Summary Of Our Russian Adoption Experience

by bill - 2008-01-06 ( family / adoption / holmes ) [html version]

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To sum it all up: We love our daughter. Elizabeth is a wonderful, beautiful, intelligent little girl. We thank Russia for giving her to us. Otherwise, we did not enjoy Russia.

In their defense, we weren't there under normal circumstances. It was not a vacation. We felt under pressure and stressed-out as we spent most of our time dealing with their infamous bureaucracy and obnoxious "authorities." The fact that it was below freezing outside and we were trapped for days on end in hotels made it worse.

Despite all the negative aspects of the adoption "experience," however, thanks to Children's Hope, especially Vika and Galina in Russia, we now have a beautiful child. Still, I like Tara's idea of telling Elizabeth that her original "homeland" is Florida so we can go there instead of Russia for her "homeland tour" if/when she ever wants to do that. :)

Here are the videos:

• Holmes Russian Adoption, Part 1 (updated)
• Holmes Russian Adoption, Part 2 (updated)