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Emma Carapiet
 I adopted my precious Emma from Armenia in 2002. It was a delightful and smooth process. I was blessed to have no complications during the process, and I completed the adoption in 9 months. I did not use an adoption agency. I completed all of the paperwork on my own and then hand carried the papers to Armenia to meet up with a facilitator. I was introduced to the facilitator by an attorney here in the U.S. who had adopted two children herself from Armenia.
Ever since Emma has come into my life, I have become so interested and concerned about the orphans of Armenia. I have been looking for a way to give back, because of what I have been given! I am so excited to have found out about SOAR. I am looking forward to being a part of SOAR and helping with the vision in whatever way I can!
Anita Carapiet
Anna Harootunian
 Our adoption story began in June 2004. While helping out at our son's school, I overheard one of the moms talking about, "her new nephew coming home from Armenia soon." Well I had to find out more. I had always been told that it was impossible to adopt from Armenia. My husband and I talked about the idea of adopting a baby girl during the summer. With the support of our family we decided to go for it. We filled out our adoption application at the end of August. We used an Agency/Facilitator. Our son was so excited that he was going to be a big brother. It was a very emotional and busy time. It was much the same "process" that George and Erica describe. Lots of paperwork! We submitted our dossier at the end of November, then the torture of waiting. After getting our first Prime Minister approval in late February, the agency asked if we would consider a "small preemie." Then we received some pictures and we began to fall in love. We knew that Anna was a fighter, born at less than 2 pounds and waiting for a family. We prayed a lot. We knew that this was God's plan and that we were meant to be a family. Then the waiting continued and the delays began. Armenia had added some new adoption laws just as we were nearing the end of our process. There was to be a new extra court process. May turned into June, and June into July, then came August and I couldn't take it anymore. I traveled to Armenia without a court date. With my son and cousin and my husband to join later we headed to Armenia on my birthday, August 17, 2005. Then began our 7 week journey in Armenia to bring Anna home. It was an emotional, exciting and fun time. We arrived home on October 6, 2005. Anna is a true blessing and has brought much joy to our family.
Paul, Susan, Paulie, & Anna Harootunian
Adrianne Kara Jerrehian
 I had been considering adoption for 10 years but just last year decided the time was right to follow through. I did not know then that children were available from Armenia but once I discovered that there were agencies in the US that facilitated with such adoptions I researched until I found an organization that fit my needs. I started the paperwork in the summer of 2005, submitted it to the Armenian Government in October of 2005 and was pre-appoved in December 2005. The next 6 months I waited for an infant to become available. My agency in the meantime was discouraging me from proceeding as they felt that the Armenian policy was changing and becoming unfavorable towards foreign adoptions. They suggested I switch to their Russian program. I told them I wanted to continue with Armenia no matter how long it would take. Shortly after that I flew over there to meet a precious 2 week old baby that could possibly be mine. I then waited patiently for 3 months during which time she was on a registry through which she was made available to the general public. At the beginning of October 2006 I officially applied to adopt this child and in December I completed the adoption and we returned home on December 23, 2006 just in time to share the holidays with family and friends. A most magical time indeed.
Amy K. Jerrehian
The Maserejian Family
 Our adoption journey began in April 2002 & took one year to the day to complete. Along our journey of infertility, I had a dream that a little boy in Armenia was trying to find me. This was the first of many signs that our family was to fatefully form by adoption. Our boy now is the same age & resembles the little boy who was searching for me in the dream. The second fateful link was we were delayed in completing our dossier by our home study agency by several weeks because the social worker's grandfather, a clergyman, died delaying her completion of our
study & the ultimate completion of our dossier. If the delay had not occurred, our twins would not have been born yet as we were approved to adopt one day before they were born. We received their referral 4 days later. Another link was that we chose an unique name for our girl that occurs in both of our families (I am not Armenian so it is unusual for there to be an overlap). When we got our referral that was her birth name! The last & final link, which I realized much later, was that our twins were conceived in the same week, if not the same day, that my pregnancy ended.
