The Beginning

Welcome to the Brooks blog!

We are Dan and Sue Brooks and this is our families story. In early 2003 after 9 years of marriage we decided to adopt a child. Our reason for adoption was to give a loving home to a child that really needed one. After much research we decided against a domestic adoption, there was a lot of publicity about biological parents getting their kids back many years later and I could not go through that.

Why Russia? Honestly, I was researching online and saw a picture of an adorable blonde hair, blue eyed boy who was an orphan in Russia. I knew almost immediately that this was "MY SON". After months and mounds of paperwork, the Russian adoption officials approved us to adopt one of their children. We waited patiently for "THE CALL" that would tell us we had dates to visit our new son. I received this call while I was at work and I could not contain myself, we were traveling to Russia in 2 weeks.

The next 2 weeks were very crazy, thankfully both of our employers were very accommodating when it came time to travel. We were given a list of people we had to bring gifts to, How do you buy a gift for someone you have never met? I bought allot of scarves, photo albums, and bath and body works items.

The flight to Moscow Russia was only 8 1/2 hours from New York, but it seemed like forever. We landed in this unfamiliar country, with little knowledge of the language and were to be met by someone who we did not know or could not communicate with. We managed to find our driver Sasha who drove us 3 1/2 hrs to the city where our son was. This drive was quite an adventure, Russians drive very fast and the cars have no seat belts. Our driver made just one stop at a roadside market of sorts, they sold winter coats, large stuffed animals, and every type of gun you can imagine. We made it to Vladimir safely and were taken to a small apartment where our host Galina was waiting. Galina was a very sweet young woman who spoke very limited English, but was an excellent cook. Her sister Marina was our Translator, who we soon met.

Marina greeted the two of us who were exhausted, at this point we had been awake about 36 hours. She announced that Maksim knew we were here and was waiting for us. I was both excited and nervous about the meeting so we did not sleep very well.