Success Stories

Our adoption journey began like so many others do. We tried to conceive for 4 years before the doctor told us that invetro-fertilization was our only option. Our daughter Emilee was finally conceived via IVF and born in 2001. We were content with our happy healthy daughter. But when she turned 3 years old, she began to ask for a sibling like all of her friends were getting. Try explaining to a doe-eyed 3 year old why you can’t give her one. Unwilling to once again face the hormonal roller coaster of IVF with a 30% success rate, we began talking about adoption.

I started looking into it by surfing the internet for more information. For every success story that I read, there were 5 horror stories of people losing their money and never getting a child. I emailed several adoption agencies that looked promising just so I could get some information that I could further research. Some didn’t email me back; others just sent standard impersonal form replies with the price schedule attached as if to weed out the weak. One day, after I spent my lunch hour emailing agencies, my phone rang. The most angelic voice that I’ve ever heard came across from the other end and almost sang “Hello Krista, this is Elena from Faithful, how are you today?” I was shocked! No cold impersonal form letter and no email, but a phone call! I knew in my heart from that first conversation with Elena, not only was adoption the route that we would take to get Emi her sibling, but we were going to use Elena at Faithful. Elena would soon become my new best friend. Though I never met her face to face, she guided us along the way like a guardian angel. Finally, several months had passed and Elena sent us an email. All it said was “here is what you’ve been waiting for.” I clicked open the attachment and it was a picture of a 3 year old little boy. My heart stopped, I couldn’t breathe and tears welled up in my eyes. I called my husband, who was also at work, and we cried together for several minutes. This was our son, and he looked just like me! We spent several weeks preparing, praying and shopping for the little boy whom we would name “Carter”. The afternoon of the day before we were scheduled to fly to Russia to meet Carter, Elena called and informed us that we had lost the referral and we wouldn’t be getting him. I was devastated. I felt as though my world had been jerked out from under me. I called Elena that evening to inform her that not only would we not be going to Russia the next morning, but we were finished. We were tired of not being in control of our future and our adoption journey was ending. I was absolutely not going to get on that plane, fly 10 hours to a country which was so foreign to us and not know what we were getting into. Elena cried with me for 45 minutes on the telephone and begged me to go. “Please trust in God and put your fate in my hands and I will not let you down” she said. I cried and prayed all night. The next morning, reluctantly, we kissed our daughter good-bye and boarded an airplane with doubt in my head, a prayer in my heart and passports in hand. After the plane landed in Moscow, we took a train ride to the region. Once there, we received another referral, this time, for a 17 month old little girl named Victoria and what do you know – she looked just like our biological daughter Emilee. We spent time with her, got to know her and her background and decided that we could open our hearts up once again to let this child in. We came home while our court date was being arranged and returned to Russia 6 weeks later, this time with hope in my heart and mind, a diaper bag in one hand and a passport in the other. We brought Victoria home on December 10, 2005 to a house full of waiting family and friends. We have now been home for a month and a half. Our daughters have begun the process of sisterhood and we have started the paperwork for a second adoption, this time for a sibling group of 2.

If you are reading this, it is because you too are interested in adoption and I know that you are scared of the uncertainties. Let me tell you, it isn’t easy and there were numerous times along the way that we were tired and ready to give up. But, if we would have, we wouldn’t have been blessed with Tori. We wouldn’t have added to our family. We wouldn’t have saved the life of a child who otherwise may not have been given a chance. Not only a chance to be raised by a loving family, but one of the best gifts of all, the freedom that this wonderful country gives to us. When our airplane touched down at JFK on December 10th, our daughter became an American citizen. When you spend weeks in Russia, you appreciate what we have, what so many of us take for granted. It’s a life altering experience.

It is an emotional roller coaster, a financial burden and a time consuming process, but isn’t parenthood in general no matter how your children come to be? Just like labor, once it’s over with, you forget about the pain. Parenthood is the absolute greatest experience of our lives and we can’t wait to return to Russia for our other children. I love the butterfly kisses and Velcro hugs that my kids give to me every single day and wouldn’t trade any of them for the world.

There’s a wonderful forum for all Faithful parents to bond and share. I still log onto it every day to see the adoption news and progress of all my friends that I’ve made along the way. If your heart is called by an unexplainable force, then adoption may be what you’re searching for. If that is the path you choose and you sign with Faithful, they have my contact information if you’d like a little encouragement along the way. Until then, may you too be blessed with butterfly kisses and Velcro hugs.

Krista, Michael, Emi & Tori

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