The process: We submitted our dossier in September, got first approval in November & a referral three days later (this was at a time when you did not have to travel to meet your children prior to receiving final approval). We had requested twins as one of our preferences. By the end of March, we had our final approval & we traveled to meet & bring our babies home on our 5th wedding anniversary. Our trip was ten days total. This was back when one had to travel to Moscow to get Embassy approval. We used Life Adoption, which is currently searching for a facilitator. Using an agency gave us some bit of confidence that someone in the U.S. was being held accountable. We actually decided to use an agency a few days before completing our dossier. Our journey to adoption was fairly smooth--in hindsight. The hardest part was waiting between referral & final approval from the government, which for us was 20 weeks rather than the projected 6 weeks due to some political upheaval not specifically related to adoption.
We are so very blessed to have our beautiful family. Occasionally we laugh because we forget they are adopted & have to correct each other when one of us compares traits they have to our own then realize we are not genetically related so it is irrelevant. We frequently get comments that the twins look like my husband & our bio baby (21 months younger than them) looks like me. Ironically, the girls have many of the same characteristics- dark blonde hair, hazel eyes & dimples on both cheeks. The three of them are the best of friends.
Life is good.
Jim, Lynn, Abigail, Nicholas, and Lauren Maserejian
Anna Nack
 This year we were one of the first families to finish the adoption process with the new Armenian laws (2008). I can honestly say that every teacher, judge, facilitator, and even the translators at court had only the best intent for the welfare and placement of the child. Every person we met, even street vendors who heard we were adopting poured out their heartfelt thanks. The person would then give us something as a gift (flags, Christian crosses, pictures of Armenia) to make sure our daughter knew she was loved by Armenians and remembered them. I can't describe how many times we welled up with tears and pride of Armenia. Most of these incidents happened in Gyumri where our daughter is from. Gyumri was devastated by natural disaster and climbing unemployment, but still these people gave with their whole hearts. It's something that we will never forget, nor will our daughter.
The Children's Orphanage in Gyumri gets full credit for the easy transition into family life for Anna. Their patience with her underdevelped ears and cleft lip never left her feeling different from other children. Her love of singing and her Christian faith all stemmed from these outstanding women. Because of the new laws in Armenian there is a month wait between meeting the child and adoption. At first blush, it was another brick on top of a long wait. But in the end, it actually works out best for the child. The staff at Gyumri prepared her for the adoption, working her through the process of leaving them. The month wait also gave us time to bond with our daughter in her safe enviroment that I think led to the easy transition. To see her mommy and daddy interacting with the Director and her teachers helped our daughter understand that everyone was there for her. Anna's teachers also helped me with Anna's likes/dislikes how to communicate better w/her when she's upset and that in itself was worth its weight in gold. The only thing they left out was how much Anna does not like to take naps! We tried to soak up as much culture as we could to make sure our daughter always knows and understands her proud history.
The Nacks
Sophia Maria Potts
 Our decision to adopt from Armenia in April of 2005 started a process that would take almost two years. The eight months during 2005 were spent putting together the dossier ourselves and trying to find someone to work with for the adoption, either independently or through an agency. All possibilities fell through time and time again and by the end of the year we were discouraged and close to giving up. In February of 2006, however, we met Robin Sizemore from Hopscotch, a person and organization that carry wealth of adoption experience and who emphatically agreed to help us, and help us she did.
Thanks to our new facilitator, our dossier was completed and sent to Armenia in early March and Christiane and her mother-in-law Nancy went to Armenia in September to meet the little girl that had been referred to us. It was love at first sight and the adoption process began with the trip to the municipality to declare our intention to adopt Sophie. Doug and Christiane were able to spend the full month of December in an apartment in Yerevan with Sophie waiting for the adoption to be finalized. It was a special time of bonding, visiting historic sites and enjoying being a family.
Doug and Christiane (Bilezikian) Potts
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