My story
We came home with our daughter Katie three months ago now. What an adventure our adoption has been! We will never forget our trips to Russia, or the demanding and sometimes nerve-racking process that is International Adoption. Our journey began in February and Adoption Ark was wonderful from day one. Elina was so patient with all of my kazillion questions and answered all e-mails and phone calls promptly. The political situation in Russia with regards to adoptions was constantly changing during our process.
We had all of our paperwork completed and were (impatiently) waiting for our chance to travel and pretty stressed out about the whole situation. Elina told me “Don’t freak out. It will be fine.” She was right! The time from accepting a request to travel to actual travel was VERY fast, as was the time between trips. I keep in touch with many adoptive families and have found that our adoption process was much quicker than most. While in Russia, everything went like clock-work. We were so grateful everything went so smoothly. We also came to understand how important it is to find these children good and loving homes.
We arrived home with Katie where she was welcomed by her grandparents and a very excited big brother. I have read a lot of stories that say that their child was a joy from the day they came home. I have to say that it wasn’t exactly the case with us. Katie is strong-willed (as am I) and has not always been easy to parent in the beginning. I think trust was really an issue for her for the first few months. Once I really thought about the magnitude of the changes in her life (and ours) I realized that a transition period had to be normal. Although we haven’t worked out all of the kinks, she and I have made a lot of progress figuring each other out. She has started to trust us and become more attached and more a loving member of our family. I think it’s important for adoptive parents to expect that it may not be all wine and roses when you first arrive home, but given some time, love and effort everything does work out! We are so lucky to have her in our lives. Katie is being very well loved by her new parents, big brother Zack (who is crazy about her) and various pets. She really looks up to her brother and she is growing and changing on a daily basis. Her future looks bright and it has been very rewarding watching her blossom. Katie has been checked over now by several doctors and although she is still small for her age, she is very healthy for a post-institutionalized child!
I can’t say enough about how well Adoption Ark handled everything despite all of the political obstacles that get thrown in their path. Thank you so much! I’ve enclosed some recent pictures. Keep up the good work Elina and bring those kids home!