John Robert Uccello

"Jack"

Our testimony begins with our dating back in college. I met Becki in the fall of 1993 through a mutual friend. We spent the next 12 months dating off and on and in September of 1995 we became engaged. Becki and I discussed our future family. Our plans always included adoption, but we always assumed that it would be after having a few biological children.

After our wedding we began praying and planning for our first child. We moved into a larger apartment and bought a new car that could hold a child safety seat. In October of 1997, we learned that we were expecting. The day after Christmas, we received the bad news that we had lost our child. Becki and I were devastated. We didn't understand God's timing at the time.

We continued to try to have children, but it just never seemed to happen. We prayed and promised God things we knew we could never deliver. After several years, we just seemed to settle on the idea that we would be a couple. We still wanted to adopt but the timing just never seemed the right.

In the summer of 2003, while I was away with the kids from our church at summer camp, Becki decided to look for information about international adoption. One night, after the kids were asleep, Becki and I had "the talk". She said that she had requested information from several agencies. By the time I returned home, we had received the information packet from America World Adoption Agency (AWAA). At the time, we thought it odd that only one out of the several agencies we had requested information from had replied. After watching the promotional video that AWAA had provided, we decided that the goals and mission of AWAA matched our heart and what we felt God had called us to do. At the time, AWAA worked out of Russia, China, Ukraine and Vietnam.

We had always thought that we would be adopting a little girl under the age of twelve months from China. But at the time, Becki did not meet the age requirement set by the Chinese government. So we looked at Vietnam- but the government, trying to stop the black market sale of children, closed the door to international adoption. We then looked to the Ukraine program. Children would be presented to us one by one and we would have to choose. We didn't feel comfortable with that option. The children also were older then we were hoping for.

Russia had been our last choice of the programs. We knew in our hearts that we were to be with AWAA. We had trusted God to open doors for us, which meant we also needed to trust that He would close doors for us too. So we sent our application to AWAA and selected the Russian program and left it open for a boy or girl, under the age of 18 months to be referred to us. On October 31, 2003, as we were on our way to volunteer at a community outreach, we learned that we had been accepted into the AWAA program.

Within the following week, we received the packet to begin the "paper chase" for our home study with Adoption & Beyond. This also began the fundraising process. We sent letters to all of our friends and family to let them know that we were expecting, we just didn't know when the baby would come. Our need for prayer and financial support was stated and we were touched to see the support and love. To raise funds, we sold Tupperware, candles, and home decorations. Becki tutored students in Spanish while I took on extra work as a draftsman designing custom homes. We made our payments and paid for all the random fees that seemed to pop up over the next 14 months.

It seemed like forever before we completed the Russian Adoption paperwork. It seemed even longer waiting for news. In late January of 2005, we found out that our paperwork was in the Pskov region of Russia. So Becki and I began to learn as much about the area as we could. We found that this area had changed hands between the Russian and Polish people over time. That meant that our child would have Polish ancestry, just like me. My great grandparents had moved from Russia to Poland in the late 1880s. In 1937, my grandmother (age 9) moved to the United States. I didn't learn this until after we had placed our application with AWAA. Once we submitted the Power of Attorney letter and other documents, we waited. Everyday we woke up wondering, "Is today the day?"

After 21 months of waiting, paper chasing, and more waiting, we had reached our breaking point. March 11, a Friday afternoon, Becki broke down and had her acrylic nails put back on. She had stated that she wasn't going to have them until after we had brought our child home. Our federal documents and fingerprints were about to expire, and over a dozen pieces of paperwork would have to be redone. The stress of waiting had finally got to us. We were empty and knew that only God could do anything to fill us with the strength we would need for the next few months.

On March 14 around 10:00, Leslie Johnston (our family coordinator) called to let me know she had emailed a couple of pictures of a child that was available for adoption. The referral had come on March 11, 2005, but she was out of the office ill. God knew our breaking point and had met it with His strength. As soon as I saw the pictures of little Sergey Andreivich, a 13 month old boy born 20 February 2004, I knew he was our son. I called Becki that minute and when she saw the photos; she began to cry and said, "Our son is beautiful!" Sergey's paperwork stated that there were serious medical issues and that he would need medical attention ASAP. We didn't care; we knew he was our son and that we wanted him home that day.

We paid the fee needed to accept the referral and began planning our first trip to meet him. During the months of waiting, we settled on the new name of our child. Sergey would be given the name "John Robert Uccello." (We call him Jack so that there are not two Johns running around the house.) When we returned home with Jack, I wanted to find out the meaning of his name. Sergey means "Servant", someone outside the family not entitled to the rights and privileges of an heir. I then looked up his new name, Jack. Jack means "Successor" or "Heir". When I read that, I began to cry. It reminded me that we have all been adopted into the family of Christ and have been given new names and positions that allow us to be free and to receive the blessings of God.

On March 29, 2005, we left to meet Sergey. The trip was long but by the blessing of God, we had received "buddy passes" to fly to Russia. Because of the passes, we were placed in first class and had the most relaxing flight. We spent a few days in Moscow and were able to do some sight seeing. The train from Moscow to Pskov is a 12 hour trip and allowed us to rest before our first meeting with Sergey.

