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Our journey began in October 2004 when we made the leap of faith to expand our family through international adoption. We researched our options and decided that Russia is where we would find our child. Our next task became searching for just the right agency to help us bring a new member into our family. We spent countless hours researching various agencies and soon realized that only one had a reputation that was simply flawless. We could never find a negative remark about Alaska International or their staff. We spoke with the director of Russian programs, Olga Byrnes, and found her to be warm, friendly and honest. The honesty is what got us. She did not try to "sell" us on Russian adoption, but rather was forthcoming about the process and what it entailed. February 14, 2005 we signed our contract with AIA.
Our initial dossier was submitted in April of 2005 and shortly thereafter we received a referral for a 9 month old baby boy. Our story takes a turn in late June of 2005: The Ministry of Education stopped allowing agencies awaiting reaccreditation from working. Unfortunately, through no fault of their own, AIA was in this group. We waited 9 long months while the Russian government made important decisions about reaccreditation. In late February 2006, we received word that AIA had been granted reaccreditation.
With a heavy heart Olga informed us that our boy had been adopted by a Russian family. We could not believe the news. We knew that our child was in Russia so we decided to proceed with another referral.
Two weeks after losing our first referral we received a referral for a 17 month old boy. We travelled in late April, 2006, to Baby Home #2 to meet Oleg. We waited 4 months for a court date and on September 4, 2006 we were pronounced the parents of Oleg Roy Lindholm. We returned to the US with our newest citizen in tow on September 20, 2006!
We would have not trusted anyone but Olga and the AIA staff with our journey. Olga's honesty is what helped us through the unexpected loss of our first referral. The AIA staff was warm, caring and efficient. Our journey may have been a little bumpy, but through it all AIA was right there. Despite changes in procedures beyond AIA's control, which required it to do much more work, it held true to our original contract and our fees never changed. We would highly recommend AIA to anyone considering Russian adoption. |
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If you are considering adopting a child from Russia, we strongly recommend you choose working with Olga Byrnes and Alaska International Adoption Agency. I am grateful my husband and I chose Olga and AIA-my life and health depended upon it. Here is our story:
My husband and I made the decision to adopt a child from Russia when our biological son was three years old. We chose Olga Byrnes and AIA because good friends of ours had adopted twice from Russia through AIA and had great confidence in Olga and AIA. They told us that Olga was hard working, straight-forward and of highest integrity-we were sold with little more thought. But, it is what occurred during our travels in Russia that lead me to write this testimonial.
We went on our second trip to Khabarovsk, Russia for the court hearing and adoption in November 2006. We took our 4-year old son with us. We felt well prepared by Olga with our paperwork and well prepared by Irina (director of AIA in Khabarovsk) for what we would encounter during the court hearing. The judge granted us parental rights, and a few days later the orphanage gave us custody of our 18-month old daughter. I had been suffering from a sinus infection, and within two days of having custody of her, I developed a severe middle ear infection which spread to meningitis! We were knowledgeable about the serious nature of my symptoms, but without Irina we would have been alone to figure out what to do. It was the most terrifying and life threatening situation of our lives: we were in a foreign country with our two children, with no knowledge of the Russian language, and with no knowledge of the medical system there. Thankfully, Irina went above and beyond her role as agency official and helped us as a friend and fellow human being. She brought me to the best doctors and nurses in Khabarovsk. My grave condition required two delicate surgeries that were performed by a Russian specialist physician. She translated our concerns daily to the doctors and translated their instructions for me. She helped us purchase medicines in the pharmacy, and helped us with countless other tasks. She even translated my requests to the nurses by phone in the middle of the night when I was first waking from my unconscious state.
Luckily, the doctors and nurses in Khabarovsk saved my life, for which I will always keep them in a special place in my heart. I returned home without my husband and children via air ambulance. Unfortunately, although we had physical custody of our newly adopted daughter, our legal obligations of satisfying the appeal period and paperwork in Moscow had not yet been met. Because of the seriousness of my condition and the fact that my husband and I were traveling with our 4-year old son, the decision was made to temporarily return our baby girl to the orphanage until I recovered and we could return to Khabarovsk for her, which the orphanage officials were willing to do for us. However, when the appeal period came to an end (after we had begun our journeys home), the Ministry of Education decided that our baby could not remain in the orphanage because she was now a US citizen. Once again, Irina solved our problems by locating a trained and trustworthy nanny to care for our baby until my husband and sister-in-law returned for her three weeks later. AIA did not charge us any additional agency fees for our unexpected return trip or for any of the unexpected services with which they provided us during my illness.
Fortunately, our story is the rare exception. But, as a person who has been healthy and athletic my whole life, I can tell you that we never expected a devastating illness such as meningitis would happen to us abroad. Thankfully, we were in good hands because we were working with AIA and compassionate and ethical people such as Olga and Irina. So, as you are preparing to embark on the great journey of bringing your child home, please consider two things: Alaska International Adoption Agency and a travel insurance policy. |
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Our adoption story begins in March 2005 when we started the process to adopt an older child from Russia using an agency that we thought had all the right things. They had an established track record of successful adoptions and as we researched them we got nothing but good references. It turns out however, that this agency utilized the accreditation of another agency to complete adoptions in Russia, and in May 2006 that agency's accreditation expired, leaving us with no way to complete an adoption. We decided to switch at that time and that is when we found AIA.
We spoke at length to Olga Byrnes about our experience and she was confident that she could complete an adoption for us very quickly. Olga sent us the necessary paperwork to complete and when we had everything updated, we received a referral of a child almost immediately. Unfortunately for us (but good for the child) the child's grandmother came forward and adopted her before we travelled to Russia. We did travel to Russia in December 2006 and met a wonderful 11 year old girl who we did adopt in February 2007. There were some bumps along the way while we were in Magadan but our coordinator there, Zoya, was outstanding! She made things happen and we have no doubt that without her and her working relationships with the officials in Magadan it could have been a much more difficult process. We were done 5 months after we submitted our dossier to AIA!
The biggest thing that impressed us overall with Olga and AIA was that when Olga said she would have information for us by a certain date, she always did. We had no surprises about travel dates, court date, or what paperwork we would or wouldn't need. The fees were clearly spelled out in the contract and they never changed, nor did we have to pay large up-front amounts. Overall we were very pleased with every aspect of our experience with AIA and wouldn't even consider using another agency if we were to do this again. |
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