Dear Prospective Parent,

Thank you for considering Bless This Child, Inc. as you make one of the most joyous decisions of your life; the decision of adding a new infant or child to your home and hearts. We hope the following information, as well as the enclosed list of references assists you in this important decision process.

About Bless This Child, Inc.

Bless This Child, Inc. specializes in the placement of Russian infants and children. Our agency started working overseas with the children in Russian orphanages in 1996. The children that we place range in age from 8 months to 13 years old.

Some of the reasons that parents adopt through our agency are because of the time frame involved in our adoptions and the wonderful children available through our program. We work in over 10 regions in Russia which tend to have 3 to 5 orphanages. Each of these orphanages usually has between 100 and 130 children. Of course not all these children will be the gender, age, or health circumstances of a child that you wish to adopt. However, because we do not work with only one or two regions within Russia, adoptive parents do not usually have to wait on a waiting list for long periods of time for a child to become available that is the age and gender of the request made. There are usually more children available than parents to welcome them. Therefore, you can decide if you wish to adopt a boy or girl, what age range child would best fit into your family, and can even tell us any other preferences you might have.

Further, you will find that there is no pressure exerted on you by anyone to accept a child you do not feel comfortable with. This is because we work in numerous regions and there are many children in need of loving families within the Russian system. Additionally, our agency strongly believes that it is not in the agency’s, child’s or the parent’s best interest to place a child into a home where the parents are not fully prepared to accept that particular child. Instead, we carefully listen to the adoptive parents, guide them through the adoption process and locate a child that the adoptive parents love and welcome into their lives. It is a myth that incredible infants and children are not available for adoption. There are thousands of infants and children in Russian orphanages, longing for loving parents. If you decide to adopt through Bless This Child, Inc. you normally will have a new child or children in your home within 10 months from the date you start the adoption process.

Our program is known as a handholding program. We give each adoptive parent tremendous attention, time, and care. We guide each person step by step through every piece of the international adoption process. You will have an experienced adoption professional helping you and at your side throughout the adoption. We do as much of the paperwork as we possibly can for you and carefully guide you one step at a time through what you need to do. Because of the guidance given, you will know what to do, when to do it, and have someone right by your side to help you and to answer any questions you might have. You will never be left to figure things out alone. In fact, even while traveling in Russia, our agency offers a service that few other agencies offer. If you would like to have the extra comfort of having someone from our US office travel with you to Russia, even this can be arranged as an optional service. Most people feel very well taken care of in the hands of our Russian employees while traveling and do not find this service needed. However, we have had some clients that found it helpful as they did not want to ask family or friends to travel and did not want to travel alone. They have stated they simply felt more comfortable going through the adoption process with someone from the agency.

We invite you to visit with as many of the Bless This Child adoptive parents as you wish. You will enjoy hearing about their experiences and will probably gain tips to help you along the way. One thing that we have observed and also been told over and over by adoptive parents is that although the orphanages do not have very much economically, the caregivers usually love the children very much. They do all they can for them within the circumstances. Because the children have had someone to love them, and to love (although it is certainly not the one-on-one attention and love that you as a parent will be able to provide) normally the children bond quickly with their adoptive parents and adjust well to their new home.