China
Guatemala
Russia
Vietnam
Brazil
India
Ethiopia
You know the saying "God opens doors for you", well for us, He pushed us through them. When my husband and I got married, we knew we wanted to start a family right away. We attempted fertility measures for only six months and knew that this wasn't the way it was supposed to happen. We could have taken additional treatments but my heart was in adopting. It took a little more convincing with my husband as he had the yearning to "see his own eyes". While doing the fertility route, my husband was working on a room addition for someone who turned out to be our home study coordinator. She had given us a FTIA brochure to read. At that time in October, I put it aside, as we had not decided on adoption. December of 2000 was my last month of fertility with no luck. In January I found the brochure and began reading it and found the website. I checked out FTIA's website on January 10th to discover, ironically, that there was going to be a meeting in Indianapolis that upcoming Saturday. The meeting was very informative and it made it "real" to see the families, their children, and to hear their stories. We were anxious at that point to the get the process started. Brian and I went home and started filling out the initial application for Russia thinking that we wouldn't travel until the Fall of 2001. Little did we know that our son was anxiously waiting for us to come and bring him home earlier.
The process went very quickly. We turned in our application around January 20th. We received Brent's referral on April 30th. We were so very excited, and remember earlier when I told you that my husband was apprehensive as he wanted to "see his own eyes", well, he immediately fell in love with our son and knew that God had sent him to us. The time went so quickly after that. Everything fell in place and I took my first trip to see Brent in late June. It was the most wonderful feeling when they put him in my arms and I could hug and kiss him. He was everything I expected...and so very much more. Of course, one of the hardest things I have ever had to do in my life was to leave him on that Friday knowing that he wasn't going home with me. As the Judge was going to be on vacation, we knew that we wouldn't be going back until August...date unknown. We were very excited to hear the news that we would be leaving Indianapolis August 3rd and our court date was August 6th. We arrived in Rostov-on-Don on August 4th but we didn't get to visit Brent until August 5th. That was a long/short day as we had traveled so far and our bodies hadn't adjusted to the new time zone yet we were so anxious to see Brent. We were very fortunate in that we stayed at a house where we were taken very good care of and at any time there were three other families so the time that we couldn't spend with Brent, we had someone to talk to and someone to play board games. Sequence, UNO, and Yahtzee take on a whole new meaning these days.
The first time Brian met Brent was precious. Brent was a little apprehensive as the children at that particular orphanage weren't around very many men as it was a female staff. It didn't take long, so, for them to warm up to each other.
We went to court on August 6th which was a little scary but nothing that isn't worth it to bring your child home. Everything went fine and we were told that we would get custody of Brent on August 17th. We were not looking forward to the wait but we knew we would live, and it would be worth it when we were on that flight home to the USA. We were able to visit Brent every weekday for 1 hour. So every day we went and saw our little boy counting down the days that we would have to leave him.
On August 17th we got an early start as we had to do plenty of paperwork before we could actually pick him up from the orphanage, i.e. getting his court documents, adoption certificate, birth certificate, etc. That process did not go fast enough as I kept asking, "When can we go and pick Brent up?" We finally got to pick him up around 12:30pm and of course, I was crying because now as a Mom it felt like birth. It was unbelievable that he was really ours.
We left Rostov-on-Don on August 23 bound for Moscow. As soon as we arrived, we had to go to the clinic to have Brent's medical exam in which he let us know in no uncertain terms by screaming at the top of his lungs that he did not care for it. While there, we stayed at a very nice hotel that had a crowing rooster clock that was entertaining to Brent (Mommy and Daddy too). On August 24th we went to the American Embassy to get Brent's visa. It was a very simple process that our translator (Irena) mostly handled. The only thing we had to do was fill out some paperwork and go to the actual Embassy to turn the paperwork in and get Brent's visa. It took about 20 minutes. We left for home on August 25th. We were happy to be heading home but not looking forward to the long flight to JFK. Don't worry though, it goes very quickly when you are attempting to entertain your child as well as the other approximately 10 children that were on the flight. We were very fortunate that we got to sit by one of the families that we had been staying with in Russia so we helped each other out as they adopted 2 boys ages 12 months and 15 months, they really had their hands full. We arrived in JFK and made it through immigration without any problems. Brent, along with the other children on the flight, instantly became a U.S. citizen.
It's now 8 weeks later and it seems as if Brent has always been in our life. There was essentially no adjustment period as he fell immediately into a routine and is growing like a weed. He was about 17 pounds when we left Russia and he now weighs 22 pounds. He has also grown an entire inch in this time. He hasn't missed a meal.
Finally, I would just like to say that the entire time we were in Russia, we never felt unsafe. There was always someone there to help us if/when we needed it. FTIA took care of us. We feel truly blessed that Brent has been brought into our life. We are the lucky ones!!! He brings us joy and smiles every single day.
Brian, Jeanna, & Brent Phillip Dmitry
wampcat@yahoo.com
