Our Kazakh Princess
Our adoption experience took slightly less than 11 months from dossier submission to homecoming and ended with the adoption of our precious 22 month old baby girl. Today marks the six month anniversary of our daughter’s homecoming and to this moment it is still hard to comprehend our good fortune. Nina Bea, our now two and a half year old Kazakhstani beauty is a blessing beyond measure.
As ridiculous as it seems now, a toddler was not our first choice (initially we wanted a baby less than 18 months). Like many adoptive parents we had concerns about adopting an “older” child but when we met our daughter all of our fears disappeared. Nina Bea is happy, loving, affectionate, bright and very well attached to us. Her transition into our family has been seamless. It is heartbreaking to imagine that our daughter at a mere 22 months (weighing just 21 pounds and wearing size 9-12 month clothes) was deemed "older" and somehow harder to place. I cannot begin to tell you how many times my husband and I have looked at each other and said “how did we get so lucky?” and then more somberly “what if…?”. What if we hadn’t been open to an older child? Would this perfect child have lived her entire life in an orphanage? What of her enormous potential would have been lost? Would we have missed our daughter? It is a sickening thought.
We are now considering a return to Kazakhstan to adopt a sister for Nina Bea. Fully aware and much more confident we know two things are for sure. First we will work with Adoption Ark as they did an outstanding job navigating us through the Kazakh adoption process. Second, we will adopt an “older” child.
Dart & Lori Printy,
Ohio