Foreword

     The relevance of my adoption story resonated as the news of Vladimir Putin's new adoption law hit the headlines. In a backlash against the efforts of American lawmakers to stifle human rights' violations in Russia, Putin retaliated by blocking American families from adopting Russian children. Once again, politicians' self-interests will punish loving, adoptive parents and vulnerable, innocent orphans.

     My heart aches for the parents who have waited so long to bring these children into their homes. They have worked tirelessly to fill out documents and fulfill bureaucratic regulations and have, in the process made room for these children in their hearts. Many of the Russian adoptees have already met their future parents. They have hoped and yearned to become members of a family only to have their hopes dashed once again, causing their trust in adults to be further weakened. Orphans grow up with an acute awareness that they were rejected by those who should love them the most- their biological parents. The reinforcement of this abandonment continues throughout their subsequent relationships; they know they have been rejected, and any further rejection reinforces the sense that they are neither valuable nor loveable.

     It is my prayer that my book will embolden waiting parents to persevere and rely on a strength other than their own. It is somehow comforting to know that others have experienced similar pain in their journey to bring abandoned children into a family. It is helpful to know that the love they feel for a child whom they don't intimately know is not an imaginative love but has been implanted on their hearts by a loving and compassionate God- a God who understands suffering and pain and who himself was despised and rejected.

Blessings and Peace!

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