Last summer my wife and I began to discuss adopting a second child from Russia. We adopted our son Sean in 2004 when he was 9 months old. Now that he is 6, we thought about having a little brother for him. Of course, having two little boys in the house at my age will present quite a challenge, especially when you add a teenage daughter to the mix! Eventually, we decided that we have the means, the opportunity, and the desire so we should proceed. Sean has been a blessing to us (as is Kelcie) and we simply feel that God has put this desire in our hearts.
Ultimately, my heart is touched by these facts gleaned from the website of Buckner International Adoption:
A recent UNICEF report states that there are more than 750,000 children and teenagers living in institutions in Russia. The annual number of children left without parental care has more than doubled over the last 10 years, despite falling birth rates.
Some 10,000 young people graduate from the state-run orphanages every year. And at least 40 percent of these graduates eventually end up in prisons, while one in ten will commit suicide.
Last week, Lottie and I accepted a match with a 5-year old boy named Nikolai who lives in Krasnodar, Russia. Krasnodar is located in the Black Sea region near the site of the 2014 Winter Olympics. We have been granted some limited information about his background and health, and we have consulted with a pediatrician who specializes in international adoption.
After accepting the match, we were invited to visit Nikolai's orphanage on May 17-19. Lottie, Kelcie, and I will leave on May 14 to travel from DFW through New York and Moscow to arrive in Krasnodar on the 15th. We'll have a day to rest and explore Krasnodar before we meet Nikolai on Monday. We'll get to see him a couple of times each day for three days while also meeting with orphanage and government officials about our formal request to adopt him.
The procedure will call for us to return home, submit more paperwork, and wait for a court date to appear before a judge in Krasnodar requesting adoption. A lot of things could happen before then, most notably another Russian family requesting to adopt him. We want what is best for Nikolai, and pray that God will grant that for him whether that is to live in our home or that of someone else. At this point we want to be faithful to what is right in front of us, which is to proceed with the next step.
Friends have stepped forward to take care of Sean while we are away. I don't think he could manage the long trip. At the same time, this will be his first time to be away from both parents since his adoption. He is excited about the possibility of being a big brother (at least in as much as he understands it at the moment), and has Nikolai's picture over his bed to look at before he goes to sleep.
The final detail for our trip is securing our Russian visas. We are sending off for them today and will hopefully have them in plenty of time. I'll post more information as the trip gets closer.
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