The Gillis Family
Republic of Georgia - 2003
Because Jess has a kidney condition that would prevent a safe pregnancy and delivery, she has been considering adoption since she was a teenager. When we started talking about having children several years ago, we consulted a few doctors, just to be sure, and were told the same thing: don't even try for a pregnancy. So we put our family on hold, as we weren't sure we could afford the costs involved in adoption.
Then the attack on the World Trade Center rearranged our priorities. We realized that we wanted to become parents, and we decided that adoption was the way that this would happen. By mid-October, we had chosen our agency; by the end of October, we had started our home study and had filed the initial paperwork with the INS. We finished the last of our home study appointments in early December, and were waffling between Russia and the Republic of Georgia for our country of choice. We finally decided on Russia, because the program was more established and the political situation seemed a little more stable. We decided that we wanted to adopt a baby girl, as young and as healthy as possible.
In late 2001, our agency called us and told us that they had a little girl who would be available for adoption when we would be ready to travel, and were we interested in seeing more information about her. Reluctantly, because we still had to get finances together, and because the home study wasn't yet ready, we said no to this.
Then our home study was ready, and was sent to our agency. When they read it, they asked us if we wanted to consider the Georgia program, as it allowed for the referral of very young infants, who were then placed in foster care until the adoption was complete. They'd since had a family come home with their son, and were in the process of uniting several more families with their children. We liked the birthmother program, and also the one-trip process, as opposed to the likelihood of two trips to Russia and an orphanage program, and so we said that we wanted to go with the Georgia program. We got our dossier together, and it was sent to Georgia in April.
We were expecting at least two months' wait, and probably longer than that, so we were startled when, in May of 2002, we received a referral of a baby girl. We were ecstatic, but a bank, which had promised us the money that we needed, backed out on our loan, and we had to turn down this referral as well. After seeing her picture and reading about her, this was a devastating experience. After some time to get ourselves grounded, we threw ourselves into fundraising. We were unable to secure any grants, though we did try other forms of fundraising as well. Fortunately, A Child Waits Foundation was able to help us, and our dossier was "re-opened" on August 28, 2002. Little did we know that our daughter, named Ketevan at her birth, would be born on the very next day!
Again, we expected a long wait, but we were told of our daughter on October 9, the day before Dave's father's birthday. We put a picture of her in his birthday card, and he was just thrilled, as was the rest of the family. We started the flurry of preparations, as we expected to travel fairly quickly, but court difficulties put off the trip until February, 2003, an agonizing wait.
Finally, on February 16, 2003, we arrived in Tbilisi, Georgia. We traveled with another family, and were met at the Tbilisi airport by our translators and drivers after seventeen hours of air travel. After a short drive, we arrived at the Sheraton Metechi Palace Hotel. We checked into the room, and were prepared to take a rest, but were told that our daughter would be brought to us in an hour. Wow! We were very nervous about how she would react to us, as she was five and a half months old, and had spent most of her life with her foster-mother, but she was extremely calm. She was very interested in the hotel room, but bringing out a small rattle did the trick. After too short a time, Ketevan had to go back to her foster mother's house to sleep, as she wasn't officially "ours" until the court date the next day.
The court experience was rather unique, as the crumbling, unheated building was unlike courthouses in the United States, but the end result was wonderful: she was ours! We were her parents, and Ketevan became Hannah Rose Ketevan Gillis. Our translator recommended that we not take custody of her until the next day, when we'd finished some paperwork, and we agreed. We actually didn't have her with us until the day after that, though, as Jess wasn't feeling very well. Finally, though, she was ours forever, and in our room.
A hotel room is not the best place to be a new parent, though the staff at the Sheraton was extremely helpful. The first night was a little rough, as Hannah got used to her new surroundings, but we got used to each other and she turned into her usual, mellow self. The rest of the trip took a little longer than expected, as we had some difficulty getting the visa needed to take Hannah to Moscow for the needed processing at the US embassy there, but we finally got the visa, and flew to Moscow. There, we were able to stay with Dave's cousin Mark, who has been living in Moscow for the past ten years. He was a wonderful host, playing tour guide and cooking Russian food for us. The appointment with the US Embassy went fairly well, though there was a brief question about our paperwork. Eventually, though, Hannah's visa to get into the United States was granted, which meant that we could go home!
The next day, February 28, 2003, we arrived in JFK in New York City after another grueling trip. Hannah was an angel during the trip, though, and was welcomed joyfully by our families, who met us at the airport. She's a happy, healthy baby, and has been adjusting very well to her new home and to her new family. She was definitely worth all the work and all the wait.
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