Recent Testimonials

"It is often said, “Adoption is a leap of Faith” and in some respects, it is.  But it is also about Trust.  Trusting your instincts, trusting the education you receive along the way, and most importantly, trusting the agency in which you have placed your hopes and dreams of becoming a parent.

My husband and I are the proud parents of a beautiful, HEALTHY little boy adopted from Russia who will soon be two years old.  We received the referral for him in March of this year.  The pictures we received showed a beautiful little face sporting a pretty good “shiner”.  His data base picture was another story.  As I look at that picture now I cannot believe it is our incredibly beautiful child.  It was downright scary! His medical report indicated a healthy birth weight, proportional measurements, very little information about the birth mother, psycho-speech delays, and an “Open Oval Window” (a hole in his heart). We were ecstatic!  Why were we ecstatic knowing our child was delayed AND possibly had a defective heart?  It goes back to trust.  We trusted our agency.  In our referral phone call, we were told that the coordinator in Russia had seen our child and had met with the doctors at his orphanage.  She described a healthy, vibrant child who showed no apparent signs of illness or delay.  As this information was relayed to us we were encouraged to contact International Adoption doctors here for their assessment.  We contacted two doctors; one in our home state and one on the East coast.  Both gave us the “thumbs up” to proceed.  Both assured us that the delays are normal and the Open Oval Window is common.  Twenty-five percent of kids are born with this condition which usually corrects itself by the time the child turns two.  If it doesn’t correct on its own, we were told “it’s an easy fix”.  Less than a month later we traveled to meet our precious son who was indeed as healthy as the coordinator reported. 

We have been home almost four months now and we cannot remember life before Kyle.  We are blessed with a happy, healthy, somewhat strong willed little boy who loves to swim, play outside and terrorize his “Big Sister” (our ten year old golden retriever).  He shows no sign of “psycho-delay” but is somewhat behind in his speech (although he does have a good command of “No”).  Although the words are slow to come, his comprehension of speech is amazing.  For someone who has only heard the English language for a few short months, he understands everything said to him.  As for the hole in his heart, a recent Echocardiogram indicated NO SIGN of an Open Oval Window.  We knew our son was healthy; we just needed the professionals to confirm. 

As you go through the process of becoming a parent you will ride an emotional roller-coaster and worry about EVERYTHING.  There are enough stories on the internet and “threads” on email groups to make even the strongest of strong want to run away and run away fast!!!   If you take all those stories to heart you will begin to believe there are no healthy children to adopt.  I cannot stress enough how important it is to trust your agency, and in particular, THIS agency.  THEY are the ones who have first hand knowledge of your child.  THEY are the ones who know a healthy referral when they see it.  THEY are who you should trust, not a nameless, faceless email thread. With all of that said, I wish you all the best on your incredible journey.  It is so worth the ride!"
-Cynthia, Mom to Kyle, Adopted from Russia in 2009

Dear Partners for Adoption:

I just wanted to take this opportunity to thank you for all of your assistance and, most importantly, bringing my daughter and me together.  I cannot express to you how grateful I am for Alex. I cannot imagine my life without her.

As we discussed, you may use this letter to help others through their journey.  As you know, Alex’s medical referral was replete with issues.  Some of which even you had never heard of.  I especially appreciate you patiently walking me through those issues, as they were clearly terrifying to me.  Your knowledge, along with your ability to call on those with knowledge, helped ease my fears and bring my child to me.  As I indicated, upon reaching the United States, Alex has been thoroughly evaluated and has been given a clean bill of health. She is not showing any signs of delays.  Except speaking Russian, of course.  (Just as you said, the referral is not always correct!) Although I am overjoyed by her clean bill of health, I cannot imagine a different decision regardless of her condition.

I also want to thank you for taking the time to respond to me on a moments notice.  When I learned we could leave Russia early (meaning we could be home earlier), everyone pulled together to make it happen. I know this meant some extra hours for those at Partners, but it meant a great deal to have my daughter home with family.  Thank you.
-Kristine, Adopted from Russia in 2009

“We are so anxious to do this again. I know, I know after all that paper work, however we would like to bring home another and it can be from a different region so we can see even more of Russia!

