Yesterday I was at the grocery store with my kids, and the clerk noticed that I spoke Russian to them.

“Are your children from Russia?”

“Yes, they are. They’ve been home for about a month.” I responded, as I scanned my debit card.

“Is it hard to adopt from Russia?”

“Yes.” I said, as she handed me the receipt.

She looked at me as if she expected more. I smiled at her as I gathered up Bonnie and Clyde to exit the store. She smiled back, and started helping the next customer in line.

The truth is that I would have sat down with her and discussed the entire process if she was really interested. But she was just making polite small talk, and quite frankly, the experience is too much to discuss while standing in line at the grocery store.

Yes, it’s difficult to adopt from Russia. But, honestly, that’s what Russia wants. They don’t want people adopting from their country because it’s easy.

However, even though it’s not easy, it IS doable. In 2005, over 4,600 children were adopted into the U.S. from Russia. After coming through the U.S. Embassy in Moscow and meeting all of the other adoptive families, I realized how many people adopt from Russia. There were about 20 other families in the Embassy that day, and that was just one day!

So, here’s the biggest thing to know about Russian adoption. A pre-adoptive parent has very little control over the timeline in which their adoption is completed. Delays are very common. For me, that was the hardest part. I knew that we would finish our adoption, I just didn’t know when. The answer for us was two years, due to all of the new laws surrounding reaccreditation and medical examinations (I’ll blog more about that later.). We went into the process expecting it to be finished in seven months at the most.

Everything else, including the paperwork, the medical exams, and the travel paled in comparison to the wait. But, the thing I had to remember was at the end of all of the hard stuff; there were two children who needed a family as much as Brian and I needed them. Ultimately, that’s what matters.

I wish the clerk in the store had asked me two other questions.

“Would you do it again?”

“Yes.”

“Was it worth the wait?”

“Of course.”