Our names our Tom and Lee and we began our journey to become parents in 1998. 

Our journey began in 1998, we went through seven years of infertility treatments, had surgical procedures, spent lots of money and did get pregnant twice but both pregnancies ended in miscarriage. 

A friend had mentioned to us that she knew someone who had adopted two boys from Russia through a program called Adventure USA.  She gave us the name and number of her friend, who we contacted. We were so touched by their story that we decided to pursue adoption. In August 2005, we contacted the agency that they used and decided that we were going to adopt from the Ukraine.  Our decision at this time to go with the Ukraine was that it was one trip for four weeks.  We had paid fees and just completed our dossier when we received a call from our agency at that time, who advised us that the Ukraine had suspended adoptions in several countries, the US being one of them, due to families not completing the post placement reports. We decided to ride it out for a few months.  By early November 2005 we spoke to our case manager, there was no change in the Ukraine, so we decided to register in Russia.  We completed all the necessary paperwork, updated our dossier submitted it in January 2005 and then began the wait…we waited and waited In March 2006 we got a referral, decided to take the referral, on the same morning I was going to call our agency to tell them we were accepting the referral I received a phone call from our case manager advising us that the child had been adopted by a family member and was no longer available for adoption! We were heart broken! 

We went back into the data bank to wait for a referral…unfortunately; in 2006 Russia decided that all agencies needed to be accredited.  Some agencies got accredited immediately and others it took years!! In this two-year period we had to have all our paperwork updated as everything was expiring.  I received a phone call in July 2008 that our agency finally received its accreditation and things will be moving along.  In August 2008 we prepared some region specific documents and were getting ready to send them in to our agency with a check when I received a phone call from the Director of the agency who completed our home study…she told me not to send our agency the check as the agency closed it’s doors and is now out of business!  Needless to say I was in shock!!  We paid them close to $20,000 and I didn’t even get the courtsey of a phone call from my agency…I heard it though another agency.  We dusted ourselves off, picked ourselves up and worked with the Director of the agency who did our home study to sign up with another agency.  We did our research and finally picked another agency…they had gotten their accreditation with Russia immediately and were in good standing with Russia!  So in September 2008 we pay more fees, complete more paperwork and in October 2008 we’re registered in region in Eastern Russia…. this agency received lot’s of referrals from this region so we were sitting good, or so we thought!! 

In January 2009 Russia came out with a blacklist…our agency that did our home study was on this blacklist.  As a result, we were not eligible for referrals in too many regions.  Our agency bounced us around to about 4 regions. We completed paperwork for all of these regions. This all took place over the course of about 1-½ years.  Again our paperwork was expiring so it had to be updated and renewed…. each time a document has to be updated and renewed it costs in NY to get it notarized, county certified and apostilled…this starts to run into a lot of money!  Finally in January 2010 we get a call that they have a child for us…. we were so excited.  We received the information sent it to our doctor who gave us the go ahead…so we traveled to Eastern Russia to meet this boy…. there was definitely something not right.  We were forced into signing an acceptance to adopt this child.  We were unable to get video’s to our doctor there was no internet service where we were.  Upon arriving home I email my doctor the videos and she was horrified!  She referred to the child as “feral”! So needless to say we declined the referral. 

In June 2010 we were sent another referral, which we lost and were then “blacklisted” from the region.  Our agency had layoff’s and my case manager was one of the employees impacted…so in July 2010 I spoke to my new case manager about what region we’ll be in…We were registered in two regions but were now blacklisted from the one region where they were getting referrals. So my new case manager said she’s leaving us in the other region we were registered in which was new region for them.  Please note we were registered in this region for almost two years and not one referral.  When I asked her about referrals apparently no one had ever received a referral so my question to her was why are we in this region, she told us to just wait and see what happens, between the trip to Russia in February and paying program fees etc we spent close to $40,000 with this agency! On a side note, we were told by this agency that things had slowed down in Russia May due to the woman flying her child back or so we thought!  I was not pleased with the answer of staying in a region with no referrals and none on the horizon. I went home that night and spoke to my husband…we decided as we always did, let’s check with our agency that did our home study…. so the next day I email the director of the agency that completed my home study and asked her are any agencies getting referrals from Russia…. her response to me was it’s funny you emailed me I was just writing you an email…she was at a conference where she met Margaret Cole with EAC.  So I called EAC and spoke to Jennifer and told her my long sad story and about all the money we lost to-date on adoption, which at this point was $60,000!!! She was wonderful; she was very patient and just listened to me.  When I was finished she was appalled at what had happened to us and told our story to Margaret Cole…. that night my husband and I were talking and deciding what we should do, you know we’ve heard the story many times we’ll get you a child and yes, we drank the cool-aid every time but the only thing we had were broken hearts and an empty bank account, when our phone rings and it’s Margaret Cole…. she was on her way to Columbia but wanted to personally talk to us as she related to what we went through. After speaking with Margaret, we decided to sign up with EAC, which we did the next day. We were assigned Lynn as our case manager, who has been wonderful. This was late July/early August 2010.  We begin the process of completing paperwork, more paperwork, mounds of paperwork!!! I’ve never seen this much paperwork. Our dossier and paperwork was submitted to EAC the week before Labor Day, the Thursday after Labor Day we receive a phone call from Tricia telling us that they have a referral for us, two boys ages 1 ½ & 2 ½..We almost fell out of our chairs, in the past we waited for months, years and now in only 7 days!! We were shocked but thrilled! So far so good!  Based on the information relayed to us we asked to review the referral, which we did. We sent the information to our doctor and based on the information decided to travel to Russia to meet the two boys. On October 2nd we made our first trip to Moscow.  On October 4th we met our two boys and we knew when we met them that this was right, however, we still wanted to take precautions and send videos to our doctor for review....we had computer issues, but our translator in the region, Anya was wonderful!! She got us a laptop that worked and stayed with us late into the night while we uploaded the videos….our doctor reviewed them and everything looked good.  We accepted the referral and went home.  We received a phone call two weeks later with our court date,  we went to court on November 1, 2010 and was awarded custody of the boys who we named Thomas and Michael. We will be making our final trip the end of November and bringing them home on December 4, 2010, almost five years to the day that we began our adoption journey and we finally have a happy ending!!

We can’t say enough good things about EAC…the staff in the US and Russia are wonderful!! They are there 24 hours a day and have guided us through the entire process.  This agency is so different from the first two agencies we were with. I would highly recommend them to anyone wanting to adopt!!  Don’t ever give up hope!!  We didn’t and now all after being with EAC the past is a faint memory!

Thank you  EAC for making our dream of becoming a family a reality and our journey all worth it!!