Success Stories

Words cannot express the joy we have found, nor can we say “Thank you” enough to the people of Faithful Adoptions for all that they did to make our dreams come true. When we started our adoption journey, we chose Ukraine. Unfortunately, well into the process, Ukraine was uncertain and closed their doors to adoptions at that time. Our facilitator, Diana, recommended that we switch to Russia. This turned out to be the best advise she could have given us. That same night, we received an email from Olga Grunberger stating that she was excited to work with us and committed to help us find a child to bring home. Our Russian adoption took about nine months.

When we made our first trip to Russia in October, we brought our nineteen-year-old daughters Alyssa and Lindsey with us. When we arrived in Moscow, our driver Vladimir, greeted us with a smile. He spoke English, and took us for the long drive to region. We cannot say enough about him; he was wonderful. After he got us to the hotel, we met Olga. She was very professional, had all the right connections, and helped us with whatever we needed. It was quite an adventure.

We went to the orphanage to meet a beautiful three year old girl. They took us upstairs, and we waited excitedly for what was going to happen next. The doctor walked her in, and the little girl stopped to look at all of us. She seemed a bit confused, but curious to see who all these strangers were. The doctor and care giver explained to her what was going on, and she walked right over to us. She climbed right up on my lap, put her hands on my cheeks, and looked right into my eyes. At that moment, I knew that she was going to be our little girl. We all fell in love immediately! We passed her around from person to person. She was very sociable and loving. She talked on and on in Russian, and the interpreter translated for her. It was amazing how quickly she figured out all of the toys we brought her; we couldn’t believe how smart she was! She was laughing and smiling, and we couldn’t get enough of her. As we were playing with her, the caregiver walked a scared little boy into the room. Our translator then said, “Oh, by the way, this is her two-year-old brother.” He was a bit shy, unlike his sister, but he melted right into our family, too. They were more beautiful than we could have ever imagined! We played with them, laughed with them, kissed them, and after a while, our interpreter asked us if we wanted them. Everyone in the room started laughing; it was so obvious that we were in love and couldn’t wait to make them a part of our family!

As we boarded the plane back to the United States to wait for another invitation back to Russia, we were both happy and sad. It was very hard to leave our babies so far away, but we knew that when we returned we would be together forever. It was exactly a month when our adoption was at last finalized in court. We brought our babies home two days before Thanksgiving. Boy, did we have a lot to be thankful for!

My husband Mike and I have four older children - 19 yr old triplets (two girls and a boy), and an 18 yr old son. When Mike and I were coming home from church with all 6 of our children, the older ones all started singing “Santa Clause is Coming to Town.” I looked at Madison and Max, and their eyes were laughing and hands clapping with joy. These little ones that God has placed in our care had no idea what my other children were singing, but it didn’t matter. We were a forever family.

The Masteller Family