Welcome to our community

Marsha - posted on 03/28/2009

Great to join you all! We live in eastern North Carolina. I adopted my daughter, Ava, from Pervouralsk, in the Ekaterinburg region of Russia. She was only 5 1/2 months when I brought her home in April 2003 and she is FABULOUS! She makes me smile every day and I can't imagine not having her in my life! I'm so thankful God gave me the courage to do this alone and I hope His plan is to bring a "daddy" to us at some point...silly me thinking that it was all about my plan! Hindsight being 20/20, WOW, He knows what He's doing because there is no doubt Ava is supposed to be my baby!!

Jennifer - posted on 02/27/2009

I am Jennifer from Illinois. My husband and I have 3 biological children a 9 y/o daughter, a 7y/o son and a 3y/o son. We adopted our 3rd son (Lucas) from China, arriving home 2/7/08 the very first day of the Chinese New Year. Our process took 13mos from start to finish as our son is a special needs adoption. He was born missing his left forearm. Only being 11mos younger than our 3rd child life is busy and loud at my house but we feel so blessed to have him in our family. I don't know if we will adopt again, at this time 5 looks like a very big number!

Randi - posted on 02/23/2009

I am Randi Eshelman. My husband and I have a two year old (biological) and we just adopted a 9 month old from S. Korea a couple of months ago. This has been something that I have wanted to do ever since I can remember. I was adopted from S. Korea as well. My daughter and I were adopted out of the same agency. It has always been a passion of mine to adopt.

Janna Kay - posted on 01/28/2009

I am Janna Kay. My husband and I are from the U.S. but live in South Africa. We have a bio-daughter, Ruth Anne, who is 15. We adopted Joshuwa, who is 6, when he was 9 mo old. He was born in Johannesburg, South Africa. He was left in the hospital by his bio-mom after she gave birth. She walked out leaving a false name and address. He was placed in a home from the hospital. Many people say that we have been a blessing to him by giving him a loving family and a good life. But what they don't really understand is that he has brought us so much joy, that we are the ones who are truly blessed.

Valerie - posted on 01/25/2009

I'm Valerie.  My family lives in Virginia Beach, VA.  We adopted a son, now almost 11 years old, in 1990 from Guatemala.  We worked with an agency in NC.  Then we went back and privately adopted our 7-year-old son in 2002.  

Deborah - posted on 01/24/2009

I'm Deborah from Calgary. I think I'm the only Canadian so far here! We are in the process of adopting from Ghana. We are early in the process - just completed our homestudy! This will be our 4th child (first three are bio).

Jennifer - posted on 01/24/2009

I am Jennifer from Montana.  We have 7 children including a daughter home from Ivanovo, Russia in May 2006 and three from Korea home April 2003, October 2004 and November 2008.  We have used our different agencies: Holt INternational, Dillon International, Adoption Ark and Wide Horizon's for Children.

Jennifer - posted on 01/24/2009

I am Jennifer from Montana.  We have 7 children including a daughter home from Ivanovo, Russia in May 2006 and three from Korea home April 2003, October 2004 and November 2008.  We have used our different agencies: Holt INternational, Dillon International, Adoption Ark and Wide Horizon's for Children.

Sara - posted on 01/24/2009

Hello everyone! I am Sara from CT. Our son Ryan came home from Korea on Oct 14, 2004 one day shy of six months old. We adopted through Wide Horizons for Children. Ryan has been home for over 4 years now and is the light of our lives! We do not plan to adopt again, our family is complete.

Melanie - posted on 01/19/2009

Hello! My name is Melanie and my hubby and I brought home our then 14 month old daughter from China in May 2008. Her name is Macey and she will be 2 years old on Valentine's Day! I have a 26 year old stepson who is married with a 3 year old daughter, Alexa. Alexa spends 2 days a week and every other weekend with us. She and Macey have become such good friends being only 15 months apart in age. Macey is beautiful, smart, and very funny---she has a great sense of humor!

Tiffany - posted on 01/18/2009

Hey y'all Im Tiffany from Louisiana. My husband and I have 2 biological kids ages 10 and 6. We are looking to adopt internationally from Guatemala although it is not accepting apps at this time from what Im finding out. We havent started any process.I have heard from some people somme unsettling things about the agency I was thinking of going with. So Im hoping to find one that has a good standing name.

