Kevin and Debra
Whenever we tell people that we have six kids, three boys and three girls, many people will comment that we are like the Brady Bunch. Yes, we have six kids, but that’s about as far as the comparison goes (although we could probably use a little help from Alice)!
God has blessed us with three girls through domestic adoption and three boys through international adoption. Our boys, who are our youngest three children, came home in March of 2005 from Ulyanovsk, Russia. At the time, they were five, three, and two years old. Adopting three small children at once and integrating them into our family has probably been the most amazing, stretching, rewarding, and testing experience we have faced together in our almost 25 years of marriage. We have used every skill we’ve ever learned in the past two years. Sometimes it seems like we’re living a dream (and some days it seems like something else)! But even in the craziest, most sleep-deprived moments, we’ve never regretted the life choices we have made, and we can’t think of another way we’d rather spend our time.
God did so many amazing miracles in bringing our children to us, and each time it was so obvious that He was orchestrating the entire process. When we were considering adopting boys through international adoption, we originally requested a sibling group of two brothers. But because we had children already, any children we adopted would need to be at least nine months younger than our youngest child in order to comply with AAI’s child spacing policy. Finding children that fit within the acceptable age range was challenging. But soon, AAI called to say that they had found children that were age-appropriate for our family. There was only one problem―they had found three brothers, one more child than we were originally interested in adopting. They asked if we were interested in opening our hearts and our home to one more child. We didn’t hesitate. We were thrilled at the prospect of adopting the boys, and soon, we were planning our first trip to visit them in Ulyanovsk, Russia. Today, we can clearly see that God meant for us to bring these three boys into our family.
God continued to bless the boys’ adoption throughout the entire process. Outside of some delays, our trips went extremely well. We traveled to Ulyanovsk, Russia in October of 2004, and we were able to spend a large portion of our trip with the children in the orphanage. We saw where the children slept, where they ate, their gymnasium, and where they sang. The orphanage was really very open to us. But we were most impressed by how quickly the boys began to attach to us. You really could sense that they wanted a forever family. It was good for all of us to spend that time together, establishing a foundation of trust before removing them from everything familiar to them. Then, on March 3, 2005, we went before the Russian court and the judge permitted us to adopt the boys. They came home a few days later.
Today, the boys are as pleasant as you could ask for. They love life. They enjoy trying new foods and experimenting with things. All three have such resilient spirits, and they are genuinely happy. People often comment to us about what wonderful smiles they have.
Naturally, though, there have been challenges in blending the family together. But anything worthwhile takes effort, and usually lots of it. For us, the adoption of our sons has been an adventure, but unless you prepare yourself for an adventure when adopting, you’ll probably be disappointed!
Even though some amount of time has passed since we brought our children home, we remain thankful to AAI, and especially our caseworker, Chandra, for bringing us together with our boys. Thank you for helping us complete our family!
