Finding Anna

After the youngest of our four children was born (1993), we were told that Colleen's health would be jeopardized if she had another child. Initially we accepted this news and got busy raising our young family. After about a year though, we both began to recognize feelings that we had a child still missing from our family, a little girl, who we began to refer to as Anna.

For several years we talked often about Anna as though she were already with us. The older kids were comfortable with the fact that they had a little sister. The screen saver on the family computer even scrolled the words, ''We love Ben, Erin, Ryan, Danny, & Anna.”

Although our feelings were often very strong about our little Anna, we were not sure how we would find her and bring her into our family. After we moved from New York to Utah (1996), we spent about a year researching domestic adoption. In the end it did not feel right for us and though we didn't understand why, we put our search on hold.

All of that changed again in August of 2004. The feelings of a missing child came back strongly, and our prayers and faith brought us to know that we would find Anna in Ukraine. We decided as a family that it was time to get to work and bring her home.

We found CWA on the internet while researching ''Ukrainian Adoption'' and were immediately touched by their expression of faith that God knew our daughter and that she would be ours. We knew that too, and we knew that He knew where she was and could lead us to her. Since CWA shared this faith, it seemed very right that they could assist us.

The adoption process was intense and very busy, but it also increased the feelings of tender love in our home. About the time we had submitted our dossier, our daughter, Ryan, then 15, had to write a poem for a school assignment, she chose to write about the loneliness she felt Anna must feel while she waited for her family to find her. We never realized until then how deeply the adoption was already touching our older kids.

Finally the time came for ''Our Adventure'' to begin, and we traveled to Ukraine in July 19, 2005. We knew the most daunting task would be choosing our daughter during the appointment at the then National Adoption Center, but we could never imagine how overwhelming it really was. After looking three times through the entire binder provided to us and feeling we had still not found Anna, we gently asked if there were any other girl's files we could see. The worker reluctantly brought us three more pages, we looked closely into the eyes of the final third photo, the little blonde, blue-eyed girl was beautiful, but in her eyes we felt the confirmation that she was our little daughter.

So then it was on to Simferopol in Crimea and the orphanage in Stroganiv’ka. When the teacher brought Anna into the room to meet us she broke free and ran across the floor and jumped unexpectedly into Colleen's lap and began to play. Anna had found us!

After 11 days of peek-a-boo and swings at the orphanage we finally had our court date, following which Inna, our interpreter congratulated us for now being a family of seven, which shocked us, we had been so busy, we hadn't stopped to realize we now had our five children. The next day, August 4, 2005 was ''Gotcha Day'' and Anna Lee Hall left the orphanage in Stroganiv’ka with her parents.

We cannot say enough about how completely professional and helpful CWA was throughout the entire adoption process. Ludmilla expertly guided us through the entire pre-travel process; Inna was amazingly diligent during our time in Ukraine, working tirelessly. We could never have done any of it without them. What a wonderful work CWA is blessed to do, to help unite families!

The crowning event for our family was August 24, 2005 when we took our family to the Temple in Salt Lake City and Anna received a special ordinance that sealed her to us as part of our forever family.

David, Colleen, Ben, Erin, Ryan, Daniel & Anna Hall