Thursday April 15

So I wake up this morning to discover that MSNBC has MIS-reported the suspension of Russian adoptions to the US. Since this is my business, I call Russia right away and talk to the head of our office there and he tells me that there is no basis for the report. I wake up my daughters and think how sad it is that some people will be driven away from adopting by this report, even though it is erroneous. And how lucky I am to have been able to share in the lives of these wonderful kids!

Onto our story.....when I adopted my first child, it took over two years - almost three. In part that was because in those long ago days, single moms were not interesting or considered the "right" people to adopt. Birthmothers basically felt like if they wanted a single mom, they would just keep the baby and raise it themselves! (I don't blame them). But after several aborted attempts, my attorney called and said there was a birth mother who was open to a single mom. After that everything went like clockwork. I was and am convinced that God is the pilot of this ship and that when the right child was ready to be born, I would be able to adopt her.

I am more convinced of that now than ever before. My second adoption took place over 14 years later, but was also two years in the making. In 2007, a family that returned with their child from Russia came to my office and placed a picture on my desk, telling me that I needed to find a family for a particular little girl. I kept her picture on my desk, but she was 10 and most people want younger children, so it was hard to find a family for her. Eventually I came to realize that this child was meant to be in our family - my daughter, Caitlin's sister. So I started the process only to have the child removed from the Children's Home by a Russian foster family in the fall of 2007. So I thought I had mis read the signs, she was not meant to be ours. I kind of put it on the back burner then and concentrated on other things. But my daughter Caitlin still wanted a sibling. In March of 2009 I was notified through a contact that the girl (now known as Allie) had been returned by the foster family to the Children's Home. Wow! What a shock!

By June 1, we were on our way, winging thorugh South Korea to reach Vladivostok, Russia to meet Allie for the first time. I had accomplished it! In less than two months, home study, documents, medical checkup, all that was necessary to make a first trip. (More on this at another time). We met her - but she was already ours before we ever saw her. So we spent a week there, going to the Children's Home every day and amazingly, being able to take her out to lunch, to the skating rink, to the aquarium! At the end of the week, it was official - we would come back ASAP for her.

Our wonderful representative - Oksana Nikulina - said as she was putting us on the plane - "You have two months to get everything in" (this so my older daughter would not miss school which started in August, and Allie could start right away). Unbelievably, it all happened - I like to listen to Joel Osteen, who is the minister for Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas, and he always says that when God's favor opens up on you, things you could not imagine will happen. Well, he is right - USCIS approval in 8 days - psychological exam in 3 days in the middle of the summer when everyone is on vacation - all kinds of things that I could not imagine would happen did - and we made it back to Russia for court on August 5, 2009.

So today, in these uncertain times, I want to encourage people that miracles can and do happen all the time - I have witnessed at least two in my life. :)