Karen - posted on 01/15/2009

Hey Angela.  I think it is more than welcome to post anything about your adoption.  Please feel safe here.  We have been in the process of adopting our son for almost 18 months now, and then found out he had a baby sister 2 1/2 months ago, and now we are starting her process.  Our whole world is adoption and taking care of our three biological girls.  We get at least 5 questions everyday regarding our adoption, and no one can understand why it is taking so long.  I think people are so Americanized, that they forget other cultures have their way of thinking and doing.  I'm to the point I try not to talk about our adoption to anyone because they just don't understand how one day we could be a step farther and then the next ten steps back.  People who have walked the walk are the only ones that truly get the big picture. 

Angela - posted on 01/15/2009

Hi I'm Angela. I live in NE VA with my husband & daughter Cerri (who is bio/IVF). We are in the process of adopting, currently have been waiting for a referral since Sept (Perm region, Russia). My local friends are sick of every other sentence out of my mouth being about our upcoming adoption, so hopefully it's ok to talk about it more here. :) We don't know anything yet about our future child other than specifying an upper age limit of 42 months (SW's recommendation, based on Cerri's age).

Caroline - posted on 01/12/2009

Hi, I am Caroline from Florida. My DH and I are proud parent of a 6 year old daughter adopted from Nicaragua. We brought her home on Mother's Day 2006 when she was 3 1/2 years old. It took us almost 4 years from the time we submitted our paperwork until adoption day and we met our daughter about half way through the process at the age of 2. There are no agencies working in Nicaragua (at least not when we adopted) and you work directly with the government along with the help of an attorney. There are lots of ups and down adopting from Nicaragua and even though it was a roller coaster ride, it was all worth it once we had her home. We are so blessed!

Karen - posted on 01/08/2009

Well...it looks like I'm the unexperienced one in the group!  I have three biological girls:  14, 12, and 10.  We are officially parents of a 4 yr old Liberian boy, but there is such a stronghold over there we are just waiting for him...17 1/2 months of waiting.  During the wait, we discovered (2 months ago) that he has a baby sister, so we are starting the whole process over to adopt her too.  We can't wait until they are home, and just wonder and wonder when that day will be.

Julie - posted on 01/02/2009

Hi! I'm Julie from St. Louis, MO. In January of 2006, we adopted a beautiful 10 month old from Ramenskoye, Russia (right outside of Moscow). It was a great process and for us, it moved pretty quickly (but we were really lucky). It's hard to believe in about a week and a half we'll be celebrating our 3rd gotcha day!

Alisha - posted on 01/01/2009

I'm Alisha, originally from TX, but living now in Corrientes, Argentina. Three years ago (2005) we adopted our bundle of joy from Ukraine. It was a trial - Americans living in Argentina adopting from Ukraine makes the paperwork a nightmare! Elijah is a blessing we are amazed by everyday. We are now on the waiting list for an Argentine domestic adoption in three different provinces (states). We've been waiting for a year now & we've been told it takes at LEAST 2 years to complete.

Denise - posted on 12/30/2008

My name is Denise and I live in MI.

My dh and I have 4 under 4 who were all born in Guatemala. They each came home at various ages and in different years.

We would like more children once I'm out of law school...... hoping that Guatemala will have a viable and ethical program by then but if not, we will probably do foster-adopt here in the states.

Unless it's another bio-sib...no more infants for us!

Life is busy round our house....but I wouldnt have it any other way.

User - posted on 12/19/2008

Hi- I'm Vivian from California (northern). We adopted biological sisters from Smolensk Russia in 2001- Victoria was 15 months and Julia was 2 1/2. We also used Bethany Christian Services initially for a domestic adoption but after a year of waiting decided to try the international route. We used Bethany inconjunction with Adoptions in Aid out of Walnut Creek, CA. The girls are now 8 and 10- a lot fun and we count our blessings every day that we decided to adopt internationally. And yes, we went from 0 to 2 kids overnight... so it was a lot of work... more than we anticipated but also a lot of fun and joy... We could not imagine life without them.. Thanks for forming this group.. its nice to know other mom's out there that have internationally adopted! Happy Holidays to you all!

User - posted on 12/11/2008

We just adopted a 12 yr old girl, Mekdes from Ethiopia in September through Gladney in Fort Worth, TX. Quite an experience. Now we have four children! So much fun.

