April 2005

Life is good. Chris and I are in successful career's. We have been blessed with financial security, a solid marriage, a love of God and a wonderful son. We are a family that eats dinner together each night, and are trying to live a life our God would be proud of.
One day at work I pick up a phone I usually never answer. One my staff members is on the line and she is frantic to find one of her collegues. When I ask her if there is anything wrong she says well, yes. She wanted to speak to this particular person because she just found out there were 2 brothers from Russia here on a visitation and the family that sponsored them couldnt take them due to a family emergency, so she was trying to find another family interested in adopting them. Without a thought I told her we would. She nearly dropped the phone. She then rattled off the information and told me the name of the church I had to be in that night in order to meet these children. They were 5 and 7 years old.
I immediately went back to my office and called my husband. When I began speaking to him I was so excited he told me I had to slow down. After I conveyed to him what had transpired he said "Ann you have to let me think about this for a few minutes, I will call you back." I hung up and waited. It seemed it took him forever to call back, however 10 minutes is a long time to wait when you want a specific answer now.
When the phone rang the pace of my heart increased as I heard his voice say "what time do we have to be there."
5:45 I said and it 4pm now. He said OK I am on my way. I will pick Christopher up and we will meet you in the parking lot.
I recalled my staff member to verify the information again and tell her we were going.
When Chris and Chistopher arrived I got into the car and it was then we began to talk about adoption to our son. We felt he had to be in total agreement as he had been our only child for 10 years. So we asked him on the way to the church how he felt about having another child in our lives. His answer was a spontaneous yes with a smile that allowed us to look directly into his heart.
We did meet the boys that night and so did other interested families.
It was this night we realize we were being called to adopt. So for the ensuing days we talked together as a family, then privatey as parents to discuss what direction to take. We read up on adoption and the ramifications on biological children.
We also went to visit the boys again prior to them leaving to go back to Russia. They were active, bright and adorable however we decided for our sons's sake at this point in his life adopting a baby girl would give him more of a connection to a sibling. Also as parents we wanted to avoid any feelings our son might have with regards to any competition from the boys.
Together as a family it was decided a baby girl is who we would look for as we began our adoption journey.