Welcome Home Zachary!
July 2006
I would be more than happy to give you a summary of my experience with Lorien, and Lighthouse Adoptions. I can never thank Lighthouse enough for bringing Zachary home to make our family complete. This was agency #3 for us (long story). To make that long story short, we had already thought we were going to be mommy (or mama) and daddy (or papa) to two other children prior. We came to Lighthouse Adoptions with a lack of confidence in the process (not because we were not committed to adopt or anything because of Lighthouse, but because we did not know if we personally could endure another situation where our hearts were broken). With that said, we decided to use Lighthouse, after doing research of others who had brought home their precious sons and daughters with success using Lighthouse. We expected that there would likely be some sort of "bump" or "issue" along the way (as should be expected with any international adoption). But, to our amazement and complete surprise and satisfaction, things could not have went better! We submitted our dossier in March 2006, got our travel date in April 2006, met our son Zachary that we absolutely adore in May 2006, had court in June 2006, and he was home to us here in Michigan on July 2. In addition to our complete satisfaction with the timing, we also found that all information was accurate (including what we should expect with gifts, Zachary's medical information, and the timing). We also were pleased with the people that handled our case in Russia. We were never surprised with untold fees (as I had heard is often the case), or left on our own. In fact, the staff went out of their way to accommodate our desire to spend every possible minute with our son while there (including taking us twice a day during the orphanage's 2-hour visitation period, which entailed a 1 hour trip each way with traffic). |