ADOPTION FROM EASTERN EUROPE
OUR SON, ANDRE
The day before Thanksgiving in 1997, my husband and I were blessed with the
arrival of our then 4-year-old son from Latvia. Thursday’s Child was the
agency that helped us through the process with loving and caring support. The
process did turn out to be somewhat lengthy and complex, with all of the usual
reams of paperwork, but it was well worth it.
We decided to adopt through Thursday’s Child because they seemed like they would be more than willing to work with our special situation. I am “handicapped” and in a wheelchair and this agency was not discriminatory in any way. They agreed to help us find a child through one of their own contacts, or to find a cooperative networking agency.
The first couple of weeks with Andre were challenging for all of us, due to communications problems. It was amazing to us, though, how quickly he started understanding English.
Our son is now in kindergarten and is doing great. Just seeing the joy on his face gives us a warm feeling, knowing that he is happy and able to do things we would never have gotten to experience if he were still in the orphanage.
We were thoroughly prepared for the gamut of problems that can come with an older child adoption. We were very pleasantly surprised that we have not had a lot of difficulties, but we are accustomed to seeing things as challenges, rather than problems and this may be the reason that we and Andre have done so well. We may still encounter some and we are working with the school on language development and skills building, but we have no doubt in our minds that creating our family in this way was the right avenue for us. We would highly recommend adoption to anyone.
Tara and Matt, Newington, Connecticut
e-mail: tarapro@aol.com