When Martha and Marshall Burke first traveled to Moldova in 2004, they planned to find a sister for their young son, Robert, and come home.

In three years, they have been back three times. There were no problems with Alina's adoption that forced them to return, nor did they go back to adopt other children. They went because, along the way, they discovered a kinship with the people of her native land.

Now they have not only adopted a child, but a country.

"Our total direction of our lives has changed," Martha said in an interview in her Greenville home following her most recent trip to Moldova in May. "Where we put our energy and our effort, our thinking and our emotions, all of that has turned toward Moldova. I don't think we anticipated that."

Until five years ago, the Burkes had no plans to adopt. Marshall was in his early 50s when Robert was born, and Martha was almost 40. They felt grateful to have one child.

Robert had different ideas. At age 3, he began praying for a sister.

Initially, the Burkes dismissed his request as simply a childish desire for a playmate. They thought it might just be a phase.

"We ignored it, basically," Martha said. "I had no clue we were going to adopt. I had no intentions. It was not on our radar screen."

That changed when Martha received a brochure in the mail from Samaritan's Purse, an international ministry led by evangelist Franklin Graham. In it was a picture from the ministry's Operation Christmas Child project. It had been taken at an orphanage in Chisinau, Moldova.

"The photo caption said, 'For children in orphanages in Chisinau, Moldova, socks and soap are considered luxuries' or something to that effect," Martha recalled.

Though she and Marshall had seen an orphanage when they had traveled to Romania a few years earlier, Martha was unfamiliar with Moldova, Romania's neighbor to the east.

Though Martha did not understand exactly why, the photograph moved her to tears, and she couldn't get the image out of her mind. As she began writing her thoughts about it in a journal she used to record her prayers, Martha began feeling pulled toward adoption.

"Plus I kept getting things in the mail about international adoption or I'd run into people who'd adopted internationally," she said. "Every circumstance seemed to just point in that direction. ... I was like, 'I can't get away from this.' "

Some of the thoughts that filled her mind were of her childhood. Martha was adopted at age 3 months from a Baptist Children's Home.

She knew about the adoption in her early childhood ("It was my favorite bedtime story"). She came to know her birth parents after she became an adult.

"I was blessed by being adopted," Martha said. "'You were blessed and you can do this for someone else,' that's the message I kept getting."

Once the Burkes decided to adopt, there was hardly a question as to where to look. They even selected their adoption agency based on its ability to work in Moldova.

Carolina Adoption Services in Greensboro was offering discounts to the first few families willing to adopt from Moldova, where international adoptions had been closed for two years.

"It was closed at the time that we actually applied," Martha said. "But the next day after we mailed our application, it said 'Moldova opens for adoption.' "

It would take a year to complete the adoption. The Burkes traveled to Moldova to pick up their daughter in January 2004. To complete the necessary paperwork and get through the required waiting period meant a three-week stay in the country.

Martha, Marshall, Robert and Alina were housed in an apartment at Betesda Christian orphanage, which is run by Nona and Ilie Mirza and their son, Victor. Victor, who attended college in the United States and is fluent in English, helped them communicate with Alina. They also got to know the staff and the children at Betesda and learned about the ministry of this Baptist-supported orphanage, which included Bible instruction and a summer camp program for children.

After the Burkes returned home in February, they continued communicating with Victor via e-mail, asking him questions and reporting on how Alina was adjusting to life in America.

"We had lived with them for three weeks; we couldn't just kind of pretend that never happened," Martha said. "When we came back, we learned that the summer camp funding had been cut. I think that was our first effort. We said, 'We could probably raise enough money to help them put on their summer camp.' Then it just grew from that."

Since then, the Burke family has remained involved in the ministry of Betesda, from collecting mittens for the children to recycling ink cartridges to raise money for the orphanage and the Mirzas' church, Agape. They have brought Victor to the United States to meet with other ministries, including Samaritan's Purse and Baptist Children's Homes.

Marshall, a nurse at Pitt County Memorial Hospital, began working to get used medical equipment earmarked for Moldova. He has attended meetings in Raleigh and in Moldova about the medical aspect of the North Carolina-Moldova partnership, a program designed to promote a cooperative relationship between the state and the Eastern European nation.

A year after Alina's adoption, mother and daughter returned to Moldova to join a shoe distribution project sponsored by Texas-based Children's Emergency Relief International. Two months ago, the two went back again, taking a team of students with East Carolina University's Baptist Campus Ministry on a mission trip. The team worked with Agape Church and also purchased medicines for orphanages at Betesda and Straseni, where Alina spent her early childhood.

"We wanted to do something specifically for Alina's orphanage ... partly to help the clinic but partly to help the adoption committee see the potential for Americans who adopt to return something to the country, to give back," Martha said. "It's not just a one-way street.

"We can say, we're an adoptive family and we came back and bought medicines for these clinics because we have a heart for these children. That encourages good will."

On her latest trip, Martha also took supplies to Moldovan missionaries. Her team brought with it several hard-to-get food items, like American chocolate chips, peanut butter and Crisco. She was glad to do it to have another chance to make connections in Moldova.

"Everybody says Moldova makes the world a smaller place, and it is true," Martha said. "Once you start meeting people, there are more and more connections that seem to appear."

Her most recent project has been to help raise money to buy a van for Agape Church. She is currently recruiting foster-care sponsors for children at Betesda, which is likely to close due to a lack of funds.

For six weeks this summer, the Burkes are opening their home to Elena Cret, a Moldovan teenager who wants to improve her English. Elena is helping Alina re-learn Romanian, which she has forgotten in her years in the United States. The Burkes are also trying to secure a sponsor for Elena to help pay her living expenses while she attends school in Moldova in the fall.

Though they have not yet planned their next trip to Moldova, the Burkes are almost certain there will be a next trip.

"It's become a very big part of our lives," Martha said. "Alina is part of our lives forever, and I think Moldova will be part of our lives forever. ... I feel like Moldova is a forever country for us."

For information on sponsoring a child at Betesda, contact Martha Burke at 439-1357.