Our Wonderful Russian Adoption Experience
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Hi, my name is Jenni. My husband, Chuck and I have been married almost 10 years. Before we were married, we talked about having children and how awesome it would be to have a huge family. Chuck said he wanted six kids, so we could have a basketball team and one substitute. We both come from large families so having children was just something that was taken for granted.
After two years of no birth control we decided to seek medical help. Needless to say, we were both devastated when we received the call from the physician saying that we needed to see a fertility specialist and that our hopes of conceiving a child were little to none. For six and a half years we tried to conceive through all of the latest technology, but nothing worked. We had talked about adoption a little in the beginning, but with all of the technology now, we were set on having our own “biological children”. In the back of my mind I always new that there was something more meant for me. God had something planned for Chuck and I, and we had no clue what it was.
I think our fears about adoption in the beginning were what others would think of us. We would be admitting to the whole world that we couldn’t have our own biological children. That was something that we kept only between ourselves and our close family. It didn’t matter, we wanted a family. So we started doing research on the internet.
We absolutely could not believe the amount of agencies out there and the amount of people that are adopting. It opened our eyes to a whole new world. We pretty much had decided we wanted to adopt internationally because of the timelines, and we were totally afraid of the horror stories you hear about the biological parents changing their minds here in the US. We know that those are only the worst case scenarios. We knew it would cost a lot of money. I called some family members to see if they would want to donate to our cause, suprisingly they said YES! So we knew that we would not have to worry about how to finance it. I know not everyone is that lucky, but there are some very creative ways in raising the money. Also, you realize that there are all sorts of things that you can live without when you are desperately trying to save money to finance such an awesome thing.
This is not a lie…..I probably contacted 20 adoption agencies all over the United States. We received tons of information packets in the mail from them. This went on for about a month. The last place I called was Building Blocks Adoption Services and I talked to Denise, the director. She answered all the questions, and made me feel confident in trusting them with this huge task of which Chuck and I knew nothing about. To some agencies I made follow up calls 2 or 3 times. We knew in the back of our minds that we were set on Building Blocks.
So, we were in. We were doing this. This was actually going to produce a child. Not like the uncertainty of fertility treatments. With everything we had been through, we never got our hopes up about anything because we had been let down so many times. That is sort of the way it was in the beginning of the adoption process. I think we were so used to protecting ourselves.
The thing that really took the longest was the homestudy. We had to wait for so many clearances. Our state takes a little longer for certain things. When it was time to do work on the dossier, we knew we were one step closer. We were doing all this work and thinking…someday our baby will be home, but not knowing quite when that would be. Somewhere in there we decided to adopt from Russia. There were so many families adopting from there that we felt confident about the program. Chuck and I need to give a big thanks to Wendy at Building Blocks. She will be in our hearts forever. Of course we had never done anything like this before. We had tons of questions, crazy questions, and probably everyday too. We were very nervous, but she guided us through every step, telling us when to do certain things.
When it was time to go to Russia to meet our children (oh, somewhere in there we decided to adopt two children) we were so nervous. I was physically sick just being so worried about the trip. We had never been to Russia before!! All of our fears were put aside when we got off of the plane and Galena was standing there with a sign that said our name on it. She spoke very good english. We felt safe with her. She helped us buy our plane tickets for the next day to fly to where our children lived. She even checked us into our hotel. Before she left, she told us what time in the morning to meet her in the lobby. She drove us to the airport and practically walked us to the plane. When we got off that plane, there were new people waiting for us. Of course they were just as helpful, doing everything for us.
We will never forget the day that we met our babies. The whole experience is unforgettable. Just to know that we went half way around the world for them and that they are the most beautiful things we have ever seen.
The timeline was right on for our second trip. It was 8-10 weeks after the first trip. We were not nervous at all, we felt like pros at the “Russia” thing. Knowing that they were coming home with us this time was very strange, kind of surreal. Once again, everyone took great care of us. It was a little hectic once we actually got to take the kids with us. Living out of a bag with two kids and being in a foreign land, but we coped and as you can see, are home now.
For a while we thought that we would not ever have children. Now we do, and it was the absolute best journey we have ever taken. Most people have memories of the birth of their child. We have a whole new world of memories and friends that we will remember for the rest of our lives. People we know are jealous because they just had a “normal birth” and we had a life changing experience.
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© Jenni