Thank you all so much. He is seriously amazing, seriously A+ developed as the UW doctor let us know and incredibly smart. It is so fun to watch him learn new words at 17 months. In the last two months he has grown two sizes. Aww, so big so fast and he is running faster than the wind.”
- Michael and HunterAnn, adopted from Russia in 2009

"The girls are doing great and are beautiful.

I also wanted to let you know that Stas and Anya are amazing. From beginning to end, they have been professional and have bent over backwards to make sure that our experience is a good one. Since we were the only family that didn't have the 10 days waived, we have had the opportunity to spend some time with them and see some of the city. We are loving every minute of this trip and feel that we can go home with some great information and pictures of our daughter's birth city. We can't tell you how much we love Stas and Anya. They have helped make our dreams come true here and have represented PFA in such a positive way. You should be so proud.

Also, we wanted to thank the both of you for making these dreams come true. We have 5 more days until they are in our arms!!!! We are so excited. We will be forever grateful for you, as in our eyes you were our "delivery nurses"!!!"
- Tom and Christiann, adopted in Russia in 2009 - email was sent while they were still in Russia

"[Sam] is blossoming and growing and is generally a very happy little boy. He is extremely affectionate with us and it is great fun to see him learn new things and to see his personality come through. What a difference from the quiet and subdued little guy at the orphanage.

Yesterday, I took him to the Early Start program for an evaluation on his speech to see if he would qualify for services.  As he was not speaking much at the orphanage and delayed in Russian, I wasn't sure if I needed to start some intervention.  The result of his evaluation is that he is learning English at a very fast pace - both his comprehension and vocabulary and that we have nothing to worry about as of now.  The 2 women who worked with him stated that they had seen many kids from international adoption and that he seemed to be adjusting and developing/learning very quickly in comparison. I can see that he is picking up on words all the time, but it was nice to have a more professional opinion and also to get some more suggestions on working with him in the area of language.

Thank you for all of your help in bringing him into our lives."
- Laura, adopted from Russia in 2009

Dear Partners for Adoption,

When we made the decision to adopt, our philosophy was that we knew she was out there; we just had to go get her. Thank you for helping us to find our little girl. 

You were very helpful in guiding us through the paperwork nightmare and cultural clumsiness that is overseas adoption. We always felt that you had the best interests of both our child and us at heart.

Now are daughter is home and what's just as important is that she seems to understand that it is her home. We belong to her and she belongs to us.  In short, we are a family.

Thank you again from the three of us,
- Carrie and Mark, adopted from Russia in 2009

A Letter from a Recent Adoptive Parent
by Dan, father of Gavin, age 3, adopted from Russia in 2008

I am writing this letter to share my adoption experience with you and to correct certain misconceptions you may have (at this early stage) about adopting children from Russia.

The Decision:
Our adoption process started long before we actually signed the papers with Partners for Adoption.

My wife and I decided that we were going to make the commitment to bring another child into our family through adoption much earlier, but the decision to move forward was much more difficult for me than it was for my wife for a variety of reasons.

I was able to resolve my initial concerns about adopting internationally by asking various agencies “lots” of detailed questions.

Once we had agreed to move forward, we had to pick an agency. We chose Partners for Adoption because of their experience in working directly with baby homes in Russia.

The First Meeting: 
The best part of the entire trip was meeting our new little boy for the first time. He gave us a big hug and smile. I will have to say we think the big hug and smile was because of his naturally outgoing personality while other children we observed were less outgoing and more shy.

However, for us, this was a great way to start our relationship with this little boy.

The Children:
Much is discussed on chat rooms and web sites about the children in this great country. Of course we have all heard about the children with significant special needs, but there are also healthy and great children who just need a family.

