Twice Blessed
Not unlike many other families, my husband David and I begin our adoption journey after having attempted unsuccessfully for many years to conceive. After this emotionally charged process was completed, we took a 2 year hiatus from “trying” and finally “closed the door” on our hope of having a biological child. It was then that we were ready with open hearts and minds to consider adoption. Around Thanksgiving of 2007 we turned to Karen Medve at Good Hope Adoption Services for help. With Karen’s good cheer and professional experience, David & I made our decision to pursue the Kazakhstan adoption program. We knew at the end of this road, for sure, a child was waiting for us. Our only request was to adopt a child as healthy and as young as possible. As you can probably gather we were more than ready to have a family and privately hoped the adoption process would happen as quickly and seamlessly as possible!
We moved ahead with all the details of completing our home study & dossier process hoping to travel in the fall of 2008! But as we realize now, this was not what was intended for us! Along with six other Good Hope waiting families, we experienced an unanticipated pothole in the process due to a six month processing delay at the Washington, DC Kazakhstan Embassy. In fact,we found out, we would not be traveling in the Fall or even the holiday season in 2008. At the beginning of 2009 my husband & I decided we needed to take a well deserved vacation. After being reassured that there wouldn’t be any conflict of travel dates, we happily took our getaway vacation.
As destiny had planned not only did we have a wonderful vacation retreat together, but to our surprise several weeks after returning home from California, we found out that we were pregnant! Could this really be happening to us!? We were elated of course with our good news & fortune but at the same time our hearts were also heavy with thoughts about what to do regarding our pending adoption!
During the first trimester of my high risk pregnancy, I was experiencing very extreme morning sickness. I could barely physically function during this time never mind consider traveling 20 hours across the world to Kazakhstan to adopt a child. We were in quite a quandary as to what to do! We had been preparing for all these months for our adoption, but now was this even possible? And would the country officials even allow us to proceed given my condition?
As time passed my condition greatly improved & I began to feel better. So after much consideration both privately as a couple and along with wonderful counsel and support from Karen, family and friends we decided to take a huge leap of faith and move forward with the commitment we made months ago to this child we were yet to meet! As it turns out, we were the very first Good Hope family & the first family to travel to Petropavlovsk, Kazakhstan to adopt while also expecting a child! We are happy to share that in September 2009, my husband David & I safely traveled overseas and adopted our wonderful son Alexsei Miles Kinney. David traveled back to Petropavlovsk in October & our 10 month old son arrived in our arms forever on October 21, 2009 (Grandma Kinney’s birthday). On November 7, 2009, less than 3 weeks after her brother arrived, I gave birth to our daughter Olivia Catherine Kinney.
There is an old saying that says, "The greater the risk, the greater the reward." We can attest that this is so very true! We would have never believed when we started our adoption journey that this would be the ending. We have been twice blessed! Our family was complete, our arms and hearts were full! If you are in the process of building your family, whether by adoption or otherwise, our only advice would be to truly trust in the process & believe that what is intended for you will be!
Warm regards, Leith, David, Alexsei & Olivia Kinney
The Kinney family live on Nantucket Island, Mass. Leith can be reached at: Leithkinney@comcast.net.