Brendan, Rachael, And Kevin
My name is Rachael, and my husband Brendan and I adopted a baby boy from Guatemala with the help of Thursday's Child. Kevin Daniel Enrique came home on December 17th,1998, just in time for Christmas. He was one of the very last babies out before the Embassy closed for the holidays!
We found our entire experience with TC to be an extremely positive one, and would recommend the agency wholeheartedly to anybody wishing to adopt from Guatemala or any other of the other countries in their program. The Executive Director always had time and energy to deal with our many queries along the way, and she was meticulous about answering each one in great detail. We were treated with honesty, courtesy, and respect by this big hearted agency, and never felt uncomfortable or out of the loop. Of course in adoption there is usually going to be a degree of uncertainty and delay, but none of it was ever generated by TC!
Kevin was born on April 10th, 1988, so he was just eight months old when he came home. We had been matched when he was barely a month old, and we received progress reports and photo updates in the interim. The wait seemed long at the time, but it was worth every second. When he arrived we had final decree and Kevin had been beautifully taken care of by his foster mother. We live outside Connecticut so we had our Home Study done by a local agency that co-operated with TC throughout the process.
We decided to go to Guatemala to bring him home ourselves when the long wait was finally over. The trip was an absolutely wonderful experience, and we will happily share details and particulars with anybody who asks. We spent three days in Guatemala City, met the foster mother, and picked up the flavour of the culture. I speak a little Spanish, and my efforts were vastly appreciated. So don't be afraid to make a fool of yourselves; we found the people to be warm, friendly, and really appreciative of our efforts, however bungling. The moment of our seeing Kevin for the first time in his foster mother's arms was truly overwhelming. We immediately nicknamed him The Shrimp because he was smaller and pinker than we had expected.
Our Shrimpy is now about to celebrate his first birthday, and we have seen him grow from baby into little boy. He is babbling (he says Yeah and Again), standing, crawling up a storm, clapping, and playing peekaboo and all the other games beloved by those a yearold. Actually in his playing and in his small motor development is about three months ahead, and in his gross motor skills he has gone from a little behind to very much average. He had not been encouraged much to move at all before he came to us, but that brain of his and those little fat fingers had been plenty busy! He came to us in perfect health and of average size; his shots were all up to date and his many medical tests all cam back negative. He has had one minor ear infection and one brief cold all winter. He adores his new life (and his food!) and we adore him. The pleasure and light and love he has brought into our lives are simply beyond description. He is a happy, jolly, sociable polite little guy who loves to giggle, go out to dinner and play with his kitties, and now we cannot imagine life without him.
We are happy to be e-mailed at rjlynch@ultranet.com by anybody who wants to do so.