The Adoption Story of
our Sibling Group of Three
from Omsk, Russia by Eve Martin

All my life, I looked forward to the time I could go back to school to complete my Bachelor's and Master's degrees in nursing after the kids were raised. I even tried school for one day in September, 2000, but woke up the next morning feeling strongly that God had other plans for us. I turned in my books, got my money back and opened my heart to be led on a different path. That path took us to Omsk, Russia where we found our sibling group of three in March, 2001.

Sergei (4), Kristina (3) and Albina (6)
Reunited for the first time in over 2 years on 9/16/01.

My husband and I had the opportunity to go to Novosibirsk (the capital city of Siberia) to pick up our 21 year old son after he completed a 2 year mission for our church. Through miraculous means, we were able to combine this trip to pick up our son and find our new children. We accomplished getting our dossier completed with the help of our adoption agency, Focus on Children, in time for our trip to Russia to pick up our son. We originally applied for two school-aged children, but were asked by the Minister of Education in Omsk, to consider a sibling group of 3 children, ages 3, 4, 5. They had been in separate orphanages for the past two years, and they wanted these children reunited and adopted together into one family. We only had 3 days to accomplish visiting them, deciding that we would accept them, and then get to all the places to expedite the paperwork in the Russian legal system. Many things could have and should have gone wrong during this time crunch, but we made it through all the obstacles with not a moment to spare, before we were scheduled to fly out of Omsk on to our next destination.

When we got back to America, we had to reapply with the INS to get approval for 3 children, as well as redo our documents over and over again to appease an overly zealous and paranoid Russian judge. This waiting period to go back to Russia for the second trip was almost unbearable at times. We had high hopes that we'd be back in June, 2001 to finalize the adoption, but ended up waiting all summer for "the call" with our court date. Many times, we felt like we were against a brick wall with so many hurdles to overcome.

One of the problems we had was not enough money to complete the adoption. We can honestly say that if we didn't have the help from "A Child Waits Foundation" to give us a loan for $10,000, we wouldn't have had enough money to fund this adoption. We had exhausted every means of getting the money together. My husband was in school, working on his master's degree at the time of this adoption, and we even used his school loan to help us pay for our expenses. We are so very thankful that we found out about "A Child Waits Foundation" and that they were there to help us get our kids.

When the call finally came, we were given only a one week's notice to appear in court in Omsk, Russia. Did we ever scramble to get everything ready. We not only packed for our trip, but somehow managed to pack all the humanitarian aid that we could squeeze into our suitcases for the orphanages and a Children's Tuberculosis Hospital that we also helped on our first trip to Russia. When we arrived in Moscow, we discovered to our dismay that our suitcases were still in New York. We didn't plan ahead and pack extra clothing in our carry-on luggage, so we were without our things for 4 days. Three out of the four pieces of missing luggage made it about 2 hours before our court hearing. We were praying that our clothes for court would be in the suitcases that had made it. Thankfully, they were. (The 4th missing suitcase made it back to our home in Utah about 6 weeks after we returned from Russia.)

We spent the ENTIRE day in court. The judge requested the parents of our sibling group to be there, as well as all the relatives that could make it. (The kids weren't in court, thankfully.) It was a very grueling day for all of us, and it was heartbreaking for the birth family of our children, but the parents had been given every opportunity to get their kids back, and had lost their rights the previous year. We didn't know for sure if the judge would grant us our request to adopt these children, until she read her verdict at the end of the day. We went back to our little apartment overwhelmed, exhausted and elated that we were going to soon be the new parents of Albina, Sergei, and Kristina.

The next morning, our facilitator called us at around 8:30 in the morning. My husband was told to turn on the T.V. We couldn't figure out why we should turn on the T.V. so early in the morning, when there's nothing we would understand on it. We saw on a fuzzy black and white T.V. what looked like the Twin Towers in New York, and a tiny plane flying right in to it. We couldn't understand why this would be on Russian television? Was this some kind of hoax? As we soon found out, it wasn't. This was September 12th, 2001 in Omsk, the day after the horrific events of 9/11 ... the day we had spent in court fighting for our adopted kids.

Other than making one phone call to my mother, in Utah, our only communication with family members was through e-mail, and many times our e-mail server was down. We were in the middle of Russia, adopting, in the midst of very uncertain times. Miraculously, everything worked out for us, even though it wasn't possible to book our return flights home for several days. We waited out the required 10 days, until we were granted free and clear permission to keep our new kids full-time with us. We visited them everyday in their separate orphanages and got them reacquainted with each other. They were all so shy around us and each other, that we didn't hear their voices for several days.

After more running around in Omsk to get the kid's passports, visas, and other needed documents we flew to Moscow to spend a couple of days there. We nearly had a fiasco at the Embassy because we did not have a facilitator set up to help us with the procedures there. After all we had been through, we knew we were so close to being able to leave Russia, but wouldn't be able to without the approval from INS at the Embassy. This was the only time I nearly had a breakdown, and was crying so hard, I couldn't see straight. I was absolutely panicked at this point. Fortunately, God heard our pleas and an angel was sent to us, who helped us get our documents together to expedite a very complicated procedure (if you don't have a clue what to do).

The five of us arrived on American soil at the JFK Airport in New York, Friday, September 28th, 2001. When the INS officials stamped our kid's documents with a great big red "Approved" we let out a huge sigh of relief that we made it home. Even though we still had to catch one more plane back to Salt Lake City, Utah, we felt overjoyed that we made it back.
So, how has it been to raise three little Russian orphans, who didn't speak a word of English and didn't even know what a real toilet was or toilet paper, let alone all the other new experiences we take for granted? It has been an incredibly wonderful and challenging experience! These kids are so beautiful, smart and talented. Yes, they have some attachment issues, but they are making wonderful progress. We had the fortune of adopting another young man 12 years ago (when he was 6) and have learned much from raising him, so we felt more prepared this time around. (We have 3 bio kids, nearly 20, 23 and 25 years old.)

First family photo - 2001
All 7 Martin Children (and 1 son-in-law)

As of this writing, it is January, 2003. They have been in the USA for about 15 months. All three have gained a lot of weight, and grown several inches. They have done a lot of "catching up" in every way. They are amazingly resilient and adaptable to change. They make eye contact and respond affectionately to each other and to us as Mama and Papa. They are loving and affectionate. They are very happy children. They have pretty much lost all their Russian (kind of sad, but unavoidable) and speak only English now. All three love to learn and love to go to school. Albina is in the first grade, Sergei is in Kindergarten and Kristina, attends Special Ed Preschool. Albina and Sergei are not only on target, but even ahead in some subjects. Kristina was the most deprived, and has had the most catching up to do, but she is bright, too.

Would we go through all the pain and trauma again to adopt these special kids? Absolutely! We have not regretted our decision for a moment. People sometimes ask us how we could do something like this, especially since we have already raised our family. Or they will say how nice it is that we adopted them. My feeling on that is, would you tell a pregnant woman it was nice she was pregnant or a new mother that it was nice she gave birth to her baby? Of course not. My husband and I are ordinary, everyday people, who listened to an inner voice guiding us to our children in Russia, and we are so glad we did. These children are born of our hearts and they are our children and will always belong to our family. Our hearts break for all the beautiful, orphaned children we saw, that will probably never be so lucky.

Playing in the park, July 2002
Martin Kids (Sergei, Albina and Kristina)

If God would want us to do this again, we would do it again in a heartbeat.
Sincerely, Eve Martin (& Lance Martin)

Martin family with 6 (of 7) children - October 2002

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