Welcome Danielle!
The Newest Addition to Our Family
The Decision to Adopt
Late in the Fall of 2000, we began to research adoption and the various options that were available. Through our research, we learned about Kazakhstan. Kazakhstan is a rather large country, 4 times the size of Texas, located on the southern border of Russia. Our research uncovered many wonderful stories of the children that had been adopted from Kazakhstan by numerous American families. An added benefit of this selection was that Kazak children have a Eurasian appearance, which would be similar to the appearance of a child we would have, if we could.
With the decision to adopt a baby from Kazkhstan being made shortly before Christmas, we began to file the necessary paperwork. We were told that to expect about 6-8 months of paperwork before we could expect to adopt a child. With June six months away, December was a perfect time to start. There were pounds of paperwork to complete before we were finished. We also needed to be fingerprinted and have a police clearance done. The whole family was interviewed, and our home was visited by the agency that was hired to do our homestudy. Our homestudy was then translated into Russian and sent to Kazakhstan so that the officials there could get to know us better. While we worked on the necessary paperwork, our agency worked to match us up with a young child that needed a family.
Our Introduction to Danielle
During the third week of January, we received a picture of Danielle and some basic medical information about her. We were so excited! And at the same time we were shocked, expecting it was going to take 6-8 months! We thought she was perfect, though, and we sent her information to a doctor who specializes in interpreting the information on her medical report. She said Danielle looked great! She was very impressed by her birth weight and steady gains, amongst other things. So, on February 2, we enthusiastically accepted Danielle, and travel arrangements were made for us, so we could meet her in person. Eight months turned into just 8 weeks.
We hardly had time to breathe during those two weeks between accepting Danielle and traveling. Karen requested a leave of absence from her teaching job and then furiously worked to pack up 16 years of teaching materials and complete the necessary tasks of turning her job over. Tom prepared to take 2-3 weeks off from his job. Both worked furiously in the evening to prepare the baby’s room, pack for the upcoming trip, and complete more paperwork required before being approved to leave. A trip to Richmond and a couple of trips into DC were also required before everything was signed, sealed, and ready to go.
Our first look at Danielle came from this orphanage photo taken January 2001.