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16 years ago, my brother adopted 4 children from Russia, a boy and three girls. At the time they were between the ages of 5 and 10 and all came from the same mother (they were biologically brother and sisters). My brother and his wife decided to adopt all of them to keep all the siblings together.
What was odd about this was my brother already had 3 children. At first I was critical of him doing this. Things all changed the moment I first met them. They all had me at the first hello...
Life for these children before the adoption was questionable. A staggeringly high percentage of Russian orphans turn to either drugs or prostitution, or both. The education they received was almost nonexistent and each day was a fight to keep what little food that was offered. I have asked them in the past to talk about their life in the orphanage, but understandably they did not want to talk about it.
Coming from that type of life, and now living in a loving family, they always had this look of marvel and joy at every little thing that is so easily taken for granted by American children.
I remember one of the first times I spent a good amount of time with them. We had a "sleep over" at my house. I made a fire in the fireplace, we popped some popcorn, and threw on a Disney movie. They were huddled by the fire, so I took out some blankets, and wrapped each one up. I can not ever describe the look of happiness on those faces.
The following was posted on my Niece's facebook page. If you have a daughter, or simply love kids, I dare you to not get choked up reading it.
16 years....tomorrow will mark our 16th year being in America. Thank you mom and dad for giving us a chance at survival, I can't stand to think where I would be without you. Not only did you give us a family that loves us but you also brought us all together. If it wasn't for you I would probably have never met my other siblings! I probably wouldn't have such a big, crazy loving family that I have today!!! I thank God everyday that I have a family now. If I learned anything from these past 16 years it's that you cherish your family and spend as much time as you can with them! I consider myself to be very lucky that I can wake up every morning and say that I have a family! I don't expect you to understand what family means to me and that's okay because you might never understand. But if you can, cherish the family you have, for as long as you have them! Because life short and it's only getting shorter with time!
What was odd about this was my brother already had 3 children. At first I was critical of him doing this. Things all changed the moment I first met them. They all had me at the first hello...
Life for these children before the adoption was questionable. A staggeringly high percentage of Russian orphans turn to either drugs or prostitution, or both. The education they received was almost nonexistent and each day was a fight to keep what little food that was offered. I have asked them in the past to talk about their life in the orphanage, but understandably they did not want to talk about it.
Coming from that type of life, and now living in a loving family, they always had this look of marvel and joy at every little thing that is so easily taken for granted by American children.
I remember one of the first times I spent a good amount of time with them. We had a "sleep over" at my house. I made a fire in the fireplace, we popped some popcorn, and threw on a Disney movie. They were huddled by the fire, so I took out some blankets, and wrapped each one up. I can not ever describe the look of happiness on those faces.
The following was posted on my Niece's facebook page. If you have a daughter, or simply love kids, I dare you to not get choked up reading it.
16 years....tomorrow will mark our 16th year being in America. Thank you mom and dad for giving us a chance at survival, I can't stand to think where I would be without you. Not only did you give us a family that loves us but you also brought us all together. If it wasn't for you I would probably have never met my other siblings! I probably wouldn't have such a big, crazy loving family that I have today!!! I thank God everyday that I have a family now. If I learned anything from these past 16 years it's that you cherish your family and spend as much time as you can with them! I consider myself to be very lucky that I can wake up every morning and say that I have a family! I don't expect you to understand what family means to me and that's okay because you might never understand. But if you can, cherish the family you have, for as long as you have them! Because life short and it's only getting shorter with time!
