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5/8/2008
CUMBERLAND - This will be Robbyn Jones' first Mother's Day and she and her husband, David, feel especially blessed to share it with their 21-month-old son, Denis.
"We're thrilled with how well Denis is bonding to us and adapting to his new life in America," said Robbyn.
The blonde-haired, brown-eyed, 23-pound bundle of joy who loves to eat bananas - "three a day if you let him," said his mom - arrived in Cumberland on March 1 where he slept in his tropical fish-themed bedroom.
"He slept through the first night and when he woke up, it was like he had been our son all along," she said.
"He's an amazing little guy," said David, adding that his son seems to enjoy new things.
The couple first met Denis in a Russian orphanage in December. He needed a home and the Joneses wanted to fill their home with a child.
Married for three years, the Cumberland couple had tried to have a biological child. When it didn't happen, the 40-something-year-olds decided to find a different way to build a family after seeing an adoption ad at a fertility clinic. They ruled out a U.S. adoption, which they said in most cases is an open adoption. Typically, there's some involvement with the birth mother and they were not comfortable with that.
"My husband wanted a child and I've always loved children," she said. "So rather than not have a child, we decided to help a child in need of a family."
At the end of last March, the couple requested a child under two years of age, boy or girl.
The agency they chose to handle the adoption is Wide Horizons For Children, which has an office in Providence and is headquartered in Waltham, Mass.
Of the 654 children placed by Wide Horizons For Children since last Mother's Day, 536 children were placed with first-time parents. In Rhode Island alone, the agency placed 39 children with first-time parents since last Mother's Day.
"So many women have been longing to celebrate being a mom on Mother's Day for a long time" said Vicki Peterson, executive director of external affairs at Wide Horizons For Children. "We are delighted to play a role in helping the dream of motherhood come true for so many people through the process of adoption."
The first part of the adoption process included mounds of paperwork, a home study, interviews and getting fingerprinted - four times.
"It's a grueling process," said Robbyn, adding that Russia had its own adoption requirements.
Once qualified, the couple waited. On a Tuesday morning in mid-November, Robbyn got a call at work. The agency said they had a child for the couple and said they could come in and see his picture.
While there was limited medical knowledge given about him, they did get information about his immunizations and the circumference of his head. The measurement can tell if a child might have fetal alcohol syndrome. Luckily, an international adoption pediatrician said everything looked good.
"We just fell in love with a picture of this child," Robbyn recalled. "We were so anxious to go and meet him."
They made a trip to Russia on Dec. 7 to start the foreign adoption. They returned again in February, and on Feb. 26, they went to a Russian court to adopt their son. Then they made the 12-hour flight back to Boston.
"As soon as we arrived home, he became a citizen," said Robbyn.
Before leaving office, President Bill Clinton signed the Child Citizenship Act of 2000 that became effective Feb. 27, 2001. The bill automatically makes adopted children U.S. citizens the minute they pass U.S. customs. In the past, they would have been considered resident aliens until granted citizenship.
Years ago, adoptive parents in this country who were trying to get citizenship for their children had to go through the same process resident aliens go through, which took about six to eight months. As foreign adoption became more popular, this same process took even longer, as much as two to three years.
Last week, Denis and his mom made a trip to visit his maternal grandparents, who live in Orlando.
These days, Robbyn and David always have the video camera ready, so they can capture all of their son's first-time experiences.
"He's a little ham," David said.
David said he loves to see the joy in his wife's eyes. He's planning to celebrate Robbyn's first Mother's Day at an Italian restaurant.
