Olga and Anna's Story

Every night was the same. “Thank you for a really nice day. Help us have a really nice night. Please send some sun (or rain or snow, depending on the desires of the two little girls singing their made-up prayer). Please send us a baby sister! Amen!” The song that was the closing to bed-time prayers began in about 1997, when Erin and Brenna were four and two years old.

By 1999, it was becoming clear that maybe God had plans to get them their baby sister in a different way than we had anticipated. We started looking into adoption. By December, we had decided upon Russia, and Santa brought Erin and Brenna the Teach Me Russian book and tape. We began researching agencies, and in July 2000 we settled on the agency good friends used to bring home their son in January 2000.

Russian Adoption family We began our home study in January 2001. We hoped to adopt two little girls – an infant and a toddler – and INS gave us the approval. After many starts and stops and bumps along the way, the phone call with our referral came in the afternoon of August 31, 2001.

We were to fly to Ekaterinburg, Russia, on September 17 to meet 20-month-old Olga. We were a little disappointed to be referred only one child, but very excited to meet her. The events of September 11 postponed our trip by six days. Anticipation and anxiety built up.

When we finally met Olga, she was this tiny, quiet, serious, beautiful child who quickly stole our hearts. After visiting her a few days, we said good-bye, hoping our court date would be soon so that we could return to bring her home to meet her sisters who were besides themselves with excitement about finally getting the much-prayed-for baby sister.

We brought her home the end of December 2001, a week after her second birthday. She hit the ground running, quickly bonding with her sisters and playing with her cousins. She quickly transformed from the quiet, serious toddler to the tall, funny, smart child that she is today.

In February 2004, we found out about another little girl in Russia who needed a family. Her name was Anna and she had a limb discrepancy. She was a beautiful little girl, nearly three years old. Immediately our three girls started praying that we’d bring her home. At bedtime I’d lead the prayer for God to find the right family for Anna. Brenna (then age 8) prayed she’d be ours because “you can’t lie to God – he knows what’s in our hearts!”

We updated our home study and flew to Murmansk to meet Anna in mid-May. She was very quiet and shy and every bit as adorable as her photos. Everyone on both sides of the ocean worked very hard to help us get her home quickly! We brought her home July 1, 2004.

Anna is no longer quiet or shy. She makes new friends everywhere she goes. She has had many surgeries to correct deformities of her hands and right leg and she comes through them all like a champ. She says that when she grows up, she wants to be “an orthopedic surgeon and Cinderella.” Her surgeon thinks both are a great idea!

Our four girls keep us very busy. Our house overflows with laughter and activity. Adding Olya and Anya to the mix has been an amazing adventure. We have very dear friends we met in Russia while adopting Olya and we have met lots of inspiring people through Anya’s various hospital visits. Olya has four brothers and a sister still in orphanage care in Russia. I think about them constantly. We are trying to keep in touch with them as best we can, hoping that they can have a mutually beneficial relationship.

When anyone asks us if adoption has been a good thing for our family, I happily tell them that we’d do it all again 100 times over!

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