It started with an informational session...
In January 2008 Paul and I attended an information session about hosting a Russian orphan for summer camp. The purpose of this program is to give the children respite from their lives at the orphanage while learning about another culture during summer vacation. They range from 6 to 12 years old, go to day-camp every day and otherwise live as a family with the hosts. A bonus to this program is that over 90% of the host families choose to adopt the campers. It's not obligatory, but it happens quite often. Since we kept being drawn to the idea of adopting a school-aged child instead of an infant, and were leaning towards international adoption instead of domestic, this program sounded like a great match for us. Plus, the info session was just a town away from us, so it felt like fate was giving us a gentle nudge in that direction...
We filled out our application...
Because we've waited a long time to become parents, Paul and I decided to apply to host siblings instead of just one camper. Our idea was that the children would have each other to speak to during the camp visit. Since we do not speak their language other than reading phonetically from our Russian/English crib-sheets, they would be able to converse in their native Russian. And once we moved forward with the adoption we would have an instant family and they would be a bridge for each other from their past to their present lives. We chose the youngest age group, 6 to 8, because we felt that this age would fit in nicely with our brother's children who live locally to us. We asked for brothers on the application, but also said that we were open to a brother/sister pair as well. When going through the adoption process you learn that the more open you are to many possibilities, the more likely you are to have success. This philosophy truly came into play when we received our referral...
We've been matched, but it's a little different than the others...
The agency called to tell us that this year's campers were a bit different from the past years... they were either much younger than expected or a little older than expected. I held my breath as they told me that we were matched with two brothers, a 4 year old and a 3 year old. This was our match because we had also indicated on our application that we would accept the referral of a sibling set even if one child was too young to participate in the summer camp program. We knew that it would mean an extra trip to Russia to meet the younger child, but it was too soon to think about travel. Besides, the youngest age for this program is 6, so we thought what's the likelihood of a younger sibling, anyhow? Well, you could have scooped me up off of the ground when I received that call! First of all that our camper was only 4, and secondly that he had a brother that was only 3! Like so many times in life, you can make all the plans you want and set your expectations, but what is meant to be happens in spite of your plans. The agency sent us a picture of our camper, Aleksandr. They didn't have his brother Mikhail's picture, but they told us that if we accepted Alek, then the adoption would be contingent upon our adopting both brothers together. Of course we were fine with that. And we were happy with their ages too, because that would mean that they would have less to re-learn when they started school here. Wow, now this was becoming real!
His big brown eyes were soulful
Thank goodness for email because we received Alek's picture right after the referral phone call and he looked so cute! I will always remember what Paul said to me when he opened the email that day... "yes, that's my son!" It clicked for Paul right away. Hook, line and sinker, he fell in love with Alek that day. It really warms my heart to remember this.
I fell in love with Alek when I met him...
He is sweet and fun and sensitive and an absolute delight! With a constant smile on his face and a bit of mischief too, he is a perfect fit for our family. So we told the agency right away that we wanted to adopt him and started to complete the first set of paperwork to move forward with the adoption.
Fast forward to December 2008...
After submitting tons of paperwork since summer camp and becoming more familiar than I ever wanted to be with the local county clerk's offices and the State Department's procedures for getting certifications, authentications and appostiles, we were invited to Russia to meet Mikhail in December 2008! Hooray! Since our referral was a little different than the typical camp referrals, we had to travel on a first trip to meet Alek's brother Mikhail and accept him as our referral. Since we met Alek during camp, we already completed our acceptance documents to proceed with his adoption. After accepting Mikhail's referral, we can then move forward to adopt both boys in one court proceeding. We had a wonderful time meeting Mikhail and reuniting with Alek. Our week went by fast, we submitted the necessary paperwork there and flew home. Saying goodbye was heart-wrenching because Alek understood that we were leaving and was not happy about it. Mikhail is still young and didn't understand. But Alek did and that broke my heart. I know that we will travel soon to adopt them and bring them to their new home, but that knowledge just doesn't fill the void I feel without them. Paul and I watch the videos that we took of them every day, just to feel close to them. Once we complete the adoption we will show our friends and family the video that Paul created about our adoption story.
Our adoption journey will take about 9 months to complete...
We received confirmation last week that the rest of our dossier will deliver this week to our region in Russia. The coordinator told us when we saw her in Russia in December to expect a court date about a month after the dossier delivers. So now we are holding our breath and hoping for that phone call about our court date! Since we received the referral in May and expect our court trip to happen in February, this truly is a paper-pregnancy! I've been making observations about what adoptive parents experience throughout their paper pregnancies and how they correlate to natural pregnacies, but I will save that for another day. Except to say that we are now in our 8th month and giving in to our nesting tendencies in getting the boy's room all set up....
For now, I will say thank you to all of you for your prayers and support!
Looking forward to sharing more with you as we continue our journey to becoming a forever family... Me and Paul and Aleksandr and Mikhail, aka Sasha and Misha! (Plus Casey, Oliver and Princess too!)
