Welcome to America

We began attending PAPA gatherings in September 2007. We made many friends among the adoptive families that regularly participate in PAPA gatherings. These families have helped us tremendously through the process of completing the adoption applications in January 2008 and going through the necessary steps prior to adopting.

At the August 2008 PAPA Picnic for the DelMarVa chapter, we met the N family and their three children, Tomek, Peter and Aleks. When we received our referral in September, and realised that the N's children were adopted at the same ages as the ages of our future children, we called the N family for help. We invited the N family to our house so the children could test out all the toys that we purchased for our trip to Poland. While the children tested the toys and confirmed that they were age appropriate, we received excellent advice from the N family on parenting issues and adoption issues.

The W family wasn't the only family that stepped up to the plate to help us during the process. There were many families all willing to help us. All of them responded to each and every frantic email from us in our last days before leaving for Poland, and then continued to email us as we were trying to deal with many questions and issues while in Poland.

We arrived back in the US with Tom, Amber and Leon in January, 2009. A week after, we were invited for a playdate at the C family, where they received a fantastic welcome home gift from that family, and had a fabulous evening playing with John and Rachel. The following morning, our children asked when they can see them again.

Ten days after our children arrived in the US, a snow storm came through the region. Our children didn't know anyone in the neighborhood and have not begun school yet. The N family came to the rescue again. Within minutes we had the best welcoming party event we could imagine. The N children and our children played in the snow and had a blast! They became immediate friends. A huge bonus to this playdate - when the N children ate Pizza for lunch, our children -- who didn't like to even look at Pizza 'til that day -- all of a sudden began to eat Pizza as if it were the best Pierogi they ever had!

A couple of weeks later, we were hit by a heat wave, and again a playdate with the N family was arranged.

By the time we came to the PAPA gathering in February, our children already knew many of the children there. When they found out all the children there were once in Poland, it put a smile on their face. They felt they weren't alone anymore. They felt comfortable. At home.

We couldn't have done it all without the help from the PAPA families.