In January of 2010 Greg and I decided to adopt. We had talked about it, prayed about it, researched it and prayed and prayed about it. Greg had always wanted a big family and we decided further infertility treatments were not for us so we decided to listen to what God had placed on our hearts many many different times and begin the adoption process. We meet with our agency the last week in January and signed the initial papers and began the long roller coaster ride of adoption. We chose to adopt through Children of the World in Fairhope, AL. Children of the World told us that we would most likely complete the adoption process in 18 months.
We moved along through the home study, fingerprinting, paperwork gathering process until our complete dossier was sent to Russia in July of 2010. It did not take us that long to gather the needed information but the various government agencies approvals took that long to complete. So we thought everything was in place and we would be matched and receive a referral any day in July 2010 but there was one big problem. The lady from TN sent her child back to Russia in April of 2010 and everything adoption related slowed down in Russia. So the summer was spent waiting and watching the US State Department website about the negotiations for a new adoption treaty between the USA and Russia. Needless to say our adoption timeline was not looking so good at this point.
In March of 2011 we completed the Home Study update still with no referral. Finally in April of 2011 we received a referral of triplets. The triplets were the most adorable three children you have ever seen, one was even red headed. However, while waiting for the medical information to send to the adoption clinic a Russian family decided to adopt them. We were very disappointed, selfishly I know, but were ultimately happy for them to be adopted. Almost immediately after loosing the triplets we received the referral of 18-month-old Polina and 10-month-old Dmitry. We sent all paperwork to the International Adoption Clinic at UAB and waiting on their results. This process was required by our agency so that adoptive parents are made as aware as possible about the health of the child or in our case children. We received good reports back for UAB and accepted the referrals.
Sadly, on May 28th our agency called and said there had been a mistake and Dmitry should have never been matched to us because he had not been on the Russian registry of children long enough to be adopted internationally. We were told we had options:
1. We could wait until September and try to adopt Dmitry then but we were told there was no guarantee we would be able to adopt him and that we would loose Polina if we choose to wait until September.
2. We could give up the referral of Dmitry and keep Polina and go with the referral the agency had sent on May 28th when they revealed the mistake about Dmitry.
Neither option seemed very good to us. We felt like we were loosing either way...loosing a child that we had become attached to through one little picture. He already had a huge place in our hearts, as did Polina. Many tears were shed and much frustration vented at this time but after much prayer and counsel from friends and our life group we decided to go with option 2. Through this experience we firmly believe God had chosen the children for us and we simply needed to tell the agency something and God would no doubt take care of the rest.
After waiting a week on UAB (everything in an adoption takes longer than you expect) to review the new referral we accepted the new referral. Baytimir was born in October of 2009 and Polina in September of 2009. We will find out when we travel what their exact birthdays are but it will be like having 2 year old twins. We believe God has chosen these precious children for us to love and bring into our family. Please pray for us and especially pray for all the orphaned children of the world that each one of us can do something to help these children and glorify God in the process.
Hosea 14:3 “In Thee the orphan finds mercy”
Psalm 82:3-4 “Vindicate the weak and fatherless; do justice to the afflicted and destitute. Rescue the weak and needy; deliver them.”
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