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I will never forget the date we decided to adopt. It was March 18, 2008 and my husband and I were at the happiest place on Earth, Disney World. We had just gone through our second failed in vitro fertilization attempt and had decided to head to Florida for a vacation. During our vacation, we asked ourselves if we wanted to be pregnant or to be parents. We decided we wanted to be parents more than we wanted to be pregnant. At that point we decided to put our time and efforts into adoption. Piles of paperwork Once we began the adoption process, we were bombarded with paperwork. First from the agency and then from the country we chose to adopt from. My husband and I learned a lot about each other during the process. We had to work as a team to meet our deadlines and to complete the mounds of paperwork. It was stressful at times, but we focused on the end result, becoming parents. Going international Originally we looked at domestic adoption, but knew we couldn't take the heart break of losing a child if the birth parents changed their minds at the last minute. After experiencing a miscarriage and two failed in vitro treatments, we needed to know that nothing could disrupt our experience once we were matched with a child. We chose to adopt from Russia because we knew other families who had adopted from Russia and because we knew the adoption would be closed. Adoption is a big investment both time and money wise, so we decided to adopt two children at once. The great wait We finished our dossier for Russia in October of 2008 and then the wait began. The referral call from our agency came on March 4, 2009. They had two little boys, brothers. When you adopt from Russia, you usually get a blind referral meaning no pictures. We were one of the lucky families that got to see our little boys' faces before arriving in Russia. Our first meeting We flew to Russia on March 27, 2009 and spent one week meeting who we hoped would be our sons. Roman was two and Maxim had 12 Hudson Valley Parent Q 2013 Baby Guide After two failed in vitro fertilization attempts, Christine realized she didn't want to be pregnant, she wanted to be a mom. Photo provided Building a family Hudson Valley mom shares her adoption story By CHRISTINE NADEAU