Alaska International Adoption Agency Streamlines Russian Adoption Process

I'd pretty much lost hope that we'd ever have children when my wife was told about Alaska International Adoption Agency. After five years of trying, two miscarriages, numerous fertility treatments, and two failed domestic adoptions, I was at the end of my rope with the whole process.

My wife learned of Alaska International Adoption Agency from a group of local families who adopted children from Russia and Eastern Europe. A number of the families used Alaska International Adoption Agency and recommended the agency without reservation. I was a little harder to convince, but thanks to my wife's persistence, we decided to give it one more try.

From the very beginning the agency director, Olga Byrnes, put us at ease. She made no secret of the fact that there is a mountain of paperwork involved in the process and she was upfront about how things would happen. One of the things that impressed me most was that, unlike the domestic agencies that want all the money up front, Alaska International Adoption Agency didn't really ask for a lot of money until they were sure they could place us with adoptive children.

Two children were identified for us in Magadan, Russia, near the Arctic Circle in Siberia. We were actually afraid to look at their pictures at first because we didn't want to set ourselves up for another heartbreak. When we finally got the courage to look at them, we fell in love on the spot. Those were our sons.

Our first trip to Magadan was in February of 2008. The warmest it got while we were there was 27 degrees below zero! Not exactly a vacation spot. We met Zoya, the Alaska International Adoption Agency attorney, and she was wonderful. She speaks perfect English and the children absolutely love her.

We were not at all prepared for what we saw at the orphanage. Having seen pictures of orphanages in Moscow and St. Petersburg, we were prepared for the worst. When we came through the door of the Children's House, we were greeted with laughter and singing. The place was spotless and every child we encountered met us with curious smiles. There were bicycles, balls, swings, even an Astro-Jump for the children to play on. Unlike the orphanages in urban areas that sometimes house up to 500 kids, the Children's House in Magadan had 48 kids living there. The ratio of children to caretakers was about 6 to 1.

We met Ludmila, the orphanage director, in her office and then they brought in Igor (4 ½ years old at the time). He was so little! He smiled and said, "Zdrosvitcha" (Russian for Hello) in the tiniest voice. When Zoya explained to him that we were going to be his mama and papa, his face lit up and he came right to us. Then we met his little brother Pasha (3 years old). For a little kid, Pasha was all personality and definitely had a mind of his own. While Igor came right to us, Pasha was much more reserved. We played with them both for several hours. Pasha was friendly and smiled a lot, but kept us at arms length. Igor and I must have played catch for almost an hour straight. When it was time to leave, we told Igor that we would see him tomorrow and he was fine with that, but Pasha started crying and when they asked him why he told them that he didn't want us to leave! Needless to say, getting on a plane back to America without them was very difficult.

Luckily, it didn't take long for us to get a court date. Unfortunately, the date conflicted with a mandatory meeting my wife had in Washington D.C. The Magadan court was very accommodating and moved our court date back two weeks.

When we returned in April, our adoption hearing lasted about an hour. We had a very understanding judge and she even waived the ten-day waiting period for us. We got to Magadan on a Tuesday and our boys were flying home with us that Friday.

The boys were extremely well prepared to be adopted. The orphanage must have explained everything to them in language they could understand, because they didn't hesitate to leave with us. In fact, they were both very excited about the prospect of riding on an airplane. We had occasion over several days to observe the caretakers with the children in the orphanage and the level of care and concern was amazing. It truly is like a big family over there. The kids are very well cared for.

In the short time we've been home (about 4 months), they have become true American boys. Their English blows me away. George (Igor), now 5 years old, can swim the length of an Olympic-sized pool by himself. Paul (Pasha) can swim the width. They are smart as a whip and very athletically inclined. Paul has mastered English to the degree that he now feels comfortable smarting off to us. Yesterday, when my wife told him something he didn't necessarily agree with, he looked her dead in the eye and asked her, "Have you lost your mind?"

In conclusion, we couldn't be happier with Alaska International Adoption Agency. They took a very difficult and complicated process and streamlined it. Everything Olga said she would do she did, and in a timely manner. They are extremely professional and I have and will continue to recommend them for any family thinking about expanding.