JANUARY 2003 NEWSLETTER 

Caring for and serving families in Tennessee, Kentucky, Georgia, Alabama,  Mississippi,

Florida,Texas, and Louisiana 

Robert and Deborah Schoenhoft

Operation Hope Family     
                                                  

To Everyone at Children’s Hope International, 

I would like to thank all of you for the wonderful job you did with the adoption of our son Yuri. Everything was handled in a professional but caring manner with the summer Operation Hope program and the trip to Russia.  It really and truly is amazing how well our adoption went.  We were the first couple from outside of the Nashville area to host a child in the summer.  We live 5 hours from Nashville in Cincinnati, Ohio.  I had heard about Operation Hope through the Internet and thought it would be a good idea since my husband had some reservations about international adoption.  This, I thought would be a good thing for him to get to know the child and see how he fit into our family before deciding to adopt him.  Right from the start, Tanya and Brenda were very helpful.  They invited me down to their office before the children came and we talked and met some previous families, which was very helpful.  We discussed the fact that my older son was going to be in a basketball tournament in Clarksville, TN., and the first week that Yuri was going to be here so that if anything went wrong we wouldn’t be too far.  That seemed to make everything seem like it was going to work out.  And so we were approved to be the first long distance host family.

     We picked Yuri up the same day that my son Robby started his basketball tournament.  Yuri came with us without hesitation.  It was like he knew we were his parents and there was never any question about it.   The trust that he showed us that day was unbelievable.  I don’t know of many people that would have been as comfortable as he was with us.  We spent a memorable week in a hotel room with (10) 15-year-old boys coming in and out of our room at all hours.  They were all giant basketball players with hearts of gold that melted for one 6-yr. old boy.   We came home and tried to get Yuri on a schedule of some sort.  He did well at home, better than in the hotel room and loved to swim and ride his bike.  It was so amazing how well he adapted to our lifestyle and how he seemed to fit so easily into our family.  We knew after the three weeks he would go back to Russia.  We dreaded sending him back.  The only thing I can say positively about sending him back is that it made me work even harder to get all the paperwork in order as quickly as I could.  If I had a word of advice about the paperwork, it would be to send in your INS paperwork ASAP.  That seems to take the longest of all the paperwork and it is really something that is totally out of your control.

     We left to get Yuri on Nov. 10^th, 3 ½ months after he left.  It seemed like forever, especially the last few weeks.  We called our State Representative 2 and 3 times a day the last few weeks. I don’t know if it helped or not, but we felt like we were trying to do something.  When we arrived in Moscow, we were met by our interpreter and our driver and taken to dinner and to the train station to Smolensk.  Everything went smoothly and on time.  They all seem to know exactly what they are doing and we were well taken care of.

We arrived in Smolensk 7 hours later and again Tatiana, the Smolensk CHI Representative, and the driver greeted us.  We were never alone and always greeted warmly.  Our court appearance and all the other stops we made after the court decision went without a hitch.  We felt very fortunate that our adoption was handled with expert care and our son is healthy and happy.  Thanks again to everyone at Children’s Hope.

Please know that there are many older waiting children in all of the countries we work in, including sibling groups. If you are interested in our Wonderful Waiting Children, please email brenda@childrenshopeint.org .  I would love to answer any of your questions.

Children's Hope International is planning a Tet Celebration for February 1, 2003.  For more information on times and location, please contact Carrie Krenson at 309-8109 or carriek@childrenshopeint.org

It’s not too early to begin thinking about Operation Hope, our program where we bring older children from Russia to the US for a 3 week stay with families who are interested in hosting them and hopefully adopting them.  The children are ages 7-12 and we are planning on hosting the children in the Nashville area in July!  This is our third year to host children in the Nashville area….we will be letting you know more about this exciting opportunity in future newsletters.  Anyone interested in this program, please contact Tanya Yurlova, at 615-309-8109 or via email at Tanya@childrenshopeint.org.

December was a fun and festive month for the playgroup.  We met at the Bellevue Mall play area, where the children had a wonderful time playing, climbing, chasing, and just being kids.  We had lunch afterward and there was even a Santa sighting!  We are so happy and excited for our children to interact and mingle with other adopted children, but the best fringe benefit is that the moms are becoming friends, sharing ideas, sharing adoption stories, and supporting each other.  It’s a playgroup for moms AND kids! J 

We have some very fun activities planned for 2003, which include a trip to the downtown library story time, Cumberland Science Museum, the Nashville zoo, and others.  We hope you will join us for our next meeting.  It’s a great chance for your kids to meet other kids and for the moms to have some chat time while the kids are occupied.  If you’re a newly adoptive parent, this would be a great venue for you to gather support during your period of adjustment while giving your child a chance to interact with other adopted children.  We hope you will join us next month, when we will meet on January 9 at 10:00 AM at the Cumberland Science Museum.  The cost for children under 12 is $5.95.  The cost for adults is $7.95.  If we have more than 10 paying visitors, the cost is reduced by $1.00, so we the cost will somewhat depend on the number of people in attendance that day.

If you would like to join us or have questions regarding this event, please contact Ondrea or Carrie at 615-309-8109 or Ondrea@childrenshopeint.org or carriek@childrenshopeint.org. 

HAPPY NEW YEAR!  Hope this year finds you filled with joy and laughter, health and happiness!  If we can ever do anything to help, please do not hesitate to contact me a Brenda@childrenshopeint.org.

We don't want to burden you with a lot of information, but we do want to help you if you are looking for a way to adopt. If not, please let us know and we will regretfully remove your name from our newsletter.   E-mail me at my address below with any question you have.  I would love to hear from you. 

Brenda

Brenda Barker, Director
7003 Chadwick Dr. Suite 350
Brentwood, TN  37027
615-309-8109   Fax: 615-309-8483

Brenda@ChildrensHope.com
Also serving the following states: TN, KY, GA, AL, MS, FL, TX and LA