When we arrived in Pskov, we learned that Sergey was placed in a hospital because the local orphanage was full. After meeting the doctor and the representative from the Ministry of Education, Sergey was brought into the room. Becki put out her arms to reach him and his little arms reached right back. As I took the first picture of my wife and son together, Becki's eyes began to tear up. We played with him and took a ton of pictures and video footage over the next few days.

The Hospital ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Our 1st Family Photo

In total, we were able to spend over 2 1/2 hours with him over 3 visits. During that time, we met the other children he had lived with for the past 8 months. Sergey smiled, giggled and talked, but he never cried for his caregiver nor pushed away from us. At one point, Sergey even fell asleep in Becki's arms. We knew that he was our son when we saw the photos, but the visits had confirmed it. It broke our hearts to leave him there, but we knew the sooner we finished the paperwork, the sooner we would be back.

The staff in Pskov told us that it would be only a few weeks before we would have our court date set and we would be able to return. I was overjoyed at the thought of bringing him home, but I instantly began thinking of the remaining $18,000 we would need to finalize the adoption.

So we came home and began looking at our options. We only had $1,000 left from our savings and knew that we would need a lot more. We applied for grants and loans from several organizations, praying that they would be able to help us in some small way.

After being home for three weeks, we got the call. "You have a court date on May 4, and we need these 14 documents in less than 7 days. We know this is about 6 weeks worth of work, but we need it now." Becki and I were stunned. May 4 is our wedding anniversary. We couldn't believe that Jack would become our child on the same day we celebrate our wedding. By the grace of God, we completed all the paperwork in 6 days and only needed the remaining funds. Leslie told us that if we did not have the funds together and in the AWAA office one week before our travel date, we would forfeit our court date and have to wait for a new one - whenever that would be. We prayed and prayed. I called all the foundations that we had applied to, and none of the groups could move in the time frame we needed.

Desperate for something to happen and not thinking that God had heard our prayers, we sent an e-mail to everyone we knew begging for some help, anything that would keep us from losing our child for another month. A few hours later, we received two phone calls. The first was from a family, the future godparents of our child. They said, "... we are able to let you borrow $8,000. It's all we have, but it's yours." We couldn't believe that someone would do this much to help us. That left us needing $10,000. As the minutes turned into hours and we started feeling that God had forgotten about us, the second call came. A former employer of Becki's said that whatever we needed was ours by way of a loan from their retirement fund. For someone to dip into their retirement to help us humbled us, we began to cry and knew that Jack was coming home.

By April 27, 2005, Becki and I were set to leave for our second trip on April 30, 2005. We had managed to complete all the needed paperwork, scrape together the money needed, and had told our employers that we would be gone for the next three weeks. For Becki, this meant that as a teacher, she would not be finishing the school year and that a substitute teacher would be needed for the long term. With all this done, we simply waited. On April 28, 2005, we received a call from our agency. The paperwork needed to release Sergey from the list of adoptable children had not yet reached the Pskov courthouse from the Moscow office in the needed time, so the judge had canceled the court date. After all the work and planning and crying and joy we had experienced over the past few weeks, Becki and I didn't think that anything else could go wrong. Looking back now, we see and understand that things didn't go wrong; we just needed to wait for God's timing. When I inquired as to why we had been given a court date without all the needed papers in place, we discovered that the judge was so overjoyed that an American family was coming to her region to adopt, that she jumped the gun and made our court date in the hopes that everything would go smoothly.

Again, Becki and I wondered what God was doing. We had seen His hand in everything that had happened, but why would He allow us such pain? We just didn't understand. As we unpacked our clothes and informed our employers that we would be back on the following Monday, we felt like the bottom had fallen out on us.

During this time we prayed a lot. Not knowing what had happened over the past few days, one of our friends asked if any of our grants or loans had come in. It reminded me that we still had those applications out. I began to call around and all the paperwork for all the grants and loans was in the final stages of processing. There was still the possibility that we would be able to receive them before we left. At this point, we felt that it would be well into July before we would even hear of our new court date, never mind traveling.

On May 16, 2005, Leslie called once again and gave us the great news. The judge rescheduled faster than anyone had thought and we now had a June 4, 2005, court date. We rebooked our airline tickets and started getting everything ready again. Within 5 days of our wonderful news of travel, we received news that we had received a matching grant and an adoption loan. This allowed us to repay the friends that had drained their saving and retirement funds. The same week that we finalized the adoption of our son, we also were notified that we had received the third grant which would completely repay the friends and put us just over the top. Looking back now, we see that God allowed our friends to build our faith, giving us something to hold onto, until He would move the world for us.

Becki and John in Moscow

Once in Russia, events moved quickly. We arrived on Monday, May 30th and caught the Tuesday night train to Pskov. While the train was quiet and very comfortable, I still couldn't sleep. After arriving in Pskov at 7:00am, we went directly to our hotel to shower, change and prep to meet with the doctor and the Ministry of Education representative and most importantly - to see Jack. After fitting 5 people in a car the size of a Yugo, we arrived at the hospital and we waited, waited and waited. Finally, we were able to see Jack. His eyes lit up and when his caregivers put him on the floor, he ran to us - his "mama" and "papa". When we left him in April, he was unable to walk on his own and now, he knew us and ran to us.

