Not flesh of my flesh, nor bone of bone, but still miraculously my own. Never forget for a single minute: You didn't grow under my heart but in it.
HOW WE BEGAN
Global Adoption Services brings substantial expertise and experience to serve your adoption needs. The agency grew out of the humanitarian relief work that Joyce Sterkel began in 1992. She operated a medical exchange / humanitarian relief project with Global Maternal Child Health Association, Inc. in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia. During the two years that she lived and worked in Russia, over two million dollars in humanitarian aid was shipped to Russian maternity and children's hospitals. Dozens of American doctors, nurses and midwives had the opportunity to work and teach in Russian hospitals. This also gave Joyce great insight into the needs of children in the orphanages across Russia.
After seeing the plight of orphaned children, Joyce began facilitating international adoptions. Her travels led her to the far reaches of Siberia, down to the middle Asian republics, and throughout the heartland of Russia. The story was the same--hundreds of thousands of children warehoused in orphanages without the hope of a family of their own. Now Global Adoption Services is doing what it can to solve this problem and give these children loving parents and a home. We have built the infrastructure in Russia and Haiti to make your international adoption a success. The team members in Russia and Haiti and the U.S. are all bilingual and the majority are either legally or medically trained. The program also includes medical exchange programs and an on-going humanitarian relief program with the orphanages.
We work in association with a respite care program for children whose adoptions have disrupted. Our "Ranch For Kids" project is operated on a ranch near Eureka, Montana.
WHO WE ARE
Joyce Sterkel is the founder of The Montana Ranch for Kids, mother of 6 grown children, 2 biological and 4 adopted. She has adopted domestically, internationally and from disrupted adoption. She has 8 grandchildren and three of her grown children work at the ranch with as part of the team. Joyce has worked with hundreds of post institutionalized children and their families and has worked in maternal child health for 30 years before spending two years living and working in Russia. It was after the agency was founded that she adopted three more children from Russia and founded the ranch to assist families that needed respite care or who were disrupting their adoptions. Joyce is well known in the adoption area and has been featured on Hallmark Entertainment, Newsweek Magazine, People and ABC 20/20.
Judy Williams RN from the Maryland Office is the mother of two biological children, four permanent placement foster children and two children adopted from Russia. Judy began her professional work with adoptions in 1993 primarily in Russia. She has done several humanitarian aid projects including Rocking Grandmothers in the baby houses as well as medical education projects throughout the regions in Russia. Pictured here are Judy with her husband Barry and two children Sasha and Anna.
