My Mom and Dad before their health failed them.They are so much in love;-) This was in 1998. They never met Annie Kate, Mary Beth, or John Bailey. However, they are my guardian angels of my adoptions!!! Love you Mommy and Daddy!!!! They know who my "older" girl is before I do. They live with Jesus now.
Annie Kate looks just like my little sister Phyllis. Annie did not like her photographer. Phyllis did not like her's either...ha-ha........awww!!! The Older child is me;-).
Duane is looking out into the city of Krasnoyarsk, Russia in May 2005
Church on the hill top in Krasnoyarsk May 2006
Annie Playing Outside at her Orphanage
Annie Kate in her orphanage bed with the blanket I gave her.
Annie Kate's Orphanage in Minusinsks, Russia (Krasnoyarsk Region)
In writing about our sixth child, it seems the process was so much easier, than other adoption experience we have shared. But, I will tell little Annie Kate's story with much love attention. At the time my parents were very ill and getting up there in age. I also had a very difficult project I had taken in our life. It is well known that the top stresses in life are: Adding children to your family, moving, and a death in the family. We withstood all three of these things during that one year span.
Our first move was about six months before God placed Annie into our hearts. My parents had bought some land for us outside of town and we began construction of a big new home to accommodate our growing family. The home we had lived in for fourteen years sold on the housing market....for cash. Which the deal meant immediate evacuation. I hurriedly found a crappy rental house for us, but, it was anything other than nice or comfortable. I packed up our things of many years and we moved. My father was ill and had his leg amputated the previous year. Mother was also quite ill.
I felt like there was something ELSE I should be doing. We prayed often about adopting more children. Once we saw the conditions in Ukraine, for foreign born orphans, we felt we should adopt again. There was a Christian web site that I had been looking at for a while. But, I did not make an attachment with any child. We sponsored (and still do) orphans, but, it wasn't the only way we felt God had in mind for us to help His children without parent. While at the American Embassy in Warsaw, during our Ukrainian adoption, Duane and I had met a really nice couple.
They told us that their only son had died in Desert Storm and so it was their heartfelt belief that God wanted them to have another child. This wonderful couple adopted a baby girl from Ukraine and used an agency in Amarillo. Wow!!! I told them we were not too far from there and if we ever wanted to adopt again using an agency we would contact this agency. Well, that is exactly what I did. They sent a packet to us and then we prayed about which country we should adopt from.
Considering we had three little children at home, another seven week stretch in Ukraine was out of the question. The packet said Russia was two short trips. That sounded good to us so we began to put together a dossier for Russia. During this time, I worked to get our house built and prepare to move into it soon (yeah right). I never really unpacked my boxes and they were stacked up all around us in the rental. Good thing our home study agency knew us well and also considered our new home as immediate into our future.
This adoption agency was wonderful!!! They hand held me through my dossier process and we seemed able to miraculously gather the funds we needed (by God's blessings) to continue each step of building our new home and adding our new Russian daughter to our family. In September of 2004, we got news that our dossier had been sent to Krasnoyarsk, Russia (Siberia). Now the wait for our referral and we expected it would be a very long wait.
In the meantime, I continued to work toward finishing our new home. The holidays came and still no news of our referral. My parents steadily grew more and more ill. I would have days where I doubted my logic in wanting another child. The evil devil would creep into my mind and tell me to take a cruise instead:-(. But, we knew that we were on track because adopting a child seemed so much more fulfilling than anything else we could do. So, like a well trained athlete, we continued to race forward to the finish line. Waiting out life's moments is no swift process. January 11, 2005....Jesus called my sweet little Daddy home. My......but the world looks and feels so different without my Daddy...to this day.
Now with everything I had going on, my sister and I had to make the arrangements, for my Dad's funeral and burial. Our mother was in no physical or mental condition to do this and so it was left to us. I have to say I feel so much love for my "baby" sister again (like when she was a little girl) during this time. There was so much to do and so much already on my plate!!! I also was feeling very discouraged and insecure with the new agency. We had been waiting since September for a referral and NO word.
On January 25, 2005.....My grown daughter (Kisty) and I had been doing a very unpleasant task for my Mom. She ask us to box up Dad's things and take them out of her sight. Poor lady, it was so hard after 50 years of being married to my father to be without him and with his things. I felt the weight of the world on my shoulders that day. I thank God for my daughter Kisty and the way she cared for my mother during those days after Daddy passed into the arms of our Jesus.
I was smelling my Dad's shirts in his closet for the last time in this world and placing them into boxes. My cell phone rang. Kisty LOVES the telephone. When she grew up we did not remove it from her ear....ha ha. She said: "Mom, it's your agency. Shouldn't you answer it?" I told her that they probably just wanted me to update more paperwork and forget that today. Kisty, as usual in regard to a ringing phone, picked it up. The conversation went something like this: "Hello....no this is her daughter Kisty....can I give her a message?....WHAT!!!! A REFERRAL!!!! OH MY GOSH!!!" I grabbed the phone from her and our case worker told me to go to my computer, she had just received our referral.
