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The McClellands with Alexey. My wife Jenny and I don’t have any children and have talked about adoption on and off for a few years. In April of this year, I saw an article in the KC Star about Operation Hope KC and mentioned it to Jenny. After calling Children’s Hope International we decided that this was for us. Since the kids were coming in late June, we had to hurry up and get our paperwork and home study started. We were accepted for the program and completed the orientation/training to prepare for the kids. The boy that we wanted was named Alexey and was 10 years old. The classes were designed to prepare us for the potential problems of adopting an older child. We felt that we were prepared for the worse case scenario if needed, but we were very excited about the possibilities. June 20th came quickly, and it was time to go get Alexey. We arrived at the hotel and went upstairs to meet the CHI members and be introduced to Alexey. He acted very shy, but loved the stuffed animal that we had brought him. He also put on the K-State visor that Jenny gave him, and we headed out. A Channel 41 news crew interviewed us down in the lobby, and Alexey put on a big smile. We got Alexey home after stopping for M & M’s and a Coke. We introduced Alexey to the other members of our family, Village, Cam and Jasey, our three dogs. We gave a grand tour of the home, and Alexey was ready to head to the pool. I will have to admit that the first several days we wondered what we had gotten into, but that changed quickly. Alexey came out of his shell, and we all fell in love. Who would have thought that three short weeks could bring you to love someone and want him or her to be a part of your family forever? We were hooked and could tell that the feelings were mutual. Lyudmila, the interpreter, stayed with us for the last five days and she was wonderful. She really helped with the language barrier even though I was amazed at how well we communicated before that. The day that we had to take Alexey and Lyudmila back to the hotel was the hardest thing that Jenny and I had ever had to do. We all cried in that hotel room. Everyone with CHI helped as much as possible, and the HOPE bears were great. I can’t imagine what Alexey was thinking about because it was hard for us, and we knew that we would go to Russia to bring him home. We prayed very hard that he would understand. Even though that was so hard to see him go, we wouldn’t trade those three weeks for anything. The bond that was created will never break. Hopefully Alexey is telling others about his experience and make them want to be a part of a future adoption. I know that there will be some rough times ahead but we will tackle them as a family and win. We want to thank everyone involved . We can’t wait to go get our son.
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