A very special Gift.

I know that some of you may get tired of these anniversaries, but with the time change and all 6 years ago today this is what I got...

I know I wasn't going to put faces on the internet, but this picture is 6 years old.

Here is a little of our story...

In October 1999, we found out that we would not be able to have kids. We had done one unsuccessful round of IVF. We thought of an egg donor and a sperm donor and all the other options, but they were not right for us. I had a childhood friend that had just adopted to kids from Russian that summer and called her on the phone after 2 hours and ALOT of information we were off.

We turned in our application to adopt the monday after Thanksgiving. We wanted to tell our families the news to see how they would react. Very early in our marriage Nene made a comment about how she would rather have no kids than adopt so we were a little afraid that our families might react weird. Nene has told me many times that she can't believe that she ever said that but back when she was growing up adoption was not viewed in the same way that it is today. Most of you know that Nene would from the day she set eyes on Yuri move heaven and earth for that kid. Really Yuri has the best Grandparents EVER both sets!

We went though all the paperwork and on March 21st we got Yuri's picture. It is the one above.

One April 18, we left for Odessa.

We arrived at a pepto- pink building in a back alley in Odessa, Ukraine. This is babyhouse number 3 in all there are 7 different orphanges in Odessa alone.

They shuffled us and the other couple into a small room. With the babyhouse director, our coordinator (who could only say "8" for what ever time he ment even if it was 2 in the afternoon), & our translator Anya.

They brought in this small bundle of beauty. He was so very tiny, and I am not sure that he had ever seen a man before. He looked at Rudy with sure puzzle in his eyes. The director was telling us his story while the translator was also telling us his story ... I was a bit confused 24 hours without sleep and a horrible train ride... That is another story all in inself.

Here was my son. How had God know that he was for us? How had he made it so that our paths would meet? How? I had so many thoughts going though my mind. Would he love me? Would I be able to love him enough? Would he understand why his birth mother made the choices she had to make? Would we be able to give him the right answers to his questions? Would... well you get the idea.

We knew that he had a club foot and asked if we could look at his foot to determine the condition. I don't really know why we looked. He was already our son, so whatever God gave us we were going to work with the problem. He was so very tiny. He weighed only 14 pounds at 11 months. He had the most amazing gray eyes. For the first few visits we thought that he was deaf becuase he would not look at us when we spoke, but then ladies would walk thru speaking Russian and heis eyes would follow them.

I remember the first time I heard his laugh... He laughs like Revenge of the Nerds guys so it was funny to hear from a little person.

On April 26, 2000, little Yuri offically became our son. I am sure that I will have to post on that day also court was something else, but I just can't help it. I love this boy more than I ever loved anything in my life. My sweet Rudy don't be jealous it is not the same type of love as you know. He made me feel like a lost part of me was found.

Well now that I am crying like a baby. I will go. Happy Gotcha Day little Yuri! I love you so VERY much.