After Yulia and Sergey Vodopyanov, a couple from Nizhnevartovsk, could not have children for a long time, they decided to take a foster child. We, the employees of the “Change One Life” foundation, are very happy that we were able to help them find their Alice in Angarsk.
We had been married for six and a half years before deciding to have a baby. All this time, they hoped to give birth themselves, but, alas, it did not work out. And we really wanted a child, we wanted to have a full family. Of course, we did not come to a mutual agreement immediately: I matured for a long time. I spent three years trying to make up my mind. First, I was afraid that I would not be able to love someone else, I would not be able to choose (this is not a store), we would not find a healthy one, and in general the unknown… Secondly, I really wanted to be pregnant myself, to carry a child under my heart — this is what every woman dreams of…
But, apparently, this “maturation” was my pregnancy, which I did not suspect at first. In general, when you find your child, all fears and doubts fly away and it doesn’t matter what the diagnosis is, who the parents are… In the process of thinking and tossing, I came to the conclusion (smart books and people have led to thoughts) that
children, both blood and adopted, are given to us by God, so it is worth relying on Him and trusting. If it’s meant to be, He’ll send the exact child you need and who needs you. When I began to think like this, my fears receded. In the end, a child is always an unknown, I could also give birth to anyone.
Periodically, I started a conversation with my husband on this topic, but he was categorically against foster children. However, last fall, when I finally made up my mind, my husband unexpectedly agreed very easily. My parents took everything well, they trust me. In this regard, I was very lucky: my mother, mother — in-law, father, and stepfather, sister, colleagues at work, friends-all were very happy for us.
The process began: we went to the guardianship, made an appointment with psychologists in mid-January. All the two and a half months of waiting I read the adoption conference on the website http://www.7ya.ru/, looking through regional and federal databases. I liked a lot of kids, but I stayed calm. I kept thinking ,” How do I choose?» Yes, and for some reason I subconsciously always wanted a child from another region. Only later, much later, I learned that we have a waiting list for babies in the maternity hospital, and there is no child’s home in our city. And we just wanted a baby from about 5-10 months.
At the conference, I paid attention to which regions were well-spoken about, where children are quickly registered and placed under guardianship. Very often, Irkutsk was well spoken about. I began to watch Irkutsk children — one girl liked it. But there was only one photo, and it is not very clear what kind of child.
Now I don’t remember how I came to the site “Change one life”, probably by following the link from the forum. And there was a video of the girl that I liked in the database. And that’s it, I fell in love with her.
However, it was still 2 months before the conclusion about the possibility of being a guardian was received. I was talking to my future daughter: “You wait, don’t be afraid, we’ll come for you soon.” I was very worried that they might take her away, because she’s so pretty. I prayed that everything would be fine for the girl. I couldn’t think about other children then, but I knew that anything could happen.
Because of my husband’s busy work, they decided to take custody of me. The collection of documents was quite successful. I had to tinker a little with medicine, but it’s all small things. I calculated everything: at work, just a vacation (I agreed that if everything works out, I leave immediately with a subsequent decree), I wait for the conclusion of custody on pins and needles, I call, find out about the girl, buy tickets, fly with my mother to Irkutsk, then to Angarsk. Scary-terrible!
The first meeting was quite smooth and calm. Yes, I fell in love with the video, but when I saw it in reality, I did not experience any feelings. Maybe it’s the stress, I don’t know. She was just as tiny and just as pretty as in the video, but a stranger. Although there were no doubts, and the decision was made — I write my consent. I will not describe what happened there: I did not know that children’s homes are not particularly happy when they come to them for children. It was good that my mother was with me, and her support helped a lot.
The guardianship is really very good, everything was done correctly and quickly. I was in such a comatose state there that I didn’t even thank them properly, so I’ll take this opportunity to say a huge thank you — this is really the perfect combination of professionalism and human qualities.
On April 5, we flew home. Adaptation, of course, was, but rather physical. My daughter and I both fell ill a few days later, then recovered, then I was sick twice more at intervals of a couple of weeks — all from nerves. Physically it was hard, but psychologically we accepted everything at once. Just everyone fell in love — and that’s it.
At home, Alice changed before our eyes, in a couple of weeks she was already sitting, in a month she was standing, and in a couple of months she was crawling all over the apartment and climbing into all the drawers. And this is despite the fact that in 8 months, when we took her away, she could only roll over, crawl like a plastun, and if they tried to plant her, she simply folded, even could not hold her back.
She has no pathologies or serious health problems. Of course, the development lagged behind, and where without it? This is how loneliness affects children. It is impossible to live without love, even for an adult, and even more so for a tiny man. We did not feel any special difficulties associated with “reception”, perhaps because the baby is very small and it was very easy to accept it, especially since we do not have other children and we have nothing to compare with.
We’re doing well now. It’s been a month since we made the adoption, and we’re very happy about it. Now Alice is ours-100% ours. We do not know what awaits us in the future, and no one knows it, but we decided right away, no matter how events develop in the future, we will perceive it as a problem or a joy for our and only our family. The most important thing is that we finally have a child, the most beloved and most native.
For those people who are just thinking about adopting a child, I can only wish you more faith and perseverance — and you will be happy!