Get to know our child

As many of you are following our adoption story we thought we'd prepare you as we are being prepared by helping you get to know our future child.  Here are some things you should know.

• Our child has just been born or has been within the last 6 months.
• Our child's birthparents made a very hard and brave decision to terminate their parental rights.  They need our prayers for healing.
• Our child will be placed in a Baby Home or Dom Rebienka.  This is for children under 4 years old.
• Anyone in the region of the Baby Home will have the opportunity to adopt him/her until they are 6 months old.
• When they are older than 6 months they are placed on a list for anyone in all of Russia to adopt.
• Around the time they turn 11-12 months they will be able to be adopted by us.
• The Baby Home they live in will not have a lot of color in it to help keep all the children calm.  They may be overwhelmed by all the colors in our house...especially our red couches.
• They are under very close medical observation while in the baby home and have daily developmental activities.
• It is unlikely that our child will have any personal toys and therefore may not be used to the typical American child's toy chest.
• All their daily routines will be in a group setting with the other children in the home.  They may feel overwhelmed to come to our house where all the attention is just on them.
• They may have dark hair and dark eyes and come from a gypsy background.  Or they could have blonde hair and blue eyes.  This will vary depending on the region.
• Because there are many children in the Baby Home our child will not have a lot of one on one attention given to them and so they may have developmental, social and/or psycho social delays.  But most kids pick things up very quickly when they are in there forever homes.

These are just some of the things that we are learning about our child and we thought you might like to know them as well.  As we learn more we'll be sure to share with you.  Please be praying for our child as this is a traumatic experience in their life.  It has the potential to really scar them.  We ask that you pray for every aspect of their life.  Even thought they are little they have suffered the loss of hearing their biological mother's heartbeat and her voice.  This is the beginning of their trauma and we pray for healing.  We also want to pray for their birthparents.  We do not know the circumstances of their life but we do know that this could not have been an easy thing to do.