Between these two spectrums there are various issues that a child may have. However, as a parent of four other biological children, I want to say that even our biological children have had challenges, and health concerns come up at different stages in their lives that we wish could be avoided.

Just because you are having your own biological child doesn’t mean the child will be “without blemish”. The same is certainly true with adopting a child.

Observing the Caregivers: A Unique Perspective of the Children at Gavin’s Baby Home
My wife and I feel like we have a unique perspective on the children at Gavin’s baby home.

We spent the mandatory 10-day waiting period in the city where the baby home was located. While we waited, we worked on various fix-up projects at the baby home.

Because of this, we were able to observe the children in their own environment for about a week and for several hours a day.

From our extended stay close to the baby home, we really grew to love and appreciate the baby home workers who are caring for these children day in and day out.

Our main take away from this experience is that the baby home workers really do provide the children with the best that they can provide. There may have been a verbal language barrier between us and the caregivers, but there was no barrier in understanding that these workers cared for these little ones.

From this experience, we also observed the children at close range for extended periods of time and in a variety of situations. Each baby home has a variety of children ranging from special needs children to little tikes without special needs that just need a family. We saw lots of little loving hearts just ready for a family to take them home. There were a couple children that we could have easily brought home with us as well.

 
So, for those who are considering to adopt or not to adopt, I hope that this letter can add some balance to the concerns you may have about the children in Russia. Are there challenges? Sure there are, but that’s just being a parent. Parenthood is the most rewarding and the most challenging thing you will do no matter how that child comes into your family.

I wish you all the best in your decision.

"We really enjoyed working with Partners for Adoption on our Homestudy. Starting the adoption process can be daunting; Partners guided us through the paperwork, providing us with organized information, which includes explanations. Our Social Worker was great. She guided us and gave us advice. Adoption is a big decision. Most of us feel like we're diving into the unknown. It is important to have an agency that you trust."
- Jesse and Jason - homestudy completed in 2007

"We had a great experience working with Partners for Adoption. They were friendly, professional, and helpful in every way. In addition, they were expeditious and accurate. We also felt very comfortable with our social worker. PfA always maintained the utmost respect and confidentiality while working with us on such personal and private matters."
- Christian and Michelle - homestudy completed in 2007

"Here are the 2 main reasons why we are happy with PfA: They understood our time constraints and worked around that. Our home study was completed and delivered 3 months sooner than we expected. We liked how all the necessary people who made our home study possible, worked so well with us. They never got frustrated with us when we (I) felt we were bothering them with our endless streams of emails."
- Kimberly and Richard - homestudy completed in 2007

"I’ve thoroughly enjoyed working with Partners for Adoption - twice!"
- Meredith - 2 homestudies completed - 2005 and 2007

“Lucas is doing fantastic.  He is in pre-kindergarten now and doing great.  He loves so many things and is just overall a very happy, well rounded kid.  Thank you for building my family. I don't know what life would be like without him.  We will never for get you or your staff that has made this wonderful dream come true.  I just can't believe it will be 3 years next month.”
-Rebecca - adopted from Russia in 2006

“Miss Bella certainly is a California girl...but you would be happy to know that she tells everyone where she is from and is proud of her heritage!! She would still like to visit someday. She loves all sports especially skiing, swimming, ocean free diving and volleyball…she loves to sing and dance also…She is a smart girl and achieved straight A's at school, but her upcoming 3rd grade is supposed to be harder!! Most important she has such a sweet way about her and a good heart.”
-Diane - adopted in Georgia in 2001

“I hope you will enjoy this picture of Riley (adopted 2000).  He is now 9 years old and as you can see, he is so handsome, happy, intelligent, funny, and the center of our lives.  We are forever grateful to you for bringing him to us... he is the son we were meant to raise. 
Thank you and God bless you for making adoption happen in all our lives.”
- Karin - adopted from Russia in 2000

References

We recommend that all prospective parents call at least several references. Please feel free email these parents and request a phone conversation. We have hundreds of other references available, should you desire them.

Russia and Ukraine Placement Clients