Violetta's Story - Colter Family
My Adoption Ark Story
I am more than happy to write a letter talking about our amazing experience with Adoption Ark. Every person I worked with was extremely helpful and did all they could to move our adoption process forward. In fact, I was surprised to learn in October that I was ready for the first trip [we signed our contract September 4th]. I had heard so many people talk about the endless paperwork that I expected a long, agonizing process. There was a lot of paperwork but Lena was very good at keeping me informed about what I would need, any new documents, and what expenses I could anticipate in the region when I got there.
They were very good about answering my endless questions (many of them the same ones over and over). They were friendly and offered great suggestions. The coordinators in the region were amazing!!! I cannot say enough great stuff about them. They exceeded all expectations for hospitality, friendliness and I think some of them spoke better English than I do. We did not have a single problem with paperwork, court, transportation or lodging (all of which Adoption Ark handled for us)
I have told people again and again that if they ever even CONSIDER adoption overseas that they should go with Adoption Ark. They truly love these kids and want to help them find good homes. They work hard to do everything possible to get our kids to us as quickly as possible and as inexpensively as possible without ever compromising integrity or service.
We had friends who adopted from Siberia and they shared tales that made me nervous about going over but I never saw anything but professionalism and integrity from Adoption Ark.
In the end all of it was worth it. Our daughter is beautiful and wonderful with just enough imperfections to make her human. We received a welcome home note from Adoption Ark when we got home and again Lena reminded me if there was anything she could do to just ask. Our children have truly become sisters with fighting, giggling and playing dress-up. Violetta has now met all of her grandparents and won their hearts. I am happy to say that we received a lot of support in our adoption adventure from family members. What is even better is now that we are home those who didn’t know if it was such a good idea have been won over by the joy and love shared by our bio children and Violetta.
We knew when we adopted Violetta that she was hard-of-hearing but when we got to Russia we were surprised to learn she had no language other than grunting and hitting or pointing. Within 8 weeks she can sign 30-50 different word, a couple short sentences and she understands even more than she signs. Her speech therapist has remarked what an intelligent child she is and everyone who meets her loves her [on the flight from Moscow to New York she stole the heart of the Flight attendant who took her up to first class for cookies and fruit.] She is a constant miracle of God and we are blessed every day to be able to watch this miracle unfold.
To anyone considering adoption abroad I have the following advice:
1. Pray often because it is an adventure
2. Don’t try to control it because you can’t
3. Use Adoption Ark
Finally, to someone who is not quite ready to adopt I’d urge you to send money to Adoption Ark’s charities. There is a lot of need over there and these orphanages aren’t the crooked places some message boards would have you believe. Our daughter’s orphanage director worked hard to do the best she could for the children. When we wanted to give a $100 gift to help the kids the director wouldn’t take our money but instead drove with us to the pharmacy to buy the things they needed. She never touched the money but rather bought the things and had us hand the money to the cashier. That is the level of her integrity. She didn’t even want to hint at impropriety. $10 can do amazing things for the orphanage so if you can’t bring one home yet send the money over to help someone else’s child who is waiting to come home.
I guess to sum up if you’re considering adoption, use Adoption Ark. If you can’t bring one home yet but want to help, use Adoption Ark.