Adopting a new purpose: After the Clarks’ daughter was born with Down syndrome, they felt called to parent more special-needs children

Everything was in place: the four balloons, the “Welcome home, Elizabeth” banner, a ready supply of tissues, a gaggle of family and friends. Then out of a bank of billowing white clouds under a blue summer sky emerged United Airlines Flight 965 from Moscow. The moment its wheels touched the Dulles Airport tarmac at 2:42 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 14, 7-year-old Elizabeth Clark became a U.S. citizen.

Her adoptive family, including three big brothers and two younger sisters, patiently stood outside the international arrivals area as Elizabeth and her new mom, Nina Clark, made it through customs, then through a review of Elizabeth’s papers. Finally, all was signed off, and at 4:50 p.m., the gray doors to the baggage claim area opened, and Elizabeth made her entrance.

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Dressed in magenta pants and a striped shirt, the girl was perched, princess-like on the luggage trolley pushed by her mom, with a barrette tying back her light-brown hair. Nina paused at the sight of the welcoming crowd, then abandoned the cart to dash over to her husband, Jon.

Elizabeth hopped off the cart and cautiously approached her new sisters: Emma, also 7, and Abby, 3. Like Elizabeth, Abby is adopted. All three have Down syndrome.

As the adults brushed away tears, they cast covert glances at the little girls. Would Emma feel upstaged? Would Elizabeth bond with two strangers? Would either Emma or Abby understand Elizabeth was a sister, not just another playmate? Elizabeth gingerly ruffled Abby’s hair. Then, “Momma,” she said, pointing toward Nina. “Poppa!” she said, pointing toward Jon. Then, pointing toward Abby, “Happy!”

***

The Clarks are part of an unusual subset within the world of adoptive parenting: people who seek out special-needs children. The Germantown couple had led ordinary lives, working at McCarthy Wilson, a civil litigation firm in Rockville where he’s a partner and she’s a legal secretary. Eight years ago, they learned that after having three boys — Andy, now 14; Jacob, now 13; and Matthew, now 10 — Nina was pregnant with a girl.

Nina, then 34, never thought of having an amniocentesis test; after all, she was younger than 35, the age when women are believed to be at increased risk for a Down syndrome child. (The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists now recommends that women of all ages be screened.) When Emma emerged on Oct. 16, 2003, the couple knew life would never be the same.

Children with Down syndrome, a genetic condition in which an individual has three — instead of the usual two — sets of the 21st chromosome, are at risk for intellectual disabilities and health problems, and it wasn’t long before medical issues began to arise with Emma. Breathing problems resulted in a three-month hospital stay when she was 5 months old. Then there was the open-heart surgery to reroute a pulmonary artery at age 3 1/2.

Finally, Emma began to flourish when she turned 4, and Nina began thinking the unthinkable: adopting a child just like her.

After Emma was born, Nina, a member of Neelsville Presbyterian Church in Germantown, had searched the Bible for guidance, especially its command to care for orphans and widows. She began to believe that her seeming misfortune might be part of a divine plan. “I thought, ‘What do I do with this?’ ” she says. “I decided not to have more of our own but to save those already here. For me, it’s like a mission and a calling. If Emma wasn’t born, I would not be adopting a child with Down syndrome. So, her life already has had meaning.”