My Mom did not know how to use a computer and we had already turned the service off to my Dad's computer. So I ran across the street to my sister's house. She was at work, but, my BIL was home. Mark switched his computer on...I was soooo crying. There was a picture of a little baby girl who was 19 months old. She looked exactly like my sister as a child. I have included Annie and Phyllis' pictures. I knew my sweet Daddy had sent me a gift he loved so much to me from Heaven...a girl like his little girl Phyllis.
It is difficult for people to understand....why we wanted and want our children. Why so many, why not spend the money on things for us, and mostly...how do you do it?....are common questions. Well, it is difficult to explain God's Will. Why did Noah build an ark in the middle of the desert. Because, God told him to do this and God has born our children in my heart regardless of the sense it makes to humans. In the middle February 2005 we were on a journey to Siberia.
We arrived in Moscow and we were met by Russian agency representatives. They took us over to the domestic Russian airport. We met another adoptive parent while there. She was with her friend and her husband had worthy reasons not to come on the first trip. As we visited she told me about her precious little girl who was also in the same orphanage. Then we boarded our plane for Siberia together for another five hours of flying!!! There was a couple who got onto the plane late and they were also Americans.
Once we were allowed to move about, I went up a few rows to talk to the couple, who had boarded late. They told me they were also going to Minusinsk Specialized Children's Home. The woman told me they had a referral from there and turned it down as this little girl had a diagnosis of mild CP in her medicals. She then proceeded to tell me that they felt this child had many more medicals problems than those listed and she would be be hopelessly ill.
I sort of had a feeling that she had been offered our Annie Kate before we took her. I ask her if she knew the Russian name of this little girl. Yep, it was our referral. She was so apologetic when I told her that we were going to see this child and we intended to take her. When I returned to my seat and told Duane about it he thought it was ridiculous and told me not to worry about it. But, I admit it made the wait to meet Annie more difficult.
When we landed in Krasnoyarsk, two very sweet ladies were waiting to take all six of us to the hotel for a brief rest before we boarded a train for Minusinsk. It was extremely cold in Siberia. Bubbles froze in mid air...ha ha. We really loved the lady who had come with her friend. She was a very sweet and kind person. She offered me much comfort about our referral and helped Duane and I both enjoy the trip so much. Her daughter is darling and doing very well. We still contact one another. The other couple were looking at an older child.
When we arrived in Minusinsks we went directly to the orphanage in two cars. It was similar to Ukraine in that the building was very run down on the outside. But, inside they were excellent. the children were very well cared for and loved very much. Annie has bonded more easily to us than any of our other children. Perhaps, it was her orphanage care givers and her personality type. She is just darling and we are so proud of her. When she was brought into the room, we could not believe how healthy she looked.
She does have a mild touch of CP. However, it does not have much of an effect on her. I have posted pictures of her when we first saw her. Two glorious days of visiting and playing with her. We fell deeply in love!!! Then the time came when we had to leave her and return home. As the plane left the runway in Krasnoyarsk I cried. It was so difficult to leave her and to know it would be months before I would see her again. I also worried that some other couple (domestic) would see her and want her before court.
But, there was not much I could do. So the long wait began. When we got back home, my Mom perked up so much, when she saw Annie's pictures. She told me she thought Annie did look a lot like my sister. Then a few days later I took Mom to see the progress on our new home. It was disappointingly slow and little had happened while we were gone. Every day I went to work, checked the new house's progress and waited for a court date.
It seemed to consume me and we were still in grief over my Daddy. Kisty had brought my mother over to the rental house to visit in March. Mother told me it seemed we were never going to bring that baby home fast enough. She also told me she did not feel well that day. Our oldest son, Weldon, was staying at night time with mom to help with her care. Several nights after her visit to me she passed away in her sleep. I think daddy reached his hand down and said "Honey, come home with me. Enough is enough." She died peacefully as my adult son had no idea she passed until in the very early hours of morning...maybe around 6:00am.
I had lost both of my parents now and began to feel so sad. I just had to keep my self involved in work, the new house, and waiting for my baby. When it felt that I could not handle any more, God gave us our break. We got a court date for the end of May. It was a breath of fresh air for me!!! New life was coming into this family and we had all had great loss.
My brother in law had also lost his big brother right after my dad died. So our family needed something wonderful like our beautiful Annie. Two days after we came back to America with our new daughter, Annie Kate, we moved into our nice home. We have lived here three years and Annie has adjusted to her new life with us wonderfully. It is as though she has always been with us. Thank you God. He is good to us.
No comments:
Post a Comment