Success Stories
Our story is pretty amazing to me. It's hard for me to believe that it's all over and we have our son with us!!!
I, like so many women, had problems getting pregnant. Our first child was with fertility drugs and our second was with IVF and the third was a wonderful surprise. We still felt our hearts were empty. We thought about adoption. The Lord had blessed us three times before and now he was working on our hearts for number four. This time we wanted to give a home to a child that didn't have one. Our adoption was amazing! We decided to adopt July 4 th and we brought him home Christmas eve. What an awesome gift!
I looked at some adoption sites on the computer and found this one that had a 4yr.old boy that looked like our girls. We checked into it, said a lot of prayers and before we knew it we had signed a contract. That was the scariest thing we had ever done. We have never purchased anything on the computer and we were about to expand our family with an adoption agency somewhere out there in “computerland!” We were placed with a caseworker named Olga. Little did I know, she would become a very special part of our family. We finished our dossier and the region where the boy was closed!! We were sad! Olga, which became simply known as “SUNSHINE” (for every time we spoke, she sounded as if her face was just beaming!) suggested that we go to a different region. This meant more paperwork! YUCK!
Knowing that our hearts were already broken by our first loss, I wasn't sure I was going to like any other child. The first child was too young, the second child was too old and then we got our third referral.(This sounds like the three bears.) The photo they sent us was a baby picture and in black and white. We couldn't tell a whole lot about him. He was two and it was hard to tell what he looked like but, he was very cute and so once again we found ourselves saying “let's do it!!”. We were so scared! We are off to a foreign country. Where do we go? What do we do?
It was a large and pretty poor town. I liked Moscow much better. We searched it all on the computer before we left - so, we knew a little about what we were going to see. The team in the region was very helpful. We had someone there when we landed, someone with us all the time and they were there when we took off. Anything that we needed, they helped us. We felt very safe! Next, we go to meet our son. Will he like us? What will he look like? These were some of the questions that were going through our minds. We had read some adoption books and had prepared ourselves for the worst.
Our orphanage was a two hour drive in a little car. We saw a lot of farm land and villages along the way. The villages were very sad!! We finally get there. It was a very old 2 story house with unlevel floors and rusty pipes and it had an odor that I can't explain. But, it was VERY clean!! They took us to this room and we waited. In walks this beautiful little boy with hair of snow and eyes big enough to melt your heart! We started to cry!! I couldn't believe this was the same little boy in the picture!! We started to get to know him. He was very scared of my husband because he had only seen one other man in his life and that was the director. We brought clothes and toys for the children both trips because they just don't have much at all. Our visits were for 4 days two hours a day. We wished we could have had more time. We took him gifts and a small photo album with family pictures. The workers said they would show him the pictures everyday while we were gone. 
Leaving him there was awful!! We waited about a month for a court date and returned. He was a little scared when he saw us but, not too bad. The workers showed him the photos and he was saying his sister's names. I wanted to cry. We went to court and the judge didn't wave our 10 day waiting period so, we get to call the town our home for a while. This was ok. We got to really bond in this time. Bringing him home from the orphanage was a lot of fun.(ha-ha) He had never been outside before and he cried for about 30 min. in the car and finally went to sleep. We started our 10 days and Andrey and Tatyana were great! Anything we needed, they were there to help. They even took us shopping. Then, we are off to Moscow . I wish my stay was longer here. There was so much to see. The flight was interesting. I tried to keep him busy and he slept a lot.
The only problem I have with him is trying to get him to swallow his food. He stores it in his cheeks. Other than that, everything has been super! He is like a normal, healthy child that acts like he has always been a part of our family. He gets a little nervous around large groups of people but, any two year old would do that. He is potty trained, likes to dress himself and is sleeping pretty well. I couldn’t believe how independent he was. But, they don’t have a lot of time for all the children. I’m proof that not all orphanages are bad!! This little boy had been shown love. I can see it. He doesn’t appear to have ever been in an orphanage. He will run to us and give us love, he laughs, he acts silly, he plays well with his sisters. I was prepared for the worst and he is perfect!! He is picking up on English very quickly. He will repeat everything I say. He is amazing!!
I look back at it all and think how did we do all of this. I'm so grateful for that little force that pulled us along and for “Sunshine” helping us through it all. We keep in touch with all the people from the agency often and share photos and stories. Just like our son, they are also a part of our forever family!! Life has a funny way of working out for the best!!! “God places children where they are supposed to be for reasons none of us will understand in this lifetime.”
Good Luck and Keep the FAITH-
Richie and Amanda
