The Bluest Eyes I Have Ever Seen

By Jenn W

My husband, Gregg, and I came to adoption in August, 2004. We had just had our second miscarriage after losing a full term baby girl the year before. The decision to adopt, though not made lightly, was an easy one. We requested information from many different agencies, but after attending a WHFC info session and talking to a coworker who had used the agency years before, the decision to choose Wide Horizons was easy-it just felt right.

I was very nervous about our homestudy but our social worker, Deb Shrier quickly put our minds at ease and helped us through the process. We learned a lot about the adoption, thoughts on parenting and one another. Our most difficult decision was which country program to choose! We attended sessions for many of the programs and just days before our homestudy was to be written we chose Russia.

We quickly started to assemble our Russian dossier-not an easy feat and turned it in on Monday, February 14th. We were ready for the long wait for a referral. On Friday of that week Deb called to say that she had just received some information for a little boy on the Waiting Child list. We had not considered a waiting child before as we had requested an infant in our homestudy. She asked if I would like to see the information for this two year old from Ekaterinburg. That e-mail changed my life. When I opened the first picture I saw a smiling toddler with the bluest eyes I have ever seen. I knew this was our son. I called Deb back and said that we were interested but I hadn't talked to Gregg yet! She had them pull our dossier out of the mail. Of course my husband was at a conference that day so I had to wait until I got home to show him the pictures. We talked all through the long weekend about what it would mean to adopt a toddler and by Tuesday morning we knew that this was the right decision for all of us. Looking back I know that it was truly fate that our dossier and his referral came up in the same week.

We made our first trip to Russia the following month. The WHFC staff in both Moscow and Ekaterinburg was fabulous. We were allowed to meet with our soon to be son, Seth, twice. The first day he cried the entire time. The second day he let us feed him cookies (still one of his favorite foods!) and we were hooked! It was very difficult to come home without him but we knew that we would be back soon.

At home we (impatiently) waited for a court date. We attended the "Older Child" group which helped us to get a glimpse of what life with a toddler could be. Finally in July we got the call-only to be told we had to complete an eight doctor medical form before going to court! Finally everything was done and we left for Russia. Seth had just turned 2 ½ and we couldn't wait to see him again. Going to court in a foreign country was stressful but we were well prepared by the Russian Program staff both here and in Ekaterinburg. On August 10th we were named the parents of Seth Andrew Williams. We had to wait out the 10 day waiting period in Russia but were fortunate to be able to visit Seth everyday. On August 25th, exactly one year to the day of attending our first WHFC info session, we brought our son, Seth home.

Looking back our family has made the transition fairly well and continue to make progress every day. Seth has brought joy to our lives in countless ways and I am thankful everyday that I am his mama.

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