OUR STORY
Our adoption journey began a year ago when my husband and
I started talking about another addition to our family. My husband and I have
5-year-old biological twins, and due to complications that arose during my pregnancy
with the twins, we decided that adoption would be the way to go! My husband comes
from a family of 5 adopted children, so he was very much in favor of adoption.
I have always been of the mindset that it didn't matter if children were yours
biologically or yours through adoption . . . . your children are still your children!!
We began looking into international adoption on the Internet. We spent countless hours researching the different countries that were open to international adoption, the length of time it took to adopt from the various countries, the unbelievable number of adoption agencies who dealt with international adoption, etc. We must have requested information packets from 15 different adoption agencies!!
As fate
would have it, some friends of ours came over one Saturday night to play cards
and they brought along some friends of theirs whom we had never met. This couple
had just adopted a little girl from Russia!! We were so thrilled to talk with
this couple about their adoption experience that we ended up not playing cards
AT ALL!!! They had adopted a 4-year-old little girl. We told this couple that
we were looking into international adoption and had pretty much decided that we
were going to adopt from Russia, and we were looking to adopt a child 2-3 years
old. This couple told us of the other children who were still waiting to be adopted
from their daughter's orphanage. They told us that there were several children
ages 4-7 who were available for adoption. My husband and I kind of frowned at
the idea of adopting an "older" child as our hearts were set on adopting
a "toddler"!
To make a long
story short, the following weekend this couple brought us a videotape that they
had taken at their daughter's orphanage. We began watching this tape and, as harsh
as it sounds, I felt "nothing" in my heart that said "There's my
child." However, at the very end of the tape, there was a little boy who
was sitting off in the distance, looking very camera-shy, and not wanting much
to do with being videotaped! As the camera drew nearer, my heart skipped a beat
and I looked at my husband. He grabbed my hand and squeezed it. We both started
smiling and it was at that very moment that I knew in my heart this little boy
was meant to be our son!!
I cannot even
tell you how many times we had to rewind the videotape and watch him over and
over, and over!! I could not believe that we could both be so "taken in"
by this little boy . . . he was 6 years old and a far cry from the 2-3 year old
toddler that we had set our minds on!! Yes, I believe that God works in mysterious
ways.
I don't think that my husband or I slept a wink that night!! We talked about it all night long, we talked about it the next day . . . and we called the adoption agency the following day (Monday). That was the longest weekend of our lives!
We
explained to the adoption agency that we were interested in one particular little
boy. They informed us that they could not make any guarantees until we had actually
made the first trip to Russia to sign the Intent to Adopt. We immediately scheduled
a homestudy and began the mountain of paperwork that was needed.
At
this point, my mind gets a little "confused" because there were so many
things that happened all at once! It was truly a time that we began to think "maybe
we just were not meant to adopt." My husband was in a car accident and ended
up having surgery on his left hand. The doctor said that my husband would be out
of work for several months. We began to get a little concerned about what we were
going to do financially. We had already invested a great deal of money into this
adoption and we had no intentions of giving up, but everywhere we turned there
was a roadblock. We had all kinds of equity in our home, but we were turned down
for the equity loan because my husband was not working. Apparently my income (although
substantial) could not be taken into consideration because I had been self-employed
for less than two years. We got the same answer everywhere we turned..."No."
The savior in all of this was A
Child Waits Foundation. If it were not for their loan program, our
son would not be home with us today... it's just that simple. I cannot tell you
how very grateful we are to everyone at the Foundation.
Our court date was originally scheduled for December, but was canceled. Needless to say, we were shattered that our son would not be with us for Christmas. We waited two months before getting the news that another court date had been scheduled! Our court date was on March 1st. We arrived back in the U.S. on March 11th and you cannot imagine how happy we were to be back home!! There's no place like home . . . there's no place like home...!!!!
Austin
It has been a month since we arrived home.
Our 5-year-old twins and our new 6-year-old son have become very close! It seems
like they have always been siblings! Our new son is adjusting well to his new
life. We are quite amazed by how quickly he has adjusted. We have not had any
behavioral problems with him; contrary to what we thought would come along with
adopting an older child! He is a happy, healthy, extraordinary 6-year-old boy.
He is no longer part of an orphanage . . . he is part of our family and we are
so thankful to have him in our lives forever.
Dad, Austin and Mom
A
big "thank you" to A
Child Waits Foundation for making our dream come true and for having
such a wonderful loan program for those of us who would have otherwise not been
able to financially afford adoption.
Sincerely,
Michael & Erin DeNicolo
Written by Erin DeNicolo
Dad (Michael), Carli, Dylan, Austin and Mom (Erin)