There are so many thoughts and emotions flooding my mind as I sit here to write out our adventure. Our story here has a happy ending - the ending that we now realize was all planned by God before we even left! So let me bring you along on our journey………..

Of course our journey really began 10 years ago as Bob and I got married and began our life together. In those ten years we fought the fertility battle, adopted a beautiful baby girl by domestic adoption and struggled through the loss of a son in a failed adoption. Through disillusionment with the domestic process we began researching foreign adoption, but were disheartened by the high costs of such a venture making it an "impossible dream" for us.

Through the internet I stumbled across Cathy Harris' web page and was immediately drawn into the possibility that even we could adopt independently from Ukraine for far less than an agency would cost! Hope began to grow as I educated myself on the process, and excitement began to build as we began to think in a new direction! We had been to Eastern Europe several times on mission trips with our church and were so very excited about the possibility of going back and bringing one of those children home!

We decided to adopt from Ukraine with Cathy's help in July of 2001 and were on the plane by late November! The paperwork process went very smoothly and the time really went by fast. Our church generously collected medicines for the orphanage and even gave us a love offering to help with the expense of the adoption! We had such an amazing amount of support among our friends and family. I think they were all as excited as we were!

As our plane landed in Kiev, we knew that our adventure had really begun! We had no idea who our child would be, as there is no pre-selection in Ukraine, so we were so very anxious to get to the Adoption Center and begin to find our child or children (thinking of two perhaps)!

Adoption Center:
We arrived on the afternoon of November 27, 2001 and stayed the night at the Tourist Hotel in Kiev. This was a great opportunity to get some rest, a hot shower, and time to settle the mind. Of course, I did not sleep well that night as I anxiously awaited the next morning's appointment at the Adoption Center (first stop for all adoptions) to begin the search for our child! We went to the Center bright and early laden with flowers for Mrs. Kunko (the Director) and pictures of our family. The ladies at the center are famous for their mood swings and unpredictability; so we were very nervous about this first step of the process, as everything seems to ride on the helpfulness of these ladies. We arrived to wait with several other families all hoping to adopt. Needless to say, on this day, the ladies at the Adoption Center were NOT in a good mood! Mrs. Kunko came into the hall and told everyone that there were just no young children available! And then they all pretty much ignored us for about an hour. We were beginning to fear that we wouldn't even be seen that day! Finally they began to usher families in for the famous interview!

When we went in to see Mrs. Kunko, she again repeated that there were just no young children available due to the flood of adoptive couples to Ukraine. Of course, through the research and support of Cathy's wonderful group, we were prepared for this type of discourse. We talked for a few minutes and showed our family photos. We told her that we were open to some medical conditions and other ethnic backgrounds (Ukraine considers gypsy, Romani and tartar children as an ethnic minority). We really wanted a younger child as we had a 4 year old daughter at home and of course wanted to give her a younger sibling. Our talk actually ended up on a very pleasant note!

The next step was to look at notebooks of available children. We just started looking at the 3 books piled at our table. The first 2 were full of photos of older children (ages 5 and up) as well as children with obvious, serious handicaps; so we very quickly started flipping through the 3rd book. We were excited to find 3 boys under the age of 2 that we were interested in seeing, and they were all from the same place - Simferopol, which is in the Crimea region. Of course they had several diagnoses' ranging from Cerebral Palsy, hypotonia, etc. but we knew that many times these are misdiagnosed, so it is important to go ahead and see the children for yourself! Their pages were pulled from the books; we got the letter of approval and were on the train by nightfall! The 16 hour ride was a bit warm and slightly cramped but really not as bad as I expected! It was a great time to get to know our translator!

In Simferopl:
We arrived to a sunny and warm climate - didn't even need coats that day! (Don't worry, it didn't last long!! Our hopes were high, and we just couldn't wait to get to the orphanage! We were able to get settled into a wonderful apartment, went to the open market for food and prepared for our visit to the baby house!

We were able to see the children the next day. Of the boys that we had the referrals for, two of them were diagnosed correctly with cerebral palsy and Down Syndrome, which was more than we felt we could handle. The other boy was wonderful. He was very small and weak because he had been in the hospital recently, but had potential for great health and had such a charming personality. We agreed to adopt him. Unfortunately, we found out a couple of days later that he was unavailable for us to adopt due to some errors in communication, etc. We were of course disappointed and heartsick and not sure about our next step. We had seen all the available boys at this orphanage (at this point we were very set on getting a boy!), and it was looking like we would have to return to Kiev for another visit to the Adoption Center in order to go to a different orphanage.

