The Baker Family
Russia - 2004
We
would like to thank A Child Waits Foundation
for assisting us in the process of adopting our
two daughters, Elena Leigh and Kristina Lynn from Tomsk, Russia. We are so thrilled
to have these wonderful girls become a part of our family and we feel we have
been blessed in an incredible way through your foundation.
My husband and I have been married for fourteen and a half years. Because of an accident I had as I child, I have been unable to get pregnant through the many different fertility possibilities. We had become content with the possibility that we would not have our own children, and we began volunteering in Romania orphanages nine years ago as an attempt to make a difference in the lives of children. Andy, my husband, left his career and started a mission agency three and a half years ago called Remember The Children, that helps support abandoned children, provides humanitarian aid to families in need, and gives medical assistance to hospitals and orphanages around Oradea, Romania. We believed that it was not possible for us to adopt due to the high cost, and because both Andy and I work in the non-profit field.
Several years ago our hearts were touched by a child we met and we tried to adopt her, a special needs, older girl from Romania. The country had become a "closed" country that no longer does foreign adoptions and our request for adoption was denied. We had worked with Kids First Adoption here in Indianapolis to do our home study, and when they participated in the Cherry Orchard program this summer, they called Andy and me after remembering our desire to adopt an older girl. Cherry Orchard is a program through Frank Foundation that brings older Russian children to the United States for 10 days to stay with potential adoptive families. They asked if we would host Elena (age 11), and Kristina (age 9), abandoned by their mom 5 years ago. We were a little nervous since we do not speak Russian, but we felt well prepared to work with institutionalized children because of our volunteer work. We agreed to be host to these young girls.
Our experience was amazing and one that we will not forget. It was wonderful to experience the joy in the girls as they tried many new things and saw new places. They seemed at ease with us despite the difficulty in communication, and we were all willing to work through with gestures and attempts at each other's language. We seemed to have a good connection, and within the first day, Andy was crying because he didn't want to send them home at the end of the ten days! By the third day, we were filling out papers to bring the girls home to live! The girls had to return to Tomsk area on August 15th, and we were on a plane by September 26th to go pick them up. So within two months, we became the parents of two new daughters!
Our lives here
in the United States as a family had been a great joy. It hasn't been easy being
new parents all of a sudden - colds, homework, being tired, finding foods they
will like, and the struggle to communicate. Yet it is all "heart work"
that is reaping great benefit to our lives, and to the lives of the girls. We
definitely are a family!
We appreciate your help in making our adoption possible,
and the adoption of so many other families. Thank you for all you did to make
this dream come true!
Sincerely,
Gerri, Andy, Elena, and Kristina Baker
