Hello, my name is Beth Deninger. I am very pleased to be the regional coordinator for Iowa. I look forward to spreading the word about the miracle of adoption and EAC to many great people in Iowa!

Like many of you, for most of my life adoption was something I occasionally heard about and though I thought it was a wonderful thing, it was something that other people experienced. My husband, Mike and I had no way of knowing when we got married how profoundly adoption would touch our lives and the lives of our family. We have two beautiful biological children and wanted another child. We found ourselved faced with an unexplained case of secondary infertility. We loved being parents and loved our children immensely. We wanted to share this love with another child and experience the joys of parenthood with another child. A friend told us about a friend and her husband that had adopted a baby boy from Russia and had had a wonderful experience with their agency - EAC. She asked if we would like to talk to this friend. Yes! We talked with this friend for over two hours the very first time we called her! It was like a huge stress had been lifted from us as she told us that EAC would help us every step of the way through an adoption, that her son was doing wonderfully AND that we could do this! Adoption was suddenly becoming a very real part of our lives!

We attended an EAC seminar in January 2003 and began our paperwork that same month. We were on the road to becoming parents again! We went to Russia in June 2003 to meet our beautiful son, Andrew and brought him home in July 2003. He has been an incredible addition to our family and Reed and Madeline love him immensely (they also can be bugged and annoyed by him immensely!) We cannot imagine life without Andrew.

We want everyone to know about the miracle adoption and I am so excited to be able to help give you information about starting the adoption process. There are so many children around the world who need loving families and there are undoubtedly, many, many people who would love to share their love with a child. It may sound like a slogan on an advertisement, but adoption truly is a "win-win" situation. Children and parents alike are changed forever by the miracle of adoption. I look forward to meeting you and helping you begin your adoption journey at an upcoming seminar in Iowa!

Beth Deninger

My decision to adopt a child was easy, but the decision of what agency to adopt from seemed like it would be quite a challenge. About 11 years ago I was a single woman looking to have children. I was interested in adoption and started looking at different agencies. I quickly narrowed my choice to two and after attending a seminar and reading 3 months of their issues of "European Adoption News" I knew that EAC was the agency for me.

I ended up adopting a 13 month old girl 10 years ago and 5 years after that I adopted my second daughter at age 8 months. After my first wonderful experience with EAC, I had no problems knowing I was going back to EAC to adopt my second child. I will tell my story by sharing experiences of both that are similar and then I will tell you their individual stories since they arrived home.

Both girls were adopted from Russia although they were adopted from different regions. I had a very short timeframe with the paperwork process until I was home with the girls. I brought my oldest daughter, Sarah, home 7 months after I started paperwork. Anna, my youngest, was home within 5 months of me starting the paperwork! I received 1-2 pages of health and medical information on the girls. I received a video for Sarah and a couple of pictures of Anna.

During the time I was waiting to travel, there was a lot of support from the EAC office. They made all of the travel arrangements, VISA arrangements and made sure all the paperwork was ready to go. There was always another American family traveling with me, staying in the same hotels, adopting a child from the same orphanage and going through all of the steps along with me. There was an EAC representative that got me from the airport to the hotel and there was also a representative available at the hotel. The hotel in Moscow had a hospitality suite that was available to EAC families in need of support, to answer questions and to provide extra supplies for the babies. There was also a translator with me during all travel in the region. They are there for you for all of the paperwork, visits to the orphanage and court hearings. They are very professional and know what they are doing with this adoption process. The orphanages appeared clean and the caregivers were loving and attentive to the children. On the plane trips home, there were many families returning with their adopted children. Once you arrive home, EAC keeps in contact with you to remind you of the follow-up paperwork. You are always sent the wonderful "European Adoption News" books and invited to their annual picnic.

SARAH – Sarah was adopted at age 13 months old. In the orphanage she was alert yet serious. She was not walking or talking and was below the 1st percentile in weight. Within 6 months of arriving home she was walking, talking all the time and she was at the 50th percentile for her weight. There were never any attachment issues and she has been a very social child. Sarah is now 11 years old and in the 5th grade. She has always enjoyed many activities such as music, sports, traveling and school. She is currently on traveling basketball, volleyball and softball teams and she plays the violin. Sarah is blessed to be a good student. She is in the "Talented and Gifted" program in our town as she scored at the 99th percentile for the Cognitive Abilities Test and Iowa Test of Basic Skills. This to me is a miracle as who would have dreamt that a little baby from a Russian orphanage would have these abilities.

ANNA – Anna was adopted at age 8 months. She too was alert and curious in the orphanage. She was not sitting on her own and had some motor delays, which she caught up within a couple of months. Anna also had no attachment issues. A surprise I had with Anna is that after she was home for two months I had her hearing screened and found out that she had a severe-profound hearing loss. This was a surprise and a blessing for everyone. I was not looking for a child with a hearing loss, she appeared alert to her surroundings and was very vocal. The miracle in this story is that I am a speech-language pathologist and we live close to one of the premier pediatric cochlear implant centers in the world! Anna wears a cochlear implant in one ear and a hearing aid in the other ear. She is currently in a regular education kindergarten classroom and she has grade level academic skills and is very verbal. She talks all the time and does not sound like she has a hearing loss. She loves to learn new things, enjoys dance and tumbling classes and wants to do whatever her sister is doing. She is also very, very social.

Both girls are aware of their adoptions from Russia. They enjoy looking through pictures to remind them of their "story". We go to seminars and enjoy talking to people about our adoption experiences with EAC. I believe these children were specifically chosen by God to be my family and EAC was the agency that helped find the children. I can't thank EAC enough for their help in making us a family.

Susan, Sarah and Anna Wetrich

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