Repeating a family history

Woman returns to her orphanage to adopt son

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When Malverne resident Andrea Glassing was born in 1975, she was an orphan in Bogota, Colombia. Two days later, she was adopted by a young Merrick couple who navigated a sea of paperwork for her, even though they already had two boys.

Years later, as a newly married adult, Glassing wanted to do the same — return to her native country and adopt a baby, so she started the paperwork process. But life got in the way, as she had two biological children, and her plan was postponed — but not for long.

Earlier this year, Glassing and her husband traveled back to her orphanage — La Casa de la Madre y el Nino, or The House of the Mother and Child — and brought back an adopted son, 6-month-old Gabriel, on May 5. “We got matched up in February,” Glassing said of Gabriel, who was born on Thanksgiving Day 2015. “We took a trip down to the orphanage, which I didn’t remember, of course, and all the kids were so wonderful. You just want to scoop up all of them and take them all home.”

Glassing said she wants people to understand that adoption isn’t a last resort or just an approach for people who can’t conceive. It is often an excellent first choice, and if people are thinking about adoption, they shouldn’t wait. “It’s just like anything else,” Glassing said. “The longer you put it off, the more time is wasted. And there are children waiting.”

Because she is a citizen of both Colombia and the United States, Glassing believes that the process went faster for her than other pending adopters. “We met other families at the orphanage from other countries that were waiting longer than we were,” she said. “They try to keep the infants with citizens, so that definitely helped.” She added that coming from the same orphanage herself probably worked in her favor as well.

In total, she had made two trips to the orphanage to adopt Gabriel, but made many visits to the Colombian Consulate in Manhattan and many other local government branches. “We are lucky that we have the consulate so close by — just a train ride away,” said Glassing. “People fly here from all over the country to adopt.”

While hugging Gabriel, who developed a keen interest in a reporter’s camera, Glassing offered advice to those discouraged by the extensive adoption process. “For many people, it [is] overwhelming and they wind up throwing in the towel sometimes,” she said. “You just have to stick with it, because the results are so worth it.”