We are the Adair Family and we live in High Point, North Carolina. We have been married for 17 years and were blessed with 2 beautiful children, Emily is 10 years old and Lane is 6 years old. We both had a huge desire for more children but God took our desire to have anymore away and gave the heart for children that were already in the world. We knew that we wanted to adopt siblings and we would love to have a boy and a girl between the ages of 4-8 but we were open to either sex. We made our commitment to adopt in April of 2005 and started our paperwork the next month. We had decided on the country of Ukraine and Russia was our second choice. We completed our homestudy and filed our 171 and ordered our passports, so things were in the works and it was starting to feel real. Then things started to change in Ukraine and felt like God was leading us elsewhere.
We signed a contract with AA July 11th, 2005 and sent our dossier for trip one on August 11, 2005 and traveled to, Russia on September 23-30, 2005. Four months to the date we traveled back to to bring them home to their "forever family" on January 23- Feb. 2, 2006.
We have been home 2 months now and things are going very well. They are adjusting very well and seem to love their forever family..... people even comment on how they seem to have always been here and the relationship between us is so natural. Sasha and Michael are biological siblings that didn't know each other before they were adopted. I sometimes catch Michael staring at her and I wonder what he is thinking. We can't imagine what life would be like if they were not here. We have no doubt that we are the family that God intended for these children to have and that they were created for our family!!! We are enjoying everyday and what it brings through the eyes of all our children. I wish we could keep the excitement they find daily in small things forever. We are grateful that we found them and that we answered God's call to adopt.
As for Adoption Ark they were fantastic and we felt very secure with them. The in country team is OUTSTANDING and very well respected in the region where we adopted. The agency always answered our questions in a timely manner and I would call Natasha at AA and ask crazy questions and she always had time to help me and even if she didn't have an answer right then she would listen to me vent. Adoption is a lot of work and a lot of things are out of your control as well as the agency's....most of the time you are at the mercy of the country and the judge for your case. Adoption Ark is wonderful and truly has a heart and commitment to finding homes for these children. If we ever decide to adopt again ( which might be in the future) we would hands down use AA again.
Good Luck on your journey!!