If a husband wife are truly blessed, together they will foster dreams during their marriage which will spark their collective imagination, inspiring creative solutions to difficult situations and bringing love to places once filled by sadness. Since the day we were married over ten years ago, we knew our dream together included children. However, until this year, children remained just that - a dream. Our solution for turning that dream into reality came in the form of an angel, Olga Byrnes, and her agency, Alaska International Adoption Agency, Ltd. Together Olga and AIA helped us find our precious child. Little did we know that we had been looking for him in the wrong places. Ziven had been tucked safely away in a small hospital in the eastern part of Siberia.

   Having the comfort of working with a reputable agency which is accredited by Russia, we began the adoption process in January. As the result of AIA's patient help with the countless forms and often unmanageable paperwork, we quickly received a referral for Ziven and, soon thereafter, received word that we had a court date. Our adventure to Russia to fulfill our dream of having a child went as smoothly as our paperwork. AIA's incredible staff in Khabarovsk and Moscow held our hands through every step of the process, sharing the joy, laughter, and then tears of sincere appreciation and love. Only five months after being introduced to AIA, we had our son William Ziven Fowler.

   Our dream of having a child has now grown - we want to fill our house with children who have similar dreams of having a family. Only now, because of AIA, we know where to look. We can now spend our time and imagination dreaming of the near future when we return to Khabarovsk to adopt more children and visit our close friends with AIA. Rob and Anna Fowler Proud parents of William "Ziven" Fowler

   Alaska International Adoption agency and my Khabarovsk Program Director Olga Byrnes who is now the Russian Programs Director for the agency did a fantastic job with the adoption of my little boy in 2000. The communication was excellent. Everything was clear. Deadlines were conservative and always kept. Things that might have become issues (during the changeover period to the new adoption laws in Russia) were presented with clear solutions already in progress. Everything was always moving forward.

   Olga was excellent! She communicated with me in every possible way. My e-mails and phone calls were answered immediately. She was honest and clear in her direction on dossier preparation.The communication was excellent. E-mails were answered immediately or certainly within a few hours. All questions were addressed without hesitation. Answers were direct and honest and conservative. No promises were made "out of the blue". Olga was factual and supportive. By the way, every deadline she gave me to me was met and every promise kept-even though my adoption got caught in the middle of that re-hauling last year. Communication through-out the entire process was excellent and consistent. Olga still answers my e-mails promptly even though I have been "done" with my adoption since last November.

   I was treated very well in Russia by agency's in-country national staff. They were professional, supportive, kind, caring, funny, safety conscious, detail minded, service minded-I could not even make copies for myself because they insisted this was their job to take care of me-after having done adoptions where I had to do alot of running myself while on other adoption trips, this was heaven! By the way-bottom line is that they are effective. They got everything done as planned and on the day promised. I felt very safe. The end result is that my visa interview at the US Embassy in Moscow took 5 minutes because the paperwork was in the proper order. This is so very, very important!!

   I would recommend AIA agency to EVERYONE. Olga Byrnes is as trustworthy as anyone I have every dealt with. She is totally professional and yet so caring and kind. If I were to adopt from Russia, I would not even have to think twice. I would be contacting Alaska International Adoption agency!