Becki and I prepared for the court hearing in our hotel room; going over what we needed to say, what to wear, what the day would bring. When our ride came at 11:00am, we had only been waiting in the lobby for 2 hours. Not because they were late, but because we were so ready and antsy to get going.

Court went great. The judge even got a little teary eyed when she saw the photo album of our friends and family that had worked so hard to bring Jack home. After only 35 minutes, at 12:15pm Moscow time on June 2, 2005, John Robert Uccello legally became our son. Jack was still at the hospital and we needed proof of his adoption to take him from there. So we went directly to the notary's office where we received his new birth certificate - listing Becki and I as the parents - and the Certificate of Adoption. From there we went to the passport office. It was a cold and sterile hallway where a box of chocolates and a taped envelope works wonders. Because the judge was so excited to have Jack adopted, she waived the 10 day waiting period, which meant that we would be able to leave Pskov for Moscow that night - if we could get the paperwork in time. At 3:00 we arrived at the hospital to finally get Jack. We brought a change of clothes and toys for him to play with as well as gifts for the staff. The caregivers all came out to say goodbye to him and again we were on the move. One last stop at our hotel to give Jack his first bath, pick up our luggage, check out of the hotel and head back to the passport office. It was amazing to see that the Russia passport office had not only finished his passport in 3 hours, but it was waiting for us. They looked at me when I picked it up as if to say "what took you so long?"

We hopped the 7:00 pm train back to Moscow. Within an hour of pulling out of the station, Jack had fallen asleep. Becki and I enjoyed our traditional train meal of pork patty with potatoes, cucumber-tomato-bell pepper salad and canned pineapple with whipped cream and then caught up on some much needed sleep. Jack slept through the night and woke up happy and hungry.

By the time we made it to our hotel in Moscow, the translator and doctor we there ready to perform their tasks. All of our documents were in order, and the doctor gave us a prescription to help clear up the dermatitis that Jack had. We were to be ready to leave for the US embassy at 1:00 to finalize the US portion of the adoption.

After grabbing a bite at McDonald's, we prepped for the embassy. Our driver picked us up right on time and we were pleased to see that we were going with another lady that had adopted a little girl a few months younger than Jack. At the embassy, we moved through the stations quickly and by 3:30 we were back in our hotel room. At the embassy, we met up with another AWAA family that had adopted a 3 year old boy. We spent the rest of the afternoon fellowshipping with them at dinner and grocery shopping. We also found time to e-mail my father's wife (who had given us our buddy passes) to change our tickets to leave on Saturday rather than Tuesday. We would have to fly stand by, but we were willing to take that chance.

We packed up everything early and headed to the Hard Rock Cafe's $2.99 breakfast. It was so good to have bacon and eggs with home fries and toast. I even managed to get in some hot tea too. With everything going on, Jack kept right up. While he hated taking bathes, he never did more than cry. He loved riding in the car and his new stroller.
Saturday morning, we check out of our hotel in faith that God would get us on the Atlanta flight. Everything else had gone smoother and more quickly than we had ever thought possible. The driver and interpreter picked us up and we headed to the airport. Once there we informed the team that we were flying stand by and that we might need them to pick us up later. A look of horror came over them. They couldn't believe that we would do that.

We cleared security, customs, check in and security again and waited. We saw several families from the embassy waiting for the same flight. We talked and exchanged stories of our new child. It was wonderful to see that so many children had found homes. I have hope that the children Jack left in the hospital will soon find homes of their own.

As we waited, the time got closer for the flight to leave. Ten minutes before the flight was to leave, the Delta staff called our names, and we grabbed Jack and all of our gear to run to the plane, WE were going home! We knew that if we could make it to the US, we would be fine, my father and his wife planned to meet us at the airport in Hartford, CT. With Becki out of school for the summer and my employer blessing us with an extra week of paid vacation, we were able to spend six days in Connecticut so that my family could get to know Jack.

We finally made it back to Springfield on June 11, 2005. Tired and in need of a hot shower, we headed straight for Becki's parents. They thought Nate, Becki's younger brother, was lying when he said that we were in the driveway. We spent the next few hours talking and letting Jack meet his new family.

Now that we have been home for several weeks, Jack is doing great. He is sleeping through the night and he is eating like a horse. His doctor's appointment went well. All the testing and blood work turned out to be normal, and Jack is on the charts for his height and weight. Jack is playing with his new friends and loves to play at church in the nursery too.

Looking back over the whole process has been eye opening. In July of 2003, Becki and I thought we would be traveling to China to adopt a little girl. We had planned for it, but God knew that our son was in Pskov. Jack was in the womb before we had even decided to proceed with our adoption. Jack was born only a few days before our home study was completed. God has met every need before we even knew about them. We have seen God not only increase our faith and dependence in Him during the past two years, but we have seen our friends and family come closer to God as well. We thank God every day for this wonderful gift He has blessed us with.

John and Becki Uccello

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