'They gave us our beautiful girls'

Fostoria lies 5,075 miles from Ukraine. But a Findlay couple, both of whom are employed in Fostoria, have played a role in narrowing the gap between this area of the United States and the war-ravaged eastern European country. Jason and Amy Koomen, already the parents of three children apiece from previous marriages, adopted three special-needs Ukrainian girls in 2015 and 2016. "Because of the relationships and friendships we made while completing the adoption process in Ukraine -- that is why, after the war started, we decided to make three trips to Ukraine to deliver medical supplies and food to citizens," Amy Koomen said. "They gave us our beautiful girls; we can help them however we can." Amid everything else for the Koomens -- both longtime Findlay residents, though Amy spent her grade-school years in Fostoria -- have come relatively recent job opportunities in Fostoria. Jason, who worked at Marathon Petroleum in Findlay for more than two decades, has been the compliance officer in Fostoria's Zoning Department for the last two years. Amy, an online teacher for the last 14 years, is in her first year of teaching at Fostoria Junior/Senior High School. "Now that she's here and teaching, it's neat to be here and to be part of this community," Jason said. Both Jason and adopted daughter Raia have in a way imprinted their footprints in Fostoria by winning championships in each of the last two years of the Jeff Shiff Memorial Run the Res. Jason's longtime affinity for running has rubbed off on Raia in her seven years with the Koomens, and that's just one way in which the young ladies have come together with their adoptive families. Both Raia and Noor are 12. Another Koomen adoptee, Olga, is 21 and resides in an area assisted living facility. Amy's mother and brother are adopted, so even though she had biological children, she wanted to fulfill a goal of adopting. Also, Jason and Amy could not physically conceive a child. "We decided to adopt because we wanted to have something that connects us," Jason said. "We decided to adopt internationally because when you adopt domestically, there's always that worry, that concern, will the birth mother or birth father ever come back and want the child back? Going internationally, that concern diminishes significantly. But the other part, that we adopted children with special needs -- the likelihood of parents coming back to get their child back, with special needs, was pretty much zero." Ukraine had the fastest process for international adoption, and with his oldest daughter being 16 in 2015, they didn't want to wait a long time and create a large age gap. So, through a lot of paperwork, travel and tests of patience, the Koomen's eventually brought two 5-year-olds and a 16-year-old. "Honestly, I'm not 100% sure that we're done," Jason said in regard to adoption. "What it's done for us and our family because the girls have special needs ... We all have different abilities. We all have different needs, and you can look to the normal society of people, but when you're a typical child growing up and you see somebody with special needs, what do you do? You stare. 'What's wrong with that person? What happened?' "We don't point to it because what does it matter? That person has a different need, a different ability. So, it's given our kids a much different perspective of life and looking at life and how things are, and they don't look to stare at somebody just because, say, they have a birthmark across their face or they have a missing limb. "We treat them as normal as possible. They're just like one of the other kids. Noor, who doesn't speak -- we have to do things differently for her, but we don't treat her differently. We have her sit and watch movies with us, or when the kids are playing outside, we want her to be just as involved as (the others) are." Noor had surgery at a young age to separate her hands, Jason said, and while in a Ukraine orphanage, she essentially spent the first five years of her life in a crib, coming out only to be fed and have a diaper changed. "I go back (in thought) and it just gets to me every time," Jason said. "She was a 5-year-old going on 6, but she was so much not even nine months old. It was just very heartbreaking to see. The strides that she's made since -- she goes to school now (at Glenwood Middle School). She loves going to school. She doesn't speak, but she knows a little bit of sign language. But from a communicating perspective, you tell her to do something and she knows what to do." Raia, like Noor, had some acclimating to do from living in the sheltered environment of an orphanage for her first five years. But following in Jason's footsteps and receiving early training at St. Michael the Archangel School in Findlay, she's become a speedy distance runner. She's done it while having the rare, congenital Goldenhar syndrome, which affects several internal workings, as well as spina bifida, which involves a gap in the backbone. She's had several surgeries and has more to come in order to continue growing. "At the time (of her adoption), we didn't know she had a natural ability or love (for running)," Jason said. "The races they were doing at the time for what would have been kindergarten, first grade, there were 110 girls and she was in, like, 60th or 70th place because she didn't know what to do. She was just kind of out there, looking around, looking at the people and waving and smiling. So, once she kind of turned her brain on to, 'Oh, I can do this well and I can still have fun doing it,' it just kind of clicked for her." As for her future as a runner, it would take some doing to get to the level of her father, whose idea of fun is taking part in 100-mile races. Jason started running in his late 20s and evolved into running marathons and even longer events. "At the end of 2013, I achieved a significant goal in running, and that was to run a sub-three-hour marathon," Jason said. "I accomplished that, and then it was kind of like, 'OK, what's next? My wife and I were just kind of poking around on the internet and I found this run in northeast Ohio, up near Cleveland, called 'Burning River.' It's called that because of the history on that (a fire on the river in 1969). It was a 100-miler. My wife said, 'Why don't you just go do it?' I said, 'Well, that's a lot longer than just a marathon. That's four marathons, essentially.' She said, 'OK, so go do it.'" Amy later challenged him to do 100 miles in each state. And last weekend, in New York, he finished his 33rd race in a different state. "I feel that everyone should have a thing to do for themselves," she said. "He loves running, so I just encourage it and make sure he has the time to do it. We travel to watch his races and turn them into little camping trips. I am his crew for his races, so I have his food, drinks, changes of clothes, first aid, pretty much whatever he needs." The Koomens have also taken to the air to help Ukrainian citizens who have been affected by the ravages of war launched by Russia in late February. Jason said their trips have taken them to Krakow, Poland, from which drivers would take the supplies into Ukraine. "We got to know people there," Jason said. "There was a group of four moms, wives -- all of our families adopted from Ukraine together and they put all this stuff together where we raised money, we raised equipment, supplies, medical needs, everything." Amy plans to make another trip to aid Ukrainians. For now, though, she's a teacher by day and a wife and mother by night. "It is amazing to see all the children fit in so well," she said. "My older children have shown such compassion and patience and have educated their friends on different disabilities. The girls have shown such determination and strength, and we encourage them to do their best and try their hardest. All the kids love and support each other and it has just been an amazing journey."