Featured Adoption Story of the month  

What a year this has been! We’ve seen our family grow in a surprising
fashion. It is a very long, emotional, faith-promoting story which
ultimately led to the adoption of two three-year-old girls from Kazakhstan We
are so excited to have them in our family! They are our virtual twins Dasha
and Kira.

The decision to adopt was not an easy one, but we could not shake
the feeling that our family was incomplete. So after considerable study and
prayer, we chose to adopt a girl from Kazakhstan. We went through a lot of
paperwork and other preparatory requirements to qualify to adopt from the
country and to bring our daughter home. Within three months we were on our
way to Uralsk,Kazakhstan. It took 33 hours of travel and we were exhausted,
but we were thrilled to meet our future daughter.

We met Dasha Diana at an orphanage where she had lived all her life. When we
went to the orphanage, we immediately felt an overwhelming desire to adopt
all of the children. But on a trip like this, an amazing thing happens. The
Heavenly Father helps you know which one is yours. We felt a spiritual
connection to both Dasha and her best friend. In fact, her friend “adopted”
Keoki while we were there. Her best friend already had parents planning to
adopt her, so we never really considered adopting her, although it was very
easy to visualize those two little girls as sisters.

Dasha was old enough to be quite conscious of what was going on,
so even though she desperately wanted parents,she had some grieving to go
through when the adoption finally took place. All tolled, we spent 24 days
travelling to bring Dasha home and she hardly spoke a word the entire time,
even in Russian. But the instant she met her new sister Dawnika at the Salt
Lake Airport (Aug. 5th), she let out her true spunky personality and has fit
into the family beautifully ever since.

EVERYTHING was new for Dasha: new food, toys, stores, cars,
noises, people,etc. She explored with vigor and practically tore the house
apart for the first few weeks. We were grateful for baby locks, but she was
clever enough to get into other things we hadn’t dreamed she could get into.
For example, one day I found her in the van. She had smeared an entire
bottle of lotion everywhere! Fortunately, the phase pretty much passed.

Our feelings for Dasha’s little friend remained pretty intense.
We had contact with her prospective parents many times and sent what video we
had ofher to them. Dasha never stopped talking about her and our other
children fell in love with her via the video we had made while at the
orphanage. We knew she was getting to the age where she would be sent to the
older orphanage, but learned that she had been held back because her
"parents" were scheduled to come soon. She was told this and anxiously
awaited the day when her parents would come for her. We were content knowing
that she would be spared the very disruptive change to a new orphanage and
would soon have parents.

Then one evening in October, we learned from our agency that the
prospective parents of Dasha’s friend had decided not to adopt after all. We
were heartbroken because we knew that she would be sent to the older
orphanage after all . . .that is, unless someone were able to go immediately
in the other couple’s place instead. We gingerly asked (okay begged) if we
might be considered to adopt her instead. Ordinarily this wouldn’t be much
of an issue, but we already had five children and the judge really had a hard
time with us adopting Dasha in the first place because of our family
size. The agency agreed to see if the judge would approve us adopting again.
We waited to learn our destiny, trying not to get our hopes up, for 11
torturous days. Then the approval came! We couldn’t believe it!

Life was turned upside down again that day. We had to resubmit a
major portion of the paperwork all over again. But God worked a miracle and
we had it through all of the levels of approval and in Kazakhstan in less
than two weeks! From the day we got the go-ahead to the day we left for
Kazakhstan was less than three weeks. All of the preparations went
flawlessly. It really was amazing.

During those frenzied weeks of preparation, our neighbors and
friends started a collection of money and donations for the children we would
leave behind at the orphanage. The total sum of money ended up being
equivalent to the average employed person’s wages for 1½ years in Uralsk! We
were pleased to be able to donate 10 cribs, 15 camel’s wool blankets, 50
winter outfits, 70 sets of pencils, paper,& clay, 2 large duffel bags stuffed
with new and gently used clothing, a refrigerator for medicines, a
television, and hundreds of dollars worth of toys! We felt just like Santa
Claus! The caregivers were so EXCITED to receive the donations. Their
response reminded us of little children on Christmas morning opening their
presents. It was very gratifying to see the needs of the children being met
through the generous donations from our dear friends.

Kira remembered us from our last trip and ran straight for
Keoki’s open arms. She was very ready to be adopted and accepted us
completely from the first moment. We spent another 21 daysof travel in
Kazakstan and Russia and finally arrived home with the daughter we had
originally left behind. Dasha and Kira immediately resumed their
long-standing friendship—this time as sisters! Kira slipped right into the
family as if she had always been there.

So as we look back at the past year,we have much to be grateful
for. Heavenly Father has guided us down an unexpected path that led us to two
beautiful daughters! And along the road, we have made some great new friends
and strengthened old friendships. We couldn’t be happier!