Ties That Bind

Jan. 1, 2023

A Michigan family’s adoption of two children with special needs leads to a medical mission in war-torn Ukraine

By Vickie Fee

Jan. 1, 2023

A family sitting on a couch at home praying together — Joe and Tiffany Ampe pray the rosary with 10 of their children and a family friend at their home in Gwinn, Mich. (Photo by Bryan Rehmann)

Joe Ampe and his wife, Tiffany, were raising a bustling family of eight children in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula when, in February 2018, they saw a photo of a Ukrainian newborn.

“My wife and I have always been open to children,” said Joe, who is a member of Msgr. Nolan B. McKevitt Council 689 in Marquette. “Our home was a foster home for a while and we wanted to remain open to the possibility of adoption.”

Tiffany was scrolling through an advocacy website for orphans with special needs when she caught sight of the baby.

“It was a picture of a newborn boy in a pink outfit of all things,” she recounted. “I showed it to Joe and he said, ‘You don’t just show me a picture of a baby and then close the laptop.’ And I said, ‘OK, does that mean you want to investigate adoption?’ He said, ‘Yes.’”

In August 2018, the couple traveled to Ukraine, adopting not only the boy, later named Cazimir, but also an infant named Henrik, both of whom have Down syndrome. By this time, Tiffany was also six and a half months pregnant with another child, Isadora.

“It was similar to what I imagine it must be like to have triplets,” Joe said. “We suddenly went from eight to 11 children, and the blessings never stopped pouring out.”

But this was just the beginning of the Ampe family’s connection to Ukraine. In April 2022, less than two months after the Russian invasion, Joe and his son Evan flew to Poland with essential goods for Henrik’s birth family and medical supplies for a besieged hospital. With fundraising and support from Joe’s brother Knights and the wider community, members of the Ampe family have since made four more trips to deliver urgently needed aid to Ukrainian hospitals struggling to serve victims of the war.

THE BLESSING OF ADOPTION

When Joe and Tiffany went to Ukraine in August 2018, they only planned to adopt Cazimir, though they were approved to adopt two children. By the time they arrived, however, Henrik was available for adoption, and the couple saw God’s plan in the timing. They phoned the kids back home in Michigan to see what they thought about two new little brothers instead of one. “They told us not to come home without Henrik,” Tiffany said.

Henrik’s birth family very much wanted to keep him, but they were not equipped to do so. Joe explained that if parents of special needs children in Ukraine cannot afford to pay all medical expenses out of pocket, they are automatically taken into state care. He added, “We went for special-needs adoption particularly because they have the hardest time finding a home.”

Both boys have congenital heart defects, which are common among children with Down syndrome. During Henrik’s first two years in Michigan, he had to be life-flighted four times to a hospital in Milwaukee for emergency medical care. Cazimir — or Caz, as he is called — now has cochlear implants. “He can hear. Not that he always listens,” Tiffany said with a laugh. “They are both walking and thriving. They’re very happy kids.”

Tiffany and Henrik’s birth mom, bonded by the love of a child, keep in touch via email.

“Natalia and I have always been close,” Tiffany explained. “I don’t have any sisters, and I definitely consider her a sister. We have a very unique relationship. I don’t think many people know how to navigate a relationship where you love a child with all your heart, and you live on opposite sides of the ocean.”

The Ampes sent photos and videos and shared stories about Henrik as he grew and his medical situation improved. During this time, Henrik’s birth family dealt with some health issues and deaths that led to financial difficulties. Yet they had never asked for any help from Joe and Tiffany — until war came to Ukraine. They found themselves in desperate need of basic items, like shoes, flashlights and over-the-counter medicines.

Joe Ampe loads duffel bags of supplies into a van in Ternopil, Ukraine, during his second delivery trip in May. (Photo by Andrii Gorb)

“We sincerely believe that they’re our family, and we would do anything for them,” Tiffany said. “So when they finally asked us for something after three and a half years, we wanted to answer that.”

The Ampes gathered the items for their friends and started making plans to deliver them. But then they discovered that major shipping companies had suspended service in Ukraine because of the war.

“At a certain point, I said, ‘If we can’t ship it, then I’ll just take stuff over,’” recalled Joe, who works for the Federal Aviation Administration. “A plan then quickly emerged to take the maximum amount of supplies to make it as worthwhile as possible.”

AMPING UP CHARITY

Tiffany and Lucille (right) meet with Henrik’s birth mother, Natalia, in September. Natalia traveled 15 hours by bus to Kraków, Poland, to connect with the Ampes. (Courtesy of Tiffany Ampe)

The Ampes learned that their airline allowed individual passengers to transport 10 bags of humanitarian goods, up to 50 pounds apiece. This became the template for the five mission trips that Ampe family members have made in the past year. Joe and Tiffany each have flown to Poland multiple times since April (Joe twice, Tiffany three times), in most cases taking either Evan, 20, or their 18-year-old daughter, Lucille. Each time they have brought hundreds of pounds of supplies, distributing them to hospitals, orphanages and other destinations in Ukraine through Tiffany’s contacts with the adoption community there.

On the first trip, Joe and Evan, an EMT and nursing student at The Catholic University of America, worked with a doctor to deliver most of the medical supplies, including three ventilators, to a hospital in Mykolaiv. But the hospital, like many others in Ukraine, was later damaged so badly that subsequent deliveries of lifesaving items, such as trauma kits and tourniquets, have been sent mostly to field hospitals in the region.

On some trips, the Ampes have traveled by truck into Ukraine; on others, contacts from Ukraine have met them in Poland to receive and deliver the supplies. During one trip, Tiffany met Henrik’s birth mother in person and shared a long and tearful hug.

After helping the Ampe family pack medical supplies to bring to Ukraine, members of Father Vincent L. Ouellette Council 1541 present Joe and Tiffany with a donation of financial support. (Photo by Bryan Rehmann)

To help finance these charitable missions, Joe has turned to his brother Knights. His own council has held several fundraisers to benefit the family’s work, bringing in more than $5,000, as well as other donations. Knights from Council 689 and others, including Father Vincent L. Ouellette Council 1541 in Ishpeming, have also helped pack supplies.

“Joe exhibits the quintessential qualities of the Order,” said his grand knight, Ned Stockert. “He is above and beyond charitable. As a father of six, I can imagine the qualities it takes to manage a family of that size, let alone organize and execute the Ukrainian trips they have taken on.”

Father Ryan Ford, pastor of St. John and St. Joseph parishes in Ishpeming, also held a brunch fundraiser to support the Ampes. A longtime friend of the family, he described Joe as “a man ready to just buckle up and go where the Holy Spirit leads him.”

To date, the Ampes have delivered more than 10,000 pounds of essential goods to their network of contacts in Ukraine. Joe and Tiffany are about to make a sixth trip to Poland and Ukraine in early January, again delivering medical supplies and other much-needed items.

“I see this just as an extension of our Catholic faith,” Tiffany said. “We’re about redemption and restoration and taking something that’s broken and painful and trying to bring good from it.” Joe said that they will continue taking aid to hospitals and orphanages, to doctors and civilians, as long as the need continues and they have the resources to help.

“God has had his hand in every facet of this,” Joe affirmed. “Things have just come together, seemingly out of nowhere — they just fall into place. And we just try to do the next right thing each day. We just keep walking by faith.”

*****

VICKIE FEE is a reporter and novelist based in Marquette, Mich.

LeRoy Jackson makes a catch for an 85-yard touchdown against the Baltimore Colts on Dec. 8, 1962.

Ties That Bind

THE BLESSING OF ADOPTION

AMPING UP CHARITY

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