Connecticut Adoption Story

Three Girls And A Lady

The middle child actually came first. It was 1996 when Marie Carmenati traveled to Gejiu, China, to adopt her first child. The baby, whom she named Olivia, was 8 months old.

Four years later, Carmenati went back, this time to Hefei, to adopt a 9-year-old she named Anna. And so the first became the youngest.

Even with two daughters, the 48-year-old bank vice president felt her family was not finished. A single mother juggling a demanding full-time job at Chelsea Groton Bank's mortgage department and two active girls now 15 and 11, Carmenati knew she needed to make one more trip east.

In January 2006, she brought home 4-year-old Sophia from an orphanage in Nanchang. And so the first became the middle, and the family became complete.