After waiting through “19 months of adoption purgatory,” Darcy Zook said she and her two children are finally going to Bulgaria next week to pick up two new members of their family.

“I’m so excited,” Zook said. “I can hardly breathe, sleep or eat.”

The Oak Harbor family’s efforts to adopt a Bulgarian girl and boy began two years ago after they discovered a Web site featuring photographs of children at orphanages. Since then, the widow and her two children, Jaimee and Jordan, have traveled to the Eastern European country three times and have witnessed third-world poverty firsthand.

Zook said many “gypsies” live in Bulgaria, but they aren’t allowed to live in the city limits, where people live in “horrible high-rise tenements.” She and her children watched gypsy children “dumpster dive” to find food and clothing.

“We spent a lot of time giving money to the gypsy kids,” she said. “The kids would scream and cry with happiness and then run home. You just know they’re going to be the little heroes for bringing home the money.”

Things were just as bad at the orphanages. She said the older children have to cut the toes off their shoes to fit their feet in. They live on bread and watered-down soup.

To help the impoverished orphanages, the Zooks have held fund-raisers and brought clothing, food and other items to the orphans when they visited.

Currently, the Zooks are buying shoes, school supplies, socks and underwear to bring to the two orphanages. They have raised enough money to bring supplies to one of the orphanages, but are still looking for donations for the other.

But there will soon be two fewer orphans in Bulgaria. Zook said all the paperwork for adopting the two children, 11-year-old Alexander and 10-year-old Polina, has finally gone through and all she needs to do now is pick the kids up.

The adoption process was delayed because the Zooks’ attorney got into a bad accident and there was a delay in returning paperwork to the family. The terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 further complicated and delayed the proceedings.

But if all goes well, Alexander and Polina will be arriving at their new home on June 28.

Help the poor orphans

The Zook family is collecting donations to purchase shoes and other items for two impoverished orphanages in Bulgaria.

Anyone interested in helping can contact Darcy Zook at 675-7157 or e-mail werzook@whidbey.net.