Our Adoption Story - Part II - the story of our boys (Max and Alex)

It took us five hours each way to drive to Northern NJ, and I really thought that we were on a wild goose chase.  But, I was wrong - the women who was speaking that day had just returned from a fact finding trip to Russia regarding adoptions - she shared that there were many, many orphans in Russian orphanages, and that she had met with one orphanage director whose orphanage housed 80 children.  She said that the director told her that Americans would never want to adopt her children because they were so grossly handicapped...... Sonya said let me try, and the director Nadia said ok - she gave Sonya pictures of two boys, and she said that Sonya could have access to all her children if she could get a family for the boys... They were two and four.  When Sonya projected their pictures on the screen I couldn't believe my eyes... both of the boys were beautiful blondes with big blue eyes.  We fell in love with the pictures of the boy, and found ourselves asking what was wrong with them.  Sonya quickly explained that the two year old had no toes on either of his feet, and that all his fingers on both hands were webbed.  The four year old had one short arm - his hand was where his elbow should of been, and his other hand only had three fingers - he had no thumbs.  

My husband, Joe, and I looked at each other and said "What's wrong with them?", we will adopt both of them - Sonya looked at us like we were crazy - they handed us a stack of pictures, and ask us to write her a check for $100.

As we drove home from NJ to PA we talked about the boys, talked about the future with them in our lives, and talked all about the "what-ifs" - there was a part of me that thought we just gave a women we don't know a $100, and we are never going to hear from her again.

The next day I went to work - showed everyone my pictures, and hoped that we would hear from Sonya again.  Well we did - that afternoon when I arrived at home my husband met me in the driveway he said "get out of the car! get out of the car! Sonya is on the phone......

I went in our house and got on the phone Sonya's first words were "where's your paperwork?", and my  response was "What paperwork?"

Well that started the journey to adoption for us......

Almost 22 years and 6 children later I spend my days doing adoptions - answering questions, and doing research about adoption issues so now what questions can I answer for you...... Just Hollar HEY ADOPTION LADY.......