to talk about it for two minutes”, he said. 

'WE KNEW STRAIGHT AWAY'

“We knew straight away this was what we wanted and asked ourselves ‘why not?’. Margaret was keen to ring Fiona back straight away before someone else beat her to it”.

The pair fell in love with Aimee before they had even met.

“Fiona gave us a picture of Aimee and we put it up on our bedroom mirror. When I looked at the picture it was almost like she was locking eyes with me. 

"It was the first thing we looked at when we woke up in the morning and the last thing we looked at before we went to sleep at night. Months passed by and Fiona was trying to get permission from the Kazakhstan authorities to take a child from their jurisdiction. 

At that point I was looking at the photograph so much I could almost hear Aimee talking to me asking ’what’s taking you so long?' Both Margaret and Jack kept the adoption a secret for some time.

“We never told anyone we were adopting because the last thing we wanted to was jinx it. At the same time I didn’t want my friends to see me with a buggy a week later and wonder what the hell was going on. There was silence when I told them. I’m not sure they knew what to think”.

Aimee’s arrival at the airport was the start of a new and exciting chapter for the Kenneally family.

“When we arrived at the airport I felt it was unusually busy for a Friday morning”, Jack recalled. 

“When Fiona came through arrivals they were clapping and cheering. Cameras were flashing. They were all there to see Aimee. Fiona brought the baby out and put her in my arms. 

"It was the most surreal moment I had ever experienced. I had been looking at this baby in the picture for so long. All of a sudden, she was in my arms looking up at me as if to say ‘what’s all the fuss about?’. 

"Once Aimee was placed into Margaret’s arms she lit up like a beacon. She was overcome with happiness and immediately forgot about everything that was going on around her”.

The couple were so grateful to Fiona for bringing them all together they decided to make her Aimee’s godmother.

“The evening we brought Aimee home we put her cot in our bedroom. We wanted to be the first people she saw when she woke up the morning and the last when she fell asleep. That way she could realise the situation was permanent”.

Jack described how wonderful Margaret was both as a mother and a wife.

“She was an amazing person. Everyone could see that but Margaret never saw it in herself. No matter how many people told her she never realised she was special Jack said they miss her every day.

“The words of the poet Donna Ashford were so true when she said that ‘you don’t just lose someone once. You lose them over and over, sometimes many times a day’, he said.

 “That sadness is there all the time even when you’re good. Every so often something creeps up on you and hits you out of the blue. You just have to learn to live with it and accept it when it hits you”.

Aimee, who previously trained as a nail technician in the Cork College of Commerce, said she is grateful for her life in Ireland.

“My dad was always honest with me. I was always knew that I was adopted but when I was 10-years-old he told me the story of how I arrived in Ireland. Now I know very little about Kazakhstan but I am very grateful for the life I have in Ireland. Ireland has always been my home”.

To find out more about the Chernobyl Cause or donate visit http://www.greaterchernobylcause.ie/.