Our story started in June 2004. Adoption Ark and Grand Avenue Methodist Church sponsored 10 Ukrainian orphans to come to Porterville California for 3 weeks. A friend called me and said a family had something come up and was unable to host one of the little boys. She asked me if I was able to do it and I said I would ask my husband Scott. I did and he said “what’s 3 weeks; we can do anything for 3 weeks”. So, we met Denis.
Right away we hit it off. He is amazing. He has two clubbed feet but that doesn’t slow him down. My husband was the advisor for the High School Stock Car Racing Series at our daughters High School. We would go to the races every weekend and Denis had a great time. He got to sit in the car and loved the atmosphere.
Our families also loved him right away. Even though he spoke Russian, the kids didn’t care. Kids don’t really care about talking when they are sword fighting or riding bikes together.
About a week into the visit, my husband looked at me and said “I really like him a lot”. I said “me too”. So, we started the adoption process.
The adoption wasn’t done the first year because of his “parent’s rights” were not relinquished. We asked Adoption Ark if we could get Denis the next summer again and they started working on that. We called Denis to tell him and he said “can my brother Roman come?”. I said HOLY COW!! After some checking we found that it was true. Our best friends’ said they were interested in Roman. That worked out great because his new mom is Blond just like him and left handed just like him and he loves to shoot his bow and arrows with his new dad.
They came in June of 2005 and Roman and his family had a great time for 3 weeks and we got to keep Denis for 2 months. It was very hard to say good bye again. Right after Denis left I got a call from a Shriner. He said “we want to fix your little boys feet”.
Finally in March 2007 I got the call to go get the boys. Right before we left, I called Denis to tell him we were coming and he asked if his brother could come and I told him “of course Roman is coming”. He said “no my other brother”. Again HOLY COW!! We of course brought the older brother Victor home too. He’s a great boy.
We live only a few miles from Roman and the boys all play together often and we all go to church together.
We have been home now for one year and 6 months (5-20-07). Denis (11) and Roman (9) have both grown about 4 or 5 inches and Victor (14) has grown 12 inches. They are all reading, writing and speaking English very well. Denis had surgery on his left foot in June ’08 and the right foot done in October. He is amazingly strong. He never complains and both feet are doing wonderful.
They have been through so much yet they are so well adjusted. They are amazing boys. I can’t imagine our lives without them. It feels as if they’ve always been here. We love them all very, very much.
Sincerely,
Elizabeth Raya