The sudden closure of an Ontario-based international adoption agency has left an Ottawa family wondering what will now happen to the child it was hoping to adopt.

For the last two years, Kids Link, which runs Imagine Adoption, had helped Canadians adopt children from Ethiopia, Ghana and Ecuador.

But on Monday, the company based in Cambridge, Ont., posted a bankruptcy notice on its website.

Eileen Ogoniek and her husband, who live in Ottawa, said they used the agency to adopt their first son, Daniel, a year ago.

"The final step is when you get your file there. You almost feel like you're pregnant at that point because you know it's almost a guarantee that you're going to get a baby," said Ogoniek.

The experience was so positive, she said, that she had returned — this time to adopt a daughter from Ethiopia.

But with the notice that was posted, Ogoniek now said that process is in limbo.

'Just so devastated'

"We're just so devastated. We wanted to expand our family," she said Thursday.

Along with their hopes, the Ogonieks have invested $18,000 in the adoption.

"I think more importantly, it's not just the money, it's the hope and the dream of completing a family," she said.

The Ogoniek family is just one of 400 across Canada and 30 in Ottawa who are wondering whether their efforts to adopt have been lost.

"I think other parents that have e-mailed me or even talked to me on the phone — there's so many tears and the devastation," she said.

"It's like a death. It feels like a death to them."

Many of the parents — or prospective parents — affected said they'd like the Ontario government to step in and unite the children who were going to be adopted with the Canadian families that had been waiting for them.