“You must really want that baby!” our young nieces exclaimed after hearing our thorough responses to their numerous adoption-related questions. At first, the girls’ questions were simple and easy to answer: Are you adopting a boy or girl, how old will he or she be, have you chosen a name yet? Further into the discussion, the questions became more complex: Why are you adopting, will you ever get to meet the birthmother, how will you tell the baby about his or her adoption?We learned from the girls how to answer the tough questions that adoptive parents often face. More importantly, our conversation with the children reaffirmed we did indeed want “that baby” more than anything in the world. The baby for whom we had waited so long, a lifetime in fact, would soon become one major fulfillment of God’s divine plan for our lives. Although our amazing adoption of Amelia Olga commenced in September of 2004 and finalized in June of 2006, our adoption journey began long, long ago.
As children, the idea of adoption was planted in our hearts and minds by the stories from Christian missionaries. In college, I traveled on a mission trip to Monclova, Mexico, where I assisted in the building and refurbishing of a children’s camp. There, I met sundry children who were living in extreme poverty. Many of the children were orphans.
A year after my mission trip, I returned to Mexico to attend an intensive Spanish language program in Guadalajara. When Greg came to visit me, I pointed out the need, and he instantly agreed that we needed to do something to help less fortunate children.
Post graduation, we married and discussed having our own children. How delighted we were to find that we were both pro-children and pro-adoption! Although we were open to having children naturally, we agreed that we would adopt at least one child. One of our missions was to “to care for orphans in their distress” James 1:27. To “defend the cause of the fatherless” Isaish 1:17, was our calling. It was no coincidence that God had created a passionate desire to adopt in both of our hearts and then brought us together so perfectly!
Understanding that God’s hand, although seemingly invisible or intangible at times, was working busily in our lives helped us immensely as we trekked through our twenty-one month adoption of Amelia. When we submitted our initial application to Children’s Hope in September of 2004, we expected our adoption to be a relatively quick process of less than a year. Unforeseen events, however, began to occur. Our home study took longer than we had originally anticipated due to circumstances beyond our control.
Then in December 2004, Russia put a hold on international adoptions. We couldn’t believe our adoption would be delayed. We were so ready to meet and bring our child home. Little did we know this pause would be exactly what we needed. In those months of waiting, I lost both my oldest sister and my grandmother. This unscheduled and underappreciated “pause” turned into a great blessing for us.
By the end of May 2005, Russia resumed the adoption process, our lives had become more settled and optimistic, and we had submitted our dossier to Russia. Only days before we mailed our paperwork to Russia, unbeknownst to us at the time, our little girl was born in a small Russian town. God had the exact child chosen for us, and we would have to experience even more “delays” until she was available for international adoption; per Russian law, baby Olga had to remain on the Russian database before her availability status could change from domestic to international. We, in turn, had to wait out shifts in adoption policy in three different regions of Russia.
Our dossier first went to Chelyabinsk, a town in the Ural Mountains. Although we were excited about adopting from this historic location, we decided to transfer our dossier to a brand new region for Children’s Hope, one with only two other waiting families. Two families, in our mind, meant a quick referral. Our consultant at Children’s Hope informed us of the risks involved in adopting from the new region, Ulyanovsk, but we decided that the risks were worth taking. After our dossier remained in Ulyanovsk for approximately six months, Children’s Hope strongly recommended we move our dossier to Moscow or Astrakhan due to Ulyanovsk international adoptions policy changes. Although we were sorely disappointed by the news, we found strength in knowing God was in control of our adoption. After much prayer and consideration, we chose to adopt from Moscow.
Within a month we got the call! On April 22, we traveled to Russia and the next day we found out that our baby was a girl and we unquestionably agreed to meet her. On the way to the orphanage, we held hands and whispered quietly to each other, “We are finally going to meet our daughter. This is it!”
That day we discovered love at first sight really does exist! On the way back to the hotel from the orphanage, we held hands again but this time exclaimed, “She’s perfect! Beautiful! So sweet! We’re the luckiest people alive!”
While in Russia we existed on pure adrenaline resulting from the love we immediately felt for the soon-to-be newest member of our family. A week later we bid our sweet baby farewell, told her that we would see her soon, gave her lots of love and hugs, and sadly sojourned back to the U.S. to await our court date. During the six weeks between trips (Adoptions from Russia require two trips), God continued to bless us by showing us clearly that we would definitely be able to afford one parent to stay at home full time with Amelia. The timing of our adoption was impeccable!
After our court date in Russia, we immersed ourselves in our daughter’s culture by spending our ten day waiting period in Kolomna, a small town two to three hours from downtown Moscow. To stay in Kolomna was perhaps one of the most rewarding decisions we made regarding our adoption.
In addition to being able to see Mila (a Russian name that we have chosen to use as a shortened form of Amelia; the nickname appropriately means “dearest” or “sweetest” one) every day and getting to know her much better before the long trip home, we grew to love Russia and its remarkable culture.
We learned to communicate with and truly appreciate the wonderful and beautiful Russian people. We rode the buses to and from the orphanage, toured the historic buildings, strolled through the parks, and shopped in the markets. We ate the local cuisine, and we enjoyed the live music outside our hotel. We learned the Russian way of ordering food at McDonald’s: the employee holding up the flag will assist the next customer. We never again underestimated the importance of saying please and thank you in Russian.One of the Children’s Hope Moscow translators spoke of us as being “so brave,” because we willingly ventured alone into a small Russian town, one in which English was almost nonexistent, on our own; we are so thankful that we did! We will always have the memories of our child’s hometown to share with her. On July 1st, after three extraordinary weeks in Russia, we entered the U.S. as the proud and highly elated Bush family of three.
The last nine months have proven to us that we should always rely on and have faith in God’s sovereignty; He is in control! We simply cannot imagine our lives without Mila. Every day with her is a testament of God’s abiding love for us.
Our adoption has educated us on how to persevere in difficult times: to trust God, to lean on each other, to find comfort in family and friends. It has also taught us to appreciate the process, to “be still and wait” happily; we have learned to enjoy the moment and place in which we currently are.
Most strikingly, adoption has shown us the great distances (literally and figuratively) to which we will go for love. Our adoption has given us grateful hearts. We are very thankful for God’s (not our!) perfect timing, for the unwavering love of our friends and family, for the tremendous support from our church and community, for the careful and considerate assistance of the Children’s Hope staff during all stages of our adoption process, for the strength and contentment of our marriage, and for our beautiful and precious daughter.
As one of our nieces recently stated, “Mila is a blessing to our whole family!” We can hardly wait to adopt again!
–Greg and Gina Bush, GA