Kate - posted on 11/25/2008

I'm Kate from California. We have two boys adopted from Stavropol Krai, Russia (Southern Russia, and birthplace of Mikhail Gorbachev). Our eldest, Xander, came home in August 2006 at 13 months, and our youngest, Caleb, came home in July 2008 at 22 months. Our first adoption took nearly 2 years, and our second adoption just took 11 months. Our boys are 14 months a part -- so its a lot of work, but super fun.

Kristy - posted on 11/18/2008

I am Kristy, from Maine. We have two biological children ages 5 and 3. Our son came home from India 1 year ago this Thanksgiving, and we are in the process again from India. We brought our son home the week of his first birthday. We used Dillon International and can't say enough good things about them. Fabulous experience. Their India program is temporarily closed, so this time we are using MAPS, and have been pleased so far. we keep a blog at www.maxtomaine.blogspot.com

Amy - posted on 11/11/2008

Hi, my name is Amy from Michigan. I have a wonderful husband and 2 fantastic adopted children both from Chelyabinsk, Russia. My son, Tyler is 5 and he came home in April of 2005, my daughter, Madison is 4 and she came home in November of 2005. We attempted to adopt them both at the same time, however, if you are familiar with Russian adoption, there were lots of complications that came up during that time and we had to end up making 3 trips.

Kerrie - posted on 11/10/2008

I am Kerrie from Oklahoma. We adopted our only son, Zakary, from Vietnam in 2007. He is 2 1/2 and was 1 year, 3 weeks when we brought him home in May of 2007. We used Dillon International, Inc. adoption agency and were VERY pleased with all of their help during our 16 month process (from 1st paper signed to traveling to Vietnam). We were able to spend three weeks in his birth country while the paperwork was being completed, but he was with us the entire time, so it was truly an adventure! We are having a blast raising our very energetic son!

Vandana - posted on 11/10/2008

Hello Ladies,

My name is Pamela Dillon (although my spiritual name is Vandana, which is sanskrit). I live in St Petersburg, Florida with my wonderful husband and two and a half year old biological son, Jake. I also have two stepdaughters, Anna (10) and Mary (8) who spend four to five weeks with us in the summer and two weekends a month with us. We are a wonderful blended family. My husband and I have been tossing around the idea of adopting a little girl from India or possibly somewhere else. It will help me to hear your experiences (good and bad) to help us make the decision and figure out when to start the process. We would like to adopt a baby if possible. How did you go about starting the process? Any advice or sharing of stories would be much appreciated. Om namah shivaya. Vandana

Annie - posted on 11/07/2008

We are parents of five children from Ivanovo, Russia. All adopted when they were older children - all wonderful, delightful, well-balanced and happy children. We couldn't be more lucky!

Amber - posted on 11/07/2008

Megan, we adopted our son from Korea. It is an excellent country to adopt from. The program is very dependable and they are very well taken care of too!! What agency did you use??

Megan - posted on 11/06/2008

I'm Megan from Ohio. My husband and I adopted our son, Jacob, from Russia in 2004/2005. Our first trip to Moscow was October 2004 to do our "meet and greet". We returned in January 2005 to bring our Russian prince home. 2004 was the worst Christmas ever! The wait was agonizing. We survived and have had three miraculous Christmases since. Getting ready to explore adoption through Korea for our next addition.

Amy - posted on 11/01/2008

Hi, I'm Amy from Portland, Oregon. We have three daughters, all adopted from Haiti through New Life Link and Hope for the Children of Haiti. Jolie and Eva were 4 and 2 when they joined our family 5 years ago. Kerline was 14 when she joined us a year and a half ago. Now they are 16, 9 and 7. Haiti is an amazing place. We continue going back when we can and hope to bring our daughters back for their first visit next year. We temporarily live in Spain which has added challenges especially for our teenager who spoke only Kreyol and French a year and a half ago and now speaks, and continues to learn, English and Spanish too. Well, as is no surprise, I must go to braid hair now!

