Our story starts in January of 2003.  We went to a “camp” where Project Hope had brought 30 Russian orphans to America for a kind of cross cultural program.  During their 3 week stay in America, PH hoped to find forever families for all the children. 

By the time we got to California, there were only about 7 children left who were still available.  We met them and fell in love with all of them.  In the end, we narrowed it down to two boys but we couldn’t decide.  With some prayer, we found that we would be able to accept both boys into our home.  Even our then 8 year old son agreed that we could make the adjustment.

At the end of our visit, we had to send the boys back to Russia while the paperwork was completed.  Both cases turned out to be difficult cases and it took over a year before we were able to finally bring them home.  About half way through the process, we discovered that one of our boys has a sister who is a year older than he.  They had been in the orphanage together for about 4 years or since he was 3 and she was 4.

We decided immediately to adopt her as well.  We couldn’t bear to think about separating them.

We started the process to bring her home as well but this proved to be even more difficult than the process with her brother.  Our agency learned that her father (the two children have different fathers) is committed to a mental institution.  Russian law prohibits him from losing his parental rights.  It is very complicated and we have been struggling with it for almost two years now.

We are hiring Alexander to help us out.  We don’t know what exactly he will be able to do, but we know we have to do everything in our power to get our son’s sister home to us.  As time passes it becomes more and more difficult for him.  We have been fortunate enough to be able to call Anastasia a couple of times.  However, the last time we called, Max was unable to communicate with her.  Every time he tried to answer her, it came out in English and she didn’t understand a word.  They were both so frustrated and sad.  I speak a little Russian and have tried to make her understand that we are still working on getting her, but she can’t understand anything about judges and laws so she doesn’t understand why we don’t just come.

Here is our then 7 yr old Dmitry in the orphanage.  Visiting him every day turned into a gluttonous feast.

Max and I in the orphanage.  We were constantly surrounded by lots of children.  They were touching us and asking us questions.  It was overwhelming at first, but eventually we got little bits of time alone together with Max and Anastasia.

Anastasia is the one who made the decision to let Max go.  Had she said “no” the judge would have had difficulty allowing the adoption to go through.  She, at the ripe old age of 9, decided that she wanted Max to have a mommy and a daddy more than she wanted to keep her brother with her.  This picture shows her countenance during our visit.  The day we took Max away and left her was a very difficult day for us.  She just stood and cried as we walked away with the only family member she could remember having.

Our three sons, a year later.  A year of love and food have made all the difference!  To be in our home you would never know that we are an untraditional family. The three boys are brothers in every sense.