China
Guatemala
Russia
Vietnam
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EthiopiaDear FTIA,
First of all, I want to thank you for your tremendous help and support in our exciting journey of adoption from Russia! Inessa, our Russia coordinator, was wonderful the entire adoption process, guiding us through the mounds of paper work, supporting, and encouraging us when the time seemed to stand still. She was always very prompt in answering all of my e-mails and phone calls, and ensuring that we were on track in our paper chase. Samm was also very helpful every time I got a chance to speak with him over the phone or send him an e-mail. Olga, Lena, Vasiliy, Konstantin, Nina, Katya, Anya, Oleg, and all FTIA staff, who took care of us in Russia, were absolutely great as well!! Everyone at FTIA provided us with so much help, encouragement and support!
Even before Earl and I got married in March, 2000, we have always wanted to adopt a little child from the Ukraine or Russia. We decided to name a boy Alexander Nikolas Patrick, and a girl, Julianna Lydia. All these names have very special meanings to us. I came to the United States from the Ukraine in 1995, and met Earl on the internet in my junior year in college in August of 1998. Earl was born in Texas, but was adopted by a West Virginia family when he was two months old, so he always wanted to give the gift of adoption to a little child who so desperately needed a home and loving parents.
After the whirlwind of obtaining our educations, jobs, and a house, we finally settled down and decided to begin the adoption process. A friend highly recommended Families Thru International Adoption (FTIA) as the agency to help us through our international adoption. So, at the end of August, 2006, we contacted FTIA and inquired about adopting a child from Russia. Even though we had already done some paperwork for an international adoption, such as a homestudy, physicals, and digital fingerprints for I-171H form, we still had to gather an enormous amount of documents. FTIA’s Guide to Russian Adoptions (MyFTIA) was extremely helpful in obtaining and preparing the paperwork because it explained the process and documents needed in great detail, and provided samples of certificates, letters, etc. When we turned in our Dossier One on October 19, 2006, we breathed a sigh of relief! Now the excruciatingly long wait for the region assignment and a referral begins, we thought. We figured it would take at least a couple of months to get a referral . . .
On October 23, 2006, I got an e-mail from Inessa that our dossier had been forwarded to the Kemerovo region. Wow, I thought, that was quick! We got a region assignment over the weekend! Well, I had another wonderful surprise waiting for me . . . The next day, Inessa called me at work and asked: "Do you have a few minutes?" My heart was pounding with anticipation; I wanted to know if Inessa had a referral for us. She did. Inessa said that FTIA received a referral for us. His name was Artur, a ten-month-old little boy from Novokuznetsk, Russia. Inessa said she would be forwarding me his photos and medical information in a few minutes. Wow! My heart was really pounding now! In a few minutes I was going to see what my son looks like!! I ran to my friend’s office next door, and said: "I’m about to get the pictures of our little boy, come and look at them with me!" When I opened the e-mail from Inessa, called "Referral Information", I clicked on the picture, I was sooo nervous, but very excited! When I saw Alexander’s little face, big brown eyes, and a cute expression, I was relieved. He was so small, but looked healthy. His facial expression was sweet and inquisitive.
The wait for our first trip was very difficult because we wanted to meet little Alexander. When we met Alex, he was several days shy of turning one year old. Of course, after our fun but exhausting journey to Russia on December 16-21, 2006, we had to gather more documents for Dossier Two (thankfully, not nearly as many as we had to get for Dossier One) and to anxiously wait for the phone call to come and get our little Alexander. I kept myself busy by holding a Russian themed baby shower at my house, complete with Russian food, desserts, and gifts, and decorating Alex’s nursery. Finally, on February 26, 2007, we got an e-mail from Inessa, telling us that our court date was scheduled for March 13, 2007. She said we would be leaving for Russia on March 10th. Wow, we were so excited! Now we had to pack and get ready for our second trip, this time to get Alex from the orphanage and bring him home. We arrived in Moscow on March 11th, and left for Kemerovo that same evening. We were so thankful to have a day to relax and prepare for our court hearing on the 12th. Our adoption hearing went great. The judge waived our 10-day waiting period, and we were now officially Alex’s parents! Now we were ready to go back to Novokuznetsk (a 3-hour drive) to pick up Alex from the orphanage the next day . . .
Early in the morning of March 14th, we were on our way to take Alex from the orphanage. We were both excited and nervous. We did not know how Alex was going to react to us taking him away from a place so familiar to him. When the orphanage workers brought him and placed him in our arms, he cried and cried, and cried. But as soon as we took him out of the orphanage, he stopped crying and looked around curiously.
Alexander has adjusted to his life in the United States extremely well. He sleeps through the night without crying. We put him to bed at 8 pm, and he sleeps until about 8 am. When he wakes up, he starts to babble and turns on his soothing ocean crib toy. Alex absolutely loves to eat! He loves veggies, fruit, cereal, meat, and just about anything except for sweet potatoes. He’s a typical healthy toddler: loves to play, run, climb . . . Alex has gained about 9 lbs in the first 6 months we’ve had him, and he’s grown about 4-5 inches. He’s starting to say words in both English and Russian, and understands so many things in both languages! Alex is a sweet little boy, and we’re so thankful to FTIA for helping us bring him to his forever home and his forever family, who loves him very much! If you ask us what agency we are going to use to adopt little Julianna Lydia in the future, we’ll tell you: Families Thru International Adoption, of course!
Thank You!
Natalie
