It was hard to send Sergei off to wait for us in Russia.  Sergei had been a part of a hosting-summer-camp program that had allowed him to travel to the USA for three weeks. During the time he was with us, we came to love him and knew him to be our son. 

My husband could hardly stand the wait and worked nonstop on the paperwork that needed to be done.  It was hard to wait, but I had peace that this was the way it was to be. I had been waiting thirty years; a few more months would not be so bad. So for the next four months we prayed and sent our son letters with pictures of us and of things we wanted him to see. We tried to paint for him a picture of what it would be like to be a part of the family.

One morning in December my cell phone rang and it was the program director saying she had just received word they had a court date for us on December 29th. We asked our daughters if they could postpone Christmas until our return. They were willing to wait because we would be coming home with the best Christmas present ever: their new brother!

We flew to London where we had an overnight layover. Christmas day in London things were shut down to bare bones operations and after an all-night flight and waiting for a train to help us get to a hotel to sleep, tears filled my eyes.  I was so tired and I asked God, "Why did we have to travel on this special day of the year?"  God answered in his still small voice and with a mighty picture inside my head. I heard him say, "I gave you my son many years ago and this year I give you your son."  Then as the tears flowed I saw a young woman, a man, and a donkey trying to find a place for her to have her baby, and suddenly the wait for the train didn’t seem so long and I didn't feel quite so tired.

We made it to the hotel and we made all the connections to the city where we were to see our son. I can't express the joy I felt or the joy on our little guy's face when, after four and a half months, our eyes met again. The next day we went to court and the adoption was official. Praise God!

Later that evening in our hotel room, our son was sitting on his daddy's lap and said, "You are my papa, that is mama, and I am your son."  Those words will be remembered forever. It has been three years now and things are going so well; we are a family.  That Christmas our family received a son, and our wonderful Sergei received the family that he had longed for.  I pray for all of the families considering adoption and the children who are waiting. May each of you find one another.

Excerpted from, "Snowflakes: A Flurry of Adoption Stories", by Teresa Kelleher. Teresa is also the creator of the very popular "Rush into English" a complete program for learning to communicate with your adopted child from day one.