Two Years Ago Today

We left our hotel room early that Monday morning. We had just arrived in Tomsk the day before. We were so tired, but excited about what was ahead. We were cautiously optimistic as I can tell from writing on that first trip. I had heard about people getting referrals and having to turn them down for health reasons. But, I had asked God to give me a sign to give me peace about the child they had for us.

We were picked up by Sergei and our translator (I can’t remember which one)and were taken to the Ministry of Education office in town. They asked us to sign a piece of paper saying that we wanted to meet the child referred to us. I noticed that I referred to him as “our referral” a lot in my blog posts from that time. I was just guarding my heart. Thankfully, by the end of the week I was sure that he was our son.

I remember going to the baby home and meeting Dr. Nina. She had a file on Nicholas and started reading in Russian as our interpreter translated. She said his full name and then birth date – March 9, 2007. If you remember, this was the sign God gave us. We had always intended to name our child Nicholas James. James was my grandfather’s name. He was the first one in our family to accept Christ. I wanted to recognize that legacy. Well, he passed away on March 9, 2007. I could hardly breathe when I heard the date. It didn’t matter to me about anything else, I had my sign.

Then we were ushered upstairs to the play room and waited for Dr. Nina to return with Nicholas. She brought in the cutest baby boy with big brown eyes. He was 13 months old, but 17 lbs. He could pull himself up, but had not started walking yet. We couldn’t get enough of him.






We were able to visit him twice a day, every day while we were there. I remember that he loved to eat cheerios and play with the stacking cups we brought him. He did smile, but we couldn’t capture it in pictures.








We hated the fact that we had to leave him there, but were told we would return soon. “Soon” was five months later for a three-week stay. Then, an additional eight months later until we would truly be named his parents in court.

It’s hard to believe that Nicholas has been in our lives for two years. Sometimes we want to ask God why he allowed such a long wait between meeting him and bringing him home, but we know that His ways are not our ways. I grew so much in that time of waiting. As hard as it was, it was such an important time in my life.

Nicholas is here now and he fits right into our family. It’s hard to believe that he was 17 lbs two years ago. He’s gained 20 lbs. since then!!!! Granted, he had surgery to repair a hole in his heart, which increased his appetite. I’m so glad that God took us to the other side of the ocean to meet him and bring him into our family. I could have done without the 18 planes I took there and back to bring him home, but at least Nicholas knows that he was worth everything.