Before we decided to leave, we did agree to see the little girl that the orphanage doctor kept telling us about. The doctor had been telling us all along about this wonderful girl; but up until this point, we had only been considering boys. We decided to at least look at this little girl before making the long journey back to Kiev - and I am so glad we did! They brought 18 month old Lenura into the room for us to see. She was cute as a button, very shy, but very precious! Daddy's heart melted right away, and we both knew that this was the child that was coming home with us! It is amazing how God changed our hearts and all of our well-laid "plans" to make a perfect match for our family! Lenura was overall very healthy (we changed her name to Amanda). Her diagnosis' included a heart murmur (which she doesn't have) and a congenital deformity of her right eye (called "microphthalmia") in which the eyeball never fully developed and is very small. Since there was not full development, she is blind in that eye. However, she is fully functional with her sight in the other eye.

Over the next 10 days we were able to visit the orphanage twice a day and watch her blossom into a giggling, affectionate child - one that we grew to love very much!

Amanda's groupa! They ate together, played together, and slept together!

The Baby House in Simferopol is called "yolichka" which means "the pines." The yard around the orphanage was just full of pine trees and lots of this brightly colored metal equipment.

We stood in court on December 11th and felt the joyous relief of becoming Amanda's parents! As for the thirty days waiting period (new Ukrainian law), the judge put on the document "I waive the 30 days for the completion of the paperwork." Normally in this region, this means that you go ahead and take the child on to Kiev, and once you are in Kiev, they give you permission to go on home. So at this point we were overjoyed, anticipating taking Amanda home in just a few short days! We ran around town in that dizzying maze of paperwork and were able to finish our paperwork that afternoon. All we had to do the next day was obtain Amanda's passport! We went shopping for clothes - quite a challenge let me tell you in the now sub-zero weather!! In outdoor markets!!! LOL! But we found a great snowsuit, mittens, boots, etc.

We went to the orphanage that night only to be told that the Director was not going to release her but make us wait 30 days before release from the orphanage. The next day was spent trying to fix this problem! We went to the courthouse twice and talked with the orphanage director at length. We realized at this point that there was nothing else we could do to change anyone's mind. Bob had to return to work, and I needed to get back to our daughter at home (we had been gone almost 3 weeks). We knew that our only option was to leave Amanda at the orphanage for 30 days and have one of us come back to get her in 30 days. Our last visit was very bittersweet - it made me realize how much I had grown to love her and just how much she had blossomed with our attention! Our video and pictures were going to mean more to me during the next 30 days than I can say! We left our photo book with her caretakers and a little stuffed monkey for her to remember us by. The women there were absolutely wonderful - they truly showed love for the children and made the best use of their limited resources. I knew she would be in good hands, and they promised to show Amanda our pictures everyday which made our departure just a bit more bearable!

Return Home:
We returned to Kiev and stopped by the US embassy so I could sign the health acknowledgement form and have it notarized. (Since Bob was returning alone on the 2nd trip.) The team in Kiev kept all of our paperwork to have translated and authenticated and ready for Bob when he returned. Then on to the airport and home to our other daughter who we also missed so, so much. This part of the trip took just under 3 weeks. Although things did not go perfectly smooth for us, our translator was great - she worked hard and really became a friend along the way! She cried with us, she rejoiced with us, and really went out of the way to help us get anything we needed.

Second Trip:

Bob left for Ukraine on January 8th and got Amanda out of the orphanage on January 10th. The caretakers obviously kept their word because Amanda actually remembered him, and he was amazed at how much more she was walking already. (From walking only with help on our first trip to walking completely by herself!) Bob left the Crimea that day and headed back to Kiev. He had to sign some papers at the embassy and then continue on to the Warsaw embassy to obtain Amanda's visa. This second trip was 8 days door to door. (There was a weekend in there!) Of course, daddy had to deal with some stomach upset, gas pains, and new sleeping arrangements that Amanda was not used to - but all in all the second trip went according to schedule!

Home together at last!
Amanda has been home with us for two months now. Of course, her speech is very delayed due to a new language and normal orphanage delay; but amazingly enough her motor and cognitive abilities fall within normal for her age! She has already gotten her first prosthetic eye and has adapted wonderfully. She has adjusted amazingly well into our family and just astounds us each day with her joy and wonder of everything new. Our heartfelt thanks go to A Child Waits Foundation for helping us make this whole journey a wonderful reality!

Bob and Tammy Condict

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