Kirill's Story

Join us in praying for the mother and child in this photo and the many others who are caring for and desiring to care for orphans with Down Syndrome.

Kirill’s Story…. Two years ago Greg and I began praying for God to do whatever he wanted with our lives. We handed him a “blank check” so to speak, and told him to cash it. He opened our eyes to children with disabilities wasting away across the ocean in Eastern Europe. We joined God and started our adoption journey.

As we prayed over the faces of thousands of orphaned children with Down Syndrome, we finally allowed our then three-year-old son to choose from three little boys. We feel that children have the purest hearts and hear God’s voice more clearly than adults because they are not tainted by the world. He chose a little boy named Sergey. Eight months later, as we neared the finish line of our adoption, one of Sergey’s family members stepped forward to adopt him. We were heartbroken for our loss, but God showed us that we were following him, and his ways are perfect. We knew we still wanted to adopt, so the way we saw it, two children would find homes because of our journey…Sergey went to his family and now we would choose another child to come into our family. We took great comfort in knowing that God could see this when we first committed to Sergey! We were honored to be a part of his plan.

Shortly after losing Sergey, we received a new referral with a grainy photo of a four-year-old blond-haired boy wearing pink glasses named Kirill. We were instantly in love with him. We had to re-file a lot of our paperwork because of the change in referrals, but we were fast and we thought we were looking at three more months at the most until we would have Kirill home.

That was one year ago…

Since then so many things have happened. A tragic story of an adoptive mother sending her child back to his country alone on a plane with a note pinned to his shirt rocked our world…he was from our Kirill’s country. Adoptions in that country came to a screeching halt. Kirill’s region stopped processing adoptions for eight long months. The judge refused to accept any Amercian adoption cases until an official treaty was signed between the United States and Kirill’s country.

Even though we wouldn’t be able to finalize the adoption in court until the treaty was signed, we were allowed to go visit Kirill and sign our official petition to adopt him in August 2010. We fell more deeply in love with him. This was our son.

During that time, we found out that Kirill is the first child from his region EVER to be adopted with Down Syndrome. A birth mother keeping her child with Down Syndrome is unheard of in this area of the world. Adoptions of children with Down Syndrome just don’t happen there, these children are literally hidden away from society in orphanages and mental institutions. As our process continued, it became apparent that Kirill would be a pioneer. If our adoption was approved, it would pave the way for other children with special needs to be adopted from this region.

Then, a miracle happened around Christmas and the judge in this region suddenly changed her mind and began processing American adoptions again. We were elated. Could this be the light at the end of a very long tunnel? I was somewhat nervous about Kirill being the first child adopted with Down Syndrome from his region, but our agency was very confident that if we got a court date, our adoption would be approved. In seventeen years, they had never had a case rejected IF the family was issued a court date. We were told not to worry, so I didn’t. After meeting the judge’s requests for several supporting court documents, we were finally granted a court date-March 17, 2011. St. Patrick’s Day…I was thrilled. This would be our new favorite holiday! Our son was coming home!

Our other son, Clayton, who had just turned three when we started this adoption process, has prayed fervently for his brother. He is now almost five. When we told him Kirill was coming home, oh my…we had an excited big brother on our hands! At one point he even went to his room, dumped out his toy cars and divided them into two stacks…one for him and one for Kirill.

Last week, as we sat in the courtroom and suffered through five agonizing hours of difficult questioning, we were not prepared for anything but an approval of our case. Two doctors, two social workers, and the Minister of Children’s Services all made very strong statements on our behalf. They fought for us. Hard.

But when the ruling was read, the judge said, “Your application to adopt is rejected.” The basis given was that Kirill was “not socially adaptable” due to his “medical condition” and he was better off in an institution than in a home with a family. We were told we could adopt another child, and the judge would approve it, but not this child. Why? The only reason? Because he has Down Syndrome.

It was like a terrible dream. We were so unprepared for this outcome. As we left the courthouse in a mental fog, the doctors and social workers that had testified came to us and said, “If you appeal, we will fight for you. Appeal. Fight this decision.” Of course we were going to appeal…I could no more walk away from Clayton at this point. Kirill is just as much my son.

So here we are, asking God to move the mountain that is standing between Kirill and us as we appeal to the Supreme Court in his country. There are also three other families who are in various stages of adopting children with Down Syndrome from this region; one of the families has a court hearing set for next week

Oh Lord, hear our cries. Free these children and set them in families. We know you are sovereign. We know you are just. We know you see the bigger picture and our sole purpose is to carry your name to the ends of the earth. Regardless of the outcome, our God is sovereign and we will lift our hands and praise him! We know the battle is won and we will hold our son Kirill in Heaven. But we are begging God to give him and the other children of his region redemption here on earth as well; to let them be held and loved by families who so desperately want to care for them. Let us pray for the judge and the people of this country who cannot see that these children are your ambassadors. Let them be changed. Let them see you. Let all of us see you and live to glorify your name alone. Amen.

More about Greg and Tesney and their journey @ http://reecesrainbow.org/sponsordavis