Jennifer - posted on 10/31/2008

I could have sworn Posted this earlier but... I was probably interrupted by our four year-old, Nikolai. We brought Nikolai home in April 2005, having met him for the first time in December 2004 when he was nine months old. (the Russian Duma changed the adoption requirements so it added a few more (incredibly stressful) months to the process. Nikolai was born in Kungur in the Perm' Region. (Perm' is also the name of the largest city in the region- also known as "the gateway to Siberia". It was the last stop that the trains made on their way to the Soviet gulags, apparently) Nikolai is our only child and will forever be our only child. We (meaning me) vaguely considered adopting again but then I realized I just really wanted to live in a foreign country for extended periods of time (I was in Russia for a total of a month). Luckily my husband is in the Army so that won't be too hard!

Heather - posted on 10/31/2008

I'm Heather, currently living in Milwaukee. We adopted our daughter from Sierra Leone in April 2005. We had matched with her at 8 weeks, but weren't able to get her home until she was a little over 2 years old. Our agency was not a good one, in fact we had to break away from them and do an independent adoption in order to get her home, so I won't share the name here. But, she is amazing and was definitely worth every tear and heartache we experienced during that time :) We also now have a biological son, who was born in June 2007. There's a possibility we'll adopt again internationally when we're ready for more kids (in a few years...).

Beth - posted on 10/28/2008

I am Beth from Pennsylvania. We have two children that we adopted almost 4 years ago from Kostanai, Kazakhstan. Our son was 2 1/2 years old, and our daughter was 9 months old when we brought them home. The transition of going from childless to 2 children was overwhelming at first, but absolutely worth it! We call it our 'labor and delivery'!

Dawna - posted on 10/28/2008

My name is Dawna, and I have two children. Kae (20) is my bio-child, and Anika Joy (9) is our Belarussian princess from Belarus. We celebrated adoption day 5 this past summer. Kae was our biggest supporter and stood up to family members who thought we were insane to bring this 'foreign' kid home. Now, my mother (who was the most vocal against it) and Anika are the BEST of buddies. Anika is such a joy to have, and we are grateful everyday we have her. She came to us with a spinal cord deformity, and during the surgery to correct it, she "had a stroke" which left her paralyzed at T7/T8. That is about halfway between the belly button and the end of the sternum. She is independent, spunky, sweet, and very charismatic. Just love this kid!!

Sarah - posted on 10/27/2008

Hello Everyone! My name is Sarah from SW Florida. My husband and I returned home July 2007 with our first child, Abe, adopted from Dnipropetrovsk, Ukriane. We are looking into beginning a second adoption soon. We are usure if it will be international or domestic.

Kerri - posted on 10/27/2008

Hi, I am Kerri from Kansas. My husband & I adopted our daughter Brooke from the Philippines. We brought her home May 2007 at 15 months old and then our son Ben was born in Nov. 2007. My husband is 1/2 Filipino and that is why we choose to adopt from there. We waited 15 months for a referral and waited 5 months after that to travel to bring our daughter home. We have been so blessed that our adoption process went so smoothly (even though a long process) and our daughter fit so perfectly into our family.

Heather - posted on 10/26/2008

Hi, I'm Heather from Ohio. We have 2 children. Our son is biological and our daughter is from China. We were just there this February 2008. We got Jadelyn at 10 months old. They both have been a blessing and a joy! China was a great experience, even though the flight was very long!!

Dawn - posted on 10/25/2008

I'm Dawn, we have 2 biological kids and 2 adopted. Our son Daniel is from Korea. We used Dillon International in Tulsa, OK for his adoption. Our daughter, Willow is from Taiwan and we used Christian Salvation Services in Taiwan. Our domestic agency is no longer in business but it was Commonwealth Adoptions International in Florida.

Aimee - posted on 10/25/2008

I am Aimee from Colorado. We have three biological children, age 15, 13, and 9. We then have an 8 year old adopted from S. Korea and a 5 year old adopted from China. And then we have another biological child who is 2. Needless to say, we have a very busy household, but love (almost) every second of it!!

Melissa - posted on 10/25/2008

Thanks Amber for starting a new little group! Here's my intro...I'm Melissa from Michigan. We have 3 children, our 2 oldest are biological. Cameron is 11 and Anna is 8. Julia is our youngest and was adopted from China in 2005. She was 24 months when we brought her home. She was also an Waiting Child, meaning she was on China's special needs list. Julia has an ear that didn't develope correctly and has mild hearing loss in that ear. Anna also has hearing loss that was detected at birth and has been using hearing aids since 4 months old. My husband and I still think of adopting again...especially from China. We really enjoyed our time spent there. Wayne and I are excited to see more families choosing adoption in our area!