God doesn't promise that the journey will be easy...

...but He does promise to walk with us.

                        "I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee."  Hebrews 13:5

March 9, 2013 Preface:

As Clarke and I reflect back on our 10 year anniversary of our first adoption, we thought it would be interesting to share our journal notes taken during the trip.  10 years ago the technology of Blogs, Twitter, FaceBook were not even in existence.  Below is our snail mail "announcement" letter stating our desire to adopt.  Retyping the below letter after 10 years brought back so many feelings and a few smiles and giggles.  Mostly it brought to light how innocently naive both Clarke and I were.  Looking back now I realize God's providence in the whole process and His revealing truth to us a little bit at a time. 

In our explanation of "why Ukraine", we acted as if we were in control.  What a faith building mission we were about to embark on. We were setting out on unchartered waters, alone and scared to a far off unknown country of Ukraine, that would forever change our life!  

March 4, 2003

Dearest Family and friends,

This letter is to let our family and friends know that soon we will be adding to our family through adoption.  We have spent many, many hours researching and praying about our decision to adopt.  We are hoping to adopt 2 children from Ukraine.  We will be leaving for our journey on Friday, March 21, 2003.  We do not know the exact length of our trip, but the average is three weeks.  Amanda and Alex are very excited for the addition to the family!  Amanda wants a little sister and Alex wants a little brother.   We have been so blessed with both Amanda and Alex.  They have grown up to be wonderful, strong and outgoing children.  We now want to add on to our family through adoption.

Why?

I’m sure many of you are asking “Why”.  Kris and I have had it in our hearts for as long as we have been married to help out needy children in some way.  We talked about foster parenting, but it would have been a huge sacrifice to our family.  Foster children typically come from troubled/broken families and require a lot of extra attention.  We also could not handle the fact that the foster children could be taken away at anytime.  In our hearts we felt God calling us to adopt internationally. 

Is it possible to love and adopted child as much as a biological child?

One of the deepest, strongest relationships I have is not “blood” related.  It is my spouse-Kris.  People are not blood-related to their spouses, and yet we love them with all our hearts.  Love does not require blood.  It is most unfortunate that our society has cast a shadow of negativity on this “alternative” way of forming a family.  Kris and I feel that adopting a child is an outward expression of love, which is how we should all want to be treated ourselves. 

Why Ukraine?

After exploring domestic adoption, we started thinking about International adoption.  We researched the policies in Russia, China, South Korea, Guatemala, India, Poland, Romania, and Ukraine.  After many hours of meetings, orientations, and research on the Internet, we settled on Ukraine.  Ukraine is unique from all other countries of the world.  In Ukraine, the government encourages “independent” adoptions, that is, adoptions without the use of an adoption agency.  Because of this, we have more control over our adoption because we are dealing directly with the Ukrainian government and do not have a “middle man”.  We have hired a translator that will be with us the entire time we are there, but the adoption is “our” adoption and we have control over it.  Also, Ukraine does not give us a “referral” or have anybody else selecting our children for us.  We select our future family members ourselves!  There is no other country in the world that does it that way!  We will be able to spend time with the children at the orphanage and we decide if it is “right”.  We can see as many children, within certain guidelines, as we want.  We also considered Alex and Amanda’s input.  We discussed the different countries with them as well.  Although we were unaware of my ancestor’s specific origin within Prussia, we were quite surprised to find out that they lived in what is now present-day Ukraine.  My Great Great Grandfather, Johann Stoesz, and his family lived in a village named Stara Dubrovka (Dibrivka) just east of the Ukrainian/Hungarian border city of Uzhorrod for many generations until the year 1877.  At this time some of the family stayed, but most migrated to the States.  This explains why my relative’s dialect of low German (plattduetsch) sounds different.    

Health Issue

I'd like to first state that childbirth in itself is not free of risks with respect to receiving a guaranteed healthy baby.  We both believe that God is in control, and will direct us to the right children who need us.  We have knowledge of many of the health, emotional, and psychological risks associated with children who have been in orphanage care for some or all of their lives.  Often times, many of the children’s problems can be greatly reduced, cured or at least have an improved life with the proper medical care, nutrition, and most importantly love.  We don’t claim to know it all or even a little.  What we do know, is that we are willing to share our prosperity and love with someone who deserves a better life. 

The Process

We started our adoption process March of 2002 with a “home study”.  We completed our Dossier over the summer and sent the final certified/authorized paperwork to Ukraine in October.  We have been patiently waiting for our date and received an appointment at the National Adoption Center (NAC) on March 25^th, 2003.  We arrive in Kyiv on the 22^nd and will spend a couple of days sightseeing.  When we go to the NAC on the 25^th, we will be given binders of the different regions in Ukraine.  In the binders are pictures and health information of the children available to adopt.  We will select which child/children that we would like to visit.  Then, typically, we hop on a train and take an overnight ride to the region where the orphanage is.  Once we are at the orphanage, we will have the opportunity to meet the children and spend time with them.  We will see how they live and meet their caretakers.  This will be a very emotional experience!  We trust that God will lead us to our “forever” children.  After our decision has been made, then all the paperwork starts up again.  Our translator will guide us through the process.  We will have to go to court to declare the final adoption.  After that, we travel back to Kyiv and do more paperwork there.  After passports, birth certificates, doctor’s exams and many other steps, we will be ready to leave Kyiv.  Our next stop will be Warsaw, Poland to visit the American Embassy to finalize the visas/passports.  Then, we will head home!  The children will be American citizens once we land in the USA.

While we are away.

During our trip to Ukraine, Amanda and Alex will stay home in Berthoud.  Kris’s sister, Annette, has so kindly offered to stay with the kids during our trip.  This will be a tremendous help to Amanda and Alex who are busy with sports, school, drama and scouts.  We will be in contact several times a week.  We will have a cell phone and occasionally access to an Internet Café while we are in Ukraine. 

We are looking forward to our adoption and just wanted to take a moment to share with you some of our thoughts.  Thank you all for your support in this important time in our lives.

Love, 

Kris and Clarke