Why Russia?

Going to Russia will fulfill a life long dream for me. As a teenager, I was always fascinated by the country, wanted to travel there, and had thought I would learn to speak Russian eventually. Why the tie? I have no idea other than my great grandmother, who I never met, was from there. Maybe it was the whole "Iron Curtain" thing and the mysteries surrounding what life was really like there. As for Doug, he's still dealing with the fact that the Cold War is over. So why in the world would we choose Russia for our adoption?

Doug's first choice was to adopt domestically. After looking into it, we realized that because of our age and the fact that we already had two children, we'd be "at the bottom of the barrel" so to speak--at least for an infant. With international adoption, there are literally millions of children available for adoption, and most countries don't have restrictions on parents' age or number of children already in the home. Most importantly however, international is where God was leading me. That is where my heart is drawn right now, and that pretty much trumps any argument for anything else!

Russia ended up being our country of choice by simple elimination of all the others. For example, we were too old for Poland and Korea (and I seriously doubt that either of us could pass the BMI requirements right now although that is about to change!). Neither of us were drawn to Rwanda, Colombia, or Ethiopia although the Ethiopian babies are beautiful!! Some countries were either currently closed or unstable: Guatemala, Vietnam, Kyrgyzstan, Georgia. We want a boy, so coupled with the 3-4 year wait time just for a girl, that basically eliminated China. We looked at Armenia, but it is a small country with a small program, and the wait time for a boy was 2-3 years. That led us the Eastern Europe where there are more boys ready for adoption than girls (the exact opposite of China). A lot of Eastern European countries such as Lithuania, Latvia, Bulgaria, and Ukraine had generally older children than what we feel would be the best fit for our family right now. That left us with Russia and Kazakhstan. Kaz was eliminated because of the really long in country stay and the fact that the government will not allow for gender choice any more.

I think the only major concern for me is being away from our girls while in a foreign country. It pretty much freaks Doug out, so I think he doesn't think about it if he doesn't have to. God is leading this adoption, and we know He has already provided the laborers who will take care of our girls. We both know that God will supply all our needs, and our girls will be in great hands as we travel.