We are very grateful for all of how this adoption has gone.  We read many stories of problems with the pre-adoption process, the adoption trip itself, experiences in Ukraine and post-adoption problems and stresses.  We had read books such as Adopting the Hurt Child, which also talked about challenges in helping the child become really ours.  And, of course, there was the usual apprehension about doing something we had never done before.  All of those were worse than our actual experience. 

Our pre-adoption process went very well (thank you, Heidi, Victoria, Oleg, Nastya, Julia, Jeff Doyle), very smoothly, even though we were trying to compress the time lines.  We were disappointed that we were not able to get a November/December date for our appointment at NAC, but even that turned out to be right in the circumstances.  Our trip to and from Ukraine was very smooth (even though we were very concerned about the cost of return tickets for the boys, until we spoke to the Lufthansa agent in Kiev), with a little time for sightseeing and mild winter weather.  Our treatment in Ukraine was wonderful (thank you to all the vendors and salespeople we met, and to the missionaries in our church).  And our adoption process was incredibly smooth and easy, from our initial meeting of Alex and Nastya, through the appointment at NAC with Nastya and Oleg, the trip to Sumy (Kcenya), all our time in Sumy (with Kcenya, Sergiy, Kcenya's teacher, wonderful Vladimir, the Internat Director and staff [and the hotel and restaurant staff, none of whom spoke any English], as well as the great Polish couple from Colorado, whose adoption was more challenging than ours).  Even our court hearing was more interesting than nerve-wracking.  The post-adoption stages in Ukraine went very smoothly and as quickly as we could want (Nastya, Julia, Dima and the US Embassy staff).  We got to spend the night IN the airport at Frankfurt, because we hadn't had the time to get transit visas for the boys, but, even though the airport chairs make really bad beds, it was still more of an adventure than a trial.  And, when we got back to Dallas, instead of being detained for leaving the country while my green card application was still pending, we were welcomed with open arms (whew!).

Since getting home, we have had some challenges getting the boys settled in, learning English and having their own room, learning our rules and expectations, getting to know their new siblings and cousins and grandmother, but nothing as bad as some of the stories we have read in the posts and blogs of other families.  The boys, especially James, initially had trouble with Sunday School at church, as it looked too much like the orphanage, but even that moved forward quickly.  The people at church and at my work both organized very thoughtful "showers" for the boys, spoiling them rotten with all sorts of things.

Our boys are truly ours and part of our community and family (Christy, John, Jennifer, Grandma, everybody at church and work).  We are very grateful to our Heavenly Father for directing us and those who helped us throughout the process, helping us to find the boys who were waiting for us and to know who they were in spite of being presented with books of literally hundreds of sibling groups, helping us (and particularly Daddy) learn how to communicate with them and be patient with them as they learned to be our boys.  We are grateful for His love and His grace, and pray that we will continue to serve Him and His church, even more diligently in the future than we have in the past.  We are grateful to everybody for their love and help, and hope that we can help others in the future as we were helped.

 

:) First off, congratulations on your sons! We adopted from the Sumy Detsky Dom ( I always called it the Internat but apparently that is the senior orphanage). Would you be willing to forward a request to any family that has adopted from Ukraine(especially the Sumy families) to consider donating any amount to the Sumy Internat fund at Life2Orphans.org site? We've been offered matching funds up to $2,000 by a very generous lady for repairs badly needed there. Thanks so much and again, congratulations. Jeri mom of Alexander from Sumy!