PASHA

We have so much to say in so little space. Where do we begin? First of all, by God's grace alone we are now The proud parents of a wonderful, precious, fifteen month old little boy from Perm, Russia. He is the perfect addition to our home. He is bright, loving, and full of personality!

I guess we must give a little background into our particular situation. All my life I've had a desire to adopt. Luckily, I met a man who was very open to that idea. My husband, Steve, and I were married seven years before we decided to seriously consider children. We always knew we wanted them, but were not quite ready until then. Steve and I can have children biologically and possible will one day, but we felt very led by God to pursue adoption first. At the same time we were considering adoption from Russia another couple from our church, Jerry and Leah McRae, were being led in the same direction. These two people along with their two biological children have since become very special people in our lives. Ultimately, we feel we were put together by the hands of God. We began our adoption process together, traveled together, and brought our boys home together. Friends like no others. We share the same experiences of adoption, and that has forever bound us to one another. The four of us looked at probably one hundred agencies before choosing Global Adoption Services. In the end we as a group felt very led to Global. We spoke to Joyce several times before making our final decision. She was always very helpful, and she even allowed us to phone her at home with questions. What service!!

After seven months of paperwork, paperwork, waiting, worrying, and more waiting we received video of our prospective children. It was absolutely thrilling!! Was this actually happening? Steve and Cheri were really adopting? And from halfway around the world! This was definitely not the norm. Were we crazy? Some people thought we were. But it was actually the most natural thing for us. Fortunately, our families were very supportive financially, emotionally, and prayerfully. Leah, Jerry, Steve and I all work for the school system, so the only time we were able to travel was the summer. Global worked with us and we left for Russia on June 19,1997. Once we arrived in Moscow we were met at the airport by Alexander Vdovin. We were happy to see him, as we had been corresponding with him via e-mail for several months. He is one of Global's Russian coordinators and we now consider him our friend and personal angel. He stayed with us the entire two weeks, handled our money exchanges, travel and accommodations, translations, court proceedings, and absolutely everything. He was a Godsend to us.

We arrived in Perm on a Sunday evening after a twenty-three hour train ride from Moscow. We met our son the next morning at the Center for Orphaned Children. I cannot describe to you the feelings we had when we finally met our little boy. Words cannot do justice to the feeling. We are thankful that the McRae's were with us to experience that joy as well when they too met their son for the first time. The following morning we adopted our son in a Russian court. Two days later we took possession of him and headed back to Moscow for more paperwork. We were in and out of the Embassy in one day thanks to Alexander and his proficiency. We met one lady there who was adopting a little girl from Siberia. She had been held up in Siberia for almost two weeks due to one piece of paperwork her agency mishandled. What a nightmare for her!! We arrived home July 1, 1997 to friends and family excited to meet our new addition. Since then we have met and spoken to hundreds of people who want to know of our experience. We never hesitate to share with them the wonders God has performed in our lives. All we have to do is look into the eyes of our little Russian child and know that God has a plan for everyone.

James 1:27 " Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world."