We have truly seen the hand of God at work in our lives. In 2002, after only two years of marriage, Jeff and I learned that having biological children would be nearly impossible. The day we received this news we felt that our lives would never be complete; little did we know that God had a much bigger plan.
During the summer of 2004 God began preparing our hearts for international adoption. It seemed that everywhere we looked we saw couples in different stages of the adoption process. 
Each time we talked to one of these couples God dealt with our hearts and gradually opened both of our hearts to adoption. By the fall of 2004 Jeff and I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that our first child was waiting for us in Russia. We had no idea how we could afford to adopt internationally but we believed that God would provide a way. Although we were scared to death about the financial aspect of adoption we stepped out in faith and began our adoption journey. Many times throughout the adoption process God showed us that His hand was on our journey as He blessed our finances.
Jeff and I had decided when we began the adoption process that we would be open to a child of either gender that was under the age of two. Although I knew I could love a son as much as a daughter, in my heart I dreamed of having a daughter. I never fully verbalized my desire to have a daughter but God knew my heart. I also longed to have a tiny baby so that I could rock her to sleep, hear her first words, see her first step, etc. 
We fully expected to become parents to a boy since more people seem to request girls.
On August 18, 2005 we were notified by our social worker that we had a daughter waiting for us in Tver, Russia. I could hardly believe the words I was hearing…a daughter!!! The initial information we received was that the referral was for a little girl who was nearly 2-years-old. We were also told that she had been classified as special needs. When we learned why she was classified as special needs we knew immediately it was something we could handle and we immediately told our agency we would like to travel to Russia to meet this little girl. My heart was floating for a week because God had seen the secret desire of my heart, a precious little girl. The following week we received a surprise phone call from our social worker. They had received additional information about our daughter. Somehow a mistake had been made and we found out that our soon to be daughter was actually only 10-months-old and she only weighed 9 pounds. Once again God saw the desire of my heart. I was going to be the mom to a tiny baby girl. I wouldn’t miss any of her ‘firsts’.
In September 2005 we traveled to Russia to meet our precious daughter. When we arrived in Tver we learned that our daughter’s given Russian name was Natalia…which is very similar to my name!! We spent two wonderful afternoons at the baby home getting to know our daughter. We fell in love immediately and couldn’t wait for our final trip to Russia to make her our
daughter forever. On November 11, 2005 we were legally declared the parents of Alexandra Natalia and we were allowed to pick her up from the baby home the following day.
Since that day in November our life has been filled with so much joy because of Alexandra. We have rocked her to sleep, we have heard her first words and seen her take her first steps…all of the things we longed to do as first time parents!
In 2002 we had no idea why God would allow us to experience the pain of infertility but today we understand that without infertility we would have never explored international adoption and we would have never found our beautiful Alexandra. We feel so blessed that we were chosen to become parents through international adoption; it has been the journey of a lifetime. Thank you so much for helping us make our dreams and the dreams of so many others come true!!
--Natalie Morris, MO
(Jeff and Natalie Morris adopted Alexandra Natalia Morris from Tver, Russia in November 2005)
