Th Sing Frogs Chapter 35c

“It doesn’t matter. The world doesn’t care about promises. The world is a bad place. There are laws stopping us from keeping those promises. You need to realize, some things are just impossible. You need to be a grown-up, Sarah. Grown-ups understand that some things will never happen no matter how much they want them or how long they wait.”

I picked up my daughter and put her on my lap while she struggled to get away. I embraced her tightly while she sobbed, demanding that I put her down. I didn’t. “I’m sorry, Sarah. I really am. I love Yula too. I hope she gets a family. It might not happen, though. Lots of children at the orphanage never get parents. Yula might not get adopted. She might never have a mama and papa. If she ever does, we won’t know where she goes. It will be like Marina. The people in Russia can’t tell anyone where someone goes when they are adopted. It’s against the law. They would get in trouble with the police if they told anybody. As long as Yula is in the orphanage you can send her letters. I can visit her and take presents from you when I go there. You can pray for your friends and you can hope that Yula gets a family. If she is ever adopted we won’t know where she is. You need to understand, you won’t see Yula or Marina again.”

Sarah continued to sob and fight me while I held her tightly. “Aye wahnt see Yula! Aye wahnt see Marina! Wy Aye no can see dem?”

 

 

 

My daughter’s prayers didn’t change in their content or their frequency. She kept at it ten to twelve times a day. Yula getting a family meant more to Sarah than knowing where she was. She didn’t accept the facts as I explained them. Even if I was right, though, Sarah knew Yula needed a family and she would do everything she could to make it happen.

Interestingly, Sarah never suggested that we adopt Yula. Lucky for us. It wasn’t possible to adopt Yula and Sarah’s other siblings. And turning down a request from Sarah for us to save her friend would have done even more damage to our fragile relationship.

It was a stressful time at the Simmons house. Because of difficulties in doing business in Michigan, my brothers and I had decided to move the family business back to Utah and we were neck-deep in preparations. Our older boys had also somberly agreed to support the addition of the others. That meant we were back into adoption mode, full swing.

Even when you have been diligent in planning, things always seem to happen just before you are completely prepared. That’s how it was with the next adoption.

The two youngest children were doing well for the most part. Denney had attached to his buddy Cory and wanted to be like him in every way. Cory didn’t throw stitches tantrums so Denney was working on reducing his. Celeste was more than tolerating Mike. She was even beginning to like him. The two littlest ones were like twins even though there was a year between them. Celeste was more concerned with being a princess than with learning. Denney was brilliant. We always had to stop him from talking for Celeste or for giving answers when we were trying to get her to learn. It was nice to see a few typical and minor problems in the house again. Watching the children learn that there was an entire family to use for support made me feel more confident. That didn’t happen any too soon.

Amy and I were pretty busy. We had to start over with a new agency. Abuse and murder of Russian children by parents in the U.S. was increasing the difficulty of adopting from Russia by the day. Only a fraction of agencies formerly qualified to do Russian adoptions were still approved by that country. Stass and Anya now had a new employer. I refused to deal with anyone else in Russia so we backtracked from them to the source of their employment in the United States.

Adoption Aid International was headquartered in Maryland. That meant they would have to use someone in Michigan to do our home studies. Of course the work accomplished only a year prior would not suffice. Everything would need to be repeated. Fortunately our new agency decided to use Adoption Associates. Jane picked up our case again. She was practical in not forcing us to repeat training and other simple redundant requirements, but there was still a lot to do. The biggest problem was the size of our house.

 

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