Brotherly Love

We’ve received lots of questions about William’s brother over the past few days, so I’ll try to answer them here.

When/how did you find out about Sasha?

The orphanage director told us that William had a younger brother that had been adopted by a lady in Chicago. The lady had wanted to adopt William, too, but at the time his he was not available for adoption. We asked and were given a name and a partial phone number.
Once home, Tonya (our U.S. facilitator) and I did some digging & found Cheryl, Sasha’s mom. I asked Tonya to call her first, worried she might be upset that we'd adopted him. Tonya called Cheryl on Dec 31, 2007, then called me back to say that Cheryl was thrilled. Cheryl called me on Jan 1, 2008 and we had fun sharing our stories. Since then, we've talked on the phone, exchanged emails, sent each other pictures, etc.

How old is Sasha?

Sasha turned 5 in December - he's 19 months younger than William.

Do they remember each other?

We don't think so. Sasha was almost 2 when he was adopted, and William was only 3 1/2 at that time. I think they remember the idea of a brother but that's it. Thankfully we have pictures of them together at the orphanage when they were little.

Was this their first meeting?

No. In April of 2008, Cheryl and Sasha came to Atlanta for a visit. You can read about that visit HERE. We've been talking about going to Chicago to see them ever since then, but finally got around to it last week.

We are so thankful for this special connection, and look forward to the boys continuing their relationship as they grow up!