You guys are full of questions! In particular, a number of you have asked about the name Masha, and why we sometimes call her Mariya, but more often Masha. I wish there was a really clever story behind it (maybe you all can help us invent one??), but really, the answer is pretty simple. Just as many names in the English language have common nicknames, so do many names in Russian. Where an American named Robert might go by Bob or Bobby, a Russian (or Ukranian) named Mariya is often called Masha. Not all names have a nickname, but many […]

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…A very good place to start. So many of you have asked how we got into this, and I think you all deserve an answer! The Discovery Last spring (March or April, 2006), we stumbled across a brief column in the local newspaper about a “culture camp” for orphans from Ukraine that would be coming to Fort Wayne in the summer. It explained a program that enabled children ages 6-12 to visit the United States for about three weeks, learn more about the US, and get the experience of living with a family. While the hope is to find “forever […]

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As I type, we are driving back home from Indianapolis, where we were officially added to “The Grid.” Today, we were fingerprinted by the Department of Homeland Security, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services. In the next two to three weeks, the FBI will conduct a final background check on us, and then CIS will determine if they will approve us to bring Masha back into the country as a legal citizen. We hope to have the approval from CIS back around the end of this month; this is the last thing we need before we finalize our mountain of […]

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If everyone who gave birth to a child was required to complete the paperwork that is needed to adopt, there would be a LOT fewer children in this world. As several of you have noted (some of you quite loudly), the blog has been a bit inactive the past couple of weeks. In my defense, I have been focusing on compiling the background documentation required for the social worker and pulling together our application to the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS, formerly INS, a division of Department of Homeland Security–you gotta love bureaucracy!). But I am getting ahead of […]

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Well, it’s taken me close to a week to bring myself to write the entry for Thursday, the day we said Farewell to Masha. The day began early. Running on about 6 hours of sleep, we awoke to darkness for the first time since Masha arrived. She made some final preparations, checked her room for any final things she wanted to cram into her suitcase. The mood in the house was solemn, knowing that good-bye was near, and not wanting that to come. Masha ate her last American breakfast while Mark and I made last minute preparations. At about 7:15, […]

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