[I hate to tell her story first. But Emily’s version is a little complicated to understand without some background that kind of gives it away. I hope you don’t mind the “spoiler” here at the beginning and that in Emily’s article you can feel what children from such circumstances experience and how difficult is for them as (and especially after) their families come apart at the seams.]

[We were in the process of finalizing the adoption of our youngest two daughters, Sarah and Celeste when we learned that they had older biological siblings that we had not been told about. It took another year-and-a-half to find and adopt her two oldest sisters, Annie and Emily, who were fourteen and fifteen at the time. Sarah’s and Celeste’s older siblings were removed from the home before the younger girls were born, so neither group knew about the other. When Emily came home at fifteen, she started talking about a baby at the orphanage that we needed to find. Language was extremely limited at that time which made the situation very confusing. We told Emily that her younger brother and sister from the earlier sibling group had already been adopted before we found them, that the records were sealed and we couldn’t find them. She responded that she understood that, but that there was another baby at the orphanage that we need to find: HER baby. That was a shock. Amy asked Emily if she had given birth to a baby that we didn’t know about. She said that she had not, but that she had a baby that we needed to find. It took weeks of discussion to learn that when Emily was removed from the home with the older sibling group that she was the only one of the siblings who knew that her mother was in the early stages of another pregnancy. Emily had worried about what had happened with that child for her entire life and had assumed that the baby had gone into an orphanage like had happened with herself and the other siblings. Upon learning of yet another sibling to my daughters, I was devastated. My wife, Amy, was more practical. She sat down with Emily, the dates that we had and a calendar. By the time that they were finished, they learned that the younger, unborn sibling that Emily had worried about for her entire life was her younger sister by birth AND adoption, Sarah.]

I told my mom from the Amarica that we need to find a baby from the orphinige. I keep saying that we need to find baby, but that [was] Sarah. And also it’s hard for me because I thought I am not going to find my sister that [was] Baby Sarah. My mom [mother from the U.S.] find my baby sister, Sarah. And government also, before, put her in the orphinige. And before I do not know that I have a baby sister but government find her and they tell my mom in the Amarica that they could find her and bring her to Amarica with them and be with family. And also my sister be happy that she got adopted from my new family because make her happy when she got adopted when she so little girl. [Emily is speculating that Sarah must have been happy to be adopted when she was five as opposed to having to wait until she was a teen like herself and Annie.]

My sister thought she never going to be adopted but she got lucky. She was a little baby but government who helps find her and also my Amarican family, mostly my mom. I am happy that my sister was little when she got adopted by our Amarican family. We never gave up on my baby sister, Sarah.

She was adoreable baby. When I was in orphanage in Russia and Sarah in Russian home, she gor a burn with soup and I got scared by my Russian mom. But Sarah went to the hospital and government pay to fix burn [she got from] soup. We needed to find her [Sarah] because it’s important that we got adopted by new family and it makes me so happy. And we found her because we love my baby sister because we need [to] give [her] happiness and love and home and food and support from the new Amarican family. I care about new bay that is born [even before she knew it was Sarah]. I was thinking every day about her. Sometimes it’s hard that we separate from brother and other sisters. [Emily has a brother and sister that were adopted by other families and we don’t know where they are. She also has a sister who remained in Russia.]

Now Sarah is older and she grew up and is mature. [Sarah is now fifteen.] She goes to school and she now happy that she got adopted and she love our Amarican family and she going to be happy person and she likes that she went on the plane, flying to come to the Amarica.

I have nice brothers and sisters. Its hard when my sisters and brothers have hard time because we came to new life and come to the Amarica. My Amarican family help us come to the Amarica and Stass and Anya [our adoption coordinators] give us amazing gift that sometimes I just throw away because I am making bad choices and I don’t care about other people, what they think. [We often talk with Emily that many people gave her a gift of opportunity for a successful and happy life and she gets to choose whether to accept that gift or throw it away with bad behaviors and loss of privileges.]

I like my new amazing Amarican family. I am glad that we find out that baby is Sarah and we grateful [for our] new Amarican family. Government help my mom at the orphinige and different government help us that we find my sister, [that was the missing baby] Sarah and make sure that she could come to the Amarica.

[Here, Emily is talking about how she is glad for paperwork that helped to find siblings and also about how it helped her to know that Sarah was the baby that was born after Emily left the home.] And also they have paperwork and we get to look at paperwork and see if my sister is there in paper work. An orphinige people told my Amarican family that she [Sarah] in the orphinige with kids and they need make sure she get adopted by new Amarican mom and dad. Ans also we never give up on my sisters or brother or my whole family.

[In] reality kids need families. But also, Sarah [was a] little baby and also government let us get adopted and move. And next my sister and brother Maria and Vitale [Emily hopes that we will still be able to find her two missing siblings.] got adopted by new Amarican family and also we never give up on them. [Emily’s missing brother and sister were adopted by different families. We know that Maria was adopted by a family from the U.S. Emily says she heard that here brother was also adopted into the U.S., but we don’t have any other confirmation. The details we have about the two siblings are given in the link given above, in this article. We are always looking for Maria and Vitale.]

Thank you everybody.

Emily finds great strength in the support she receives from those who read her blog. Please scroll down and leave your comments.

See More of Emily’s Blog Posts: Emily’s blog

Return to John M. Simmons blog

Don’t miss out. Click here and register to receive notifications!