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I will always look at my family as a beautiful patchwork quilt. Each of our children has a different and unique story. I mention a patchwork quilt, also to describe how each and every child is loved whether he or she was born from your own body, or was a gift from God lovingly placed in your family. I often have to remind myself that some of my children were adopted. Our daughter Ashley (11 years old) is our first biological child. We had a second child, Gregory, who was diagnosed with a genetic disease called Gaucher when he was almost a year old. And we were blessed to have him with us until age 4. We choose adoption to complete our family that we had forever dreamed of. We adopted our son Matthew at birth in 1998, through open adoption. We have frequent contact with his birth family, which is a wonderful blessing to Matthew and us. He will always know he was loved so much that his birth family made a different plan for him, and chose us to be his forever parents. We considered pursing domestic adoption to adopt another child, however the waiting time could be years. God opened our hearts to pursue International Adoption. We researched the various programs, agencies, and different countries. I spoke with several families who had adopted from Russia, and knew this was the direction we were being lead. I discovered Alaska International (AIA), from the FRUA (Families for Russian Ukrainian Children) Web site and Chat. I could not find one negative incident about this agency. There were many others I considered, but each of them had some sort of negative experience that was being discussed. I kept hearing about how caring, and trustworthy the staff was with AIA. When I contacted AIA in January 2002, I knew this was the agency I would be working with. I spoke with Olga and Natalia (Natasha) about the various programs and regions they worked in. Soon, most of my contact was with Natalia who runs the Magadan program. The response to emails, phone calls was very prompt and thorough. Working with an agency in Anchorage Alaska, and me being in California was so different than our first adoption here in the USA. I must say, she was very organized, and most of our forms were emailed to us with detailed instructions on how to fill them out. All the paperwork that is involved can be overwhelming, but if you stay organized and complete things when Natalia requests them it is all manageable. Natalia was very patient with our family, as we waited many months longer, to find the right child match for our family. It was encouraging to go on the AIA Chat on Thursdays and talk with the families who were returning successfully with their child(ren). I had some concerns that the majority of the families were adopting from Khabarovsk, and little was mentioned about Magadan. I now know God had a specific plan for us, and to unite us with our daughters he had chosen for us. We knew of our girls in September 2002, and were so thrilled to get our court date of December 18, 2002. Once we landed in Magadan, Russia we were greeted and escorted by the support staff they had set in place for us. They brought us to the orphanage, knowing we were very anxious to meet our girls. The first meeting was not the fairy tail meeting one would expect. Both of the girls were a bit hesitant, and were very unsure of these new strangers that the staff was quickly introducing as Mama and Papa. On the second meeting with Victoria and Nicole, they warmed up to us and the Cheerios that we presented to them. Victoria, our 2 year old, soon became "Daddy's girl" and Nicole our 1 year old became very attached to her new mommy. This preferential attachment lasted for several weeks after returning home. Now both girls have formed loving attachments to Greg and I, their new siblings, and all the animals.
I cannot say enough good things about Zoya and Ivan, who took care of every detail while we were in Magadan. Zoya was always very timely, efficient, and very professional. She and Natalia are both highly respected with the staff at the Orphanage. While Zoya was getting documents in order, Ivan was very generous to bring us to the orphanage a couple times a day to visit with our girls, tour us around Magadan, take us to museums, and find the most fabulous restaurants to really experience the culture and city from which our girls were born. The orphanage staff will forever be remembered in our hearts. They were so incredibly warm and welcoming to us. I truly believe that our girls were blessed with each of them as their mommies to care for and nurture them until we were united. The staff of doctors and teachers does such a fabulous job in caring for all these children, with such limited resources. They should be very proud of all the activity and therapy rooms they have set up for the children, so they can grow and develop accordingly.
We were thrilled when all the paperwork went smoothly in Magadan and Moscow, so we would be home in time for Christmas. We were greeted at the airport by our friends and family on Christmas Eve welcoming Victoria (2 yr) and Nicole (1 yr) home.
There is obviously some adjustment time that happens for each member of the family. I must say the girls have done extremely well considering their whole world changed. Everyday, I see such incredible progress in each of the girls. Victoria is very eager to learn new English words. After a month, I would say she has learned about 20 words in English, however she understands even more. My heart melted, when she said "I Love You" to me. She loves to play outside, and explore all the wonders that surround her new world. Before leaving the orphanage with our girls the staff explained to us the basic routines the girls were used to, to make the transition period easier. This was extremely helpful when dealing with a 2 year old, which became very accustom to routines. Even today, we try to have some regularity so she knows what to expect, and avoiding any miscommunication or meltdowns. The comment I hear most about Victoria is how she is so friendly, and always smiles. She loves music, and is often singing in the car.
Nicole has changed so much in the first month of being home. She was walking very unsteady with about 4 steps at the orphanage. Today, she is walking all over the house with such confidence. She is now beginning to talk some very basic words. She is very healthy, alert and happy. She is such a cuddle bug.
The family adjustment to 4 children has been pleasantly busy. We are forever thankful to AIA for helping us create such a beautiful family. Everyone keeps saying how lucky these girls are, and I say no it is quite the opposite:.we are the ones blessed by having two beautiful daughters to love and complete our family. Our daughters Victoria and Nicole will know that we were willing to go to the ends of the Earth to bring them home.
I included several details of our adoption journey, in the event a family is researching domestic or international adoption possibilities. There is pro's and con's to each choice in completing your family. Feel free to contact us at dmacres@surewest.net |
