Junior Alex Martini was born in Kiev, Ukraine, then adopted at the age of eight years old by his adoptive parents Debbie and Vince Martini.

The adoption process took approximately 19 months altogether.

“We started in March of 2004, [we] had to do a home study and get approved which didn’t happen until that June. We had to go through immigration as well, we had to do a lot of different things.” Debbie said. “We didn’t get the approval letter from Ukraine until January of 2005, and they said that the day that we could come and pick out any [child] was September 21 of that year.”

The time after receiving their approval letter was the most excruciating according to Debbie.

“It was nine whole months we had to wait after we were cleared,” Debbie said. “It was almost like I was actually pregnant.”

When Alex took his first steps on American soil on November 11, he was already an official United States citizen and began the process to adapt to the society.

“[The transition] was really hard at first, but once I got used to the language and how people did things it wasn’t that hard to continue learning,” Alex said.

During the two month waiting period in Ukraine, Debbie and Vince had the opportunity to explore the area and try different things.

“One of our favorites while we were over [in Ukraine] was called Shashlik, which was like a shish kabob,” Vince said. “They still had places like McDonalds and TGI Fridays there too; it was just a little different than it is here when it came to the menus.”

Once Alex had the chance to meet his new family, the trio made sure to grab some souvenirs, in order for them to remember Alex’s roots, before heading back home.

“We got some Matryoshka dolls (Russian nesting dolls), a book about the culture and other things, we have this Russian hat and shirt that’s very traditional,” Alex said. “We also got a little colorful cloth, and I had some of my old clothing left which was also traditional.”

With all of the legal complications absolved, the Ukrainian to English language barrier still remained between the family members.

“We of course didn’t know anything Russian or Ukrainian, and he didn’t know any English at all. The first words he said was ‘thank you.’ So we had  a little translator and that really helped,” Debbie said.

Thanks to outside forces, Alex and his parents were able to succumb the barrier.

“The summer before 2005 he had taken this trip to Spain where he learned some Spanish,” Debbie said. “I speak a little bit of Spanish so we were able to connect that way and I was able to teach him English [through that].”

As Alex adapted to his new surroundings, he realized that things really were different than what he had always been used to.

“There were some really big [differences] in Ukraine, like when Christmas came around there was usually a lot of food and you didn’t really expect gifts or anything like you do in the U.S,” Alex said. “It was all spread out over a few days instead of just one day to celebrate.”

For a while after the family left Ukraine, they kept in touch with the orphanage Alex had lived in.

“The first two or three Christmases that he was here we sent packages to his class and school back in the orphanage,” Vince said. “We would buy just little gifts and toiletry things to pack up and send over to them.”

As the years have gone by, Alex continues to share with people where he came from, and hopes to travel back to Kiev when he is older to learn more he is unable to know now.

“There are files my parents have looked at about my birth parents and they didn’t really know much about them,” Alex said. “I never got to look at it though, they just told me I was an orphan [most of] my life really.”

Throughout the years, Alex’s family has continued to celebrate the milestones leading up to their family being formed.

“We do celebrate our anniversaries,” Debbie said. “September 21, when we found him when we were looking through the books, and September 23 was when we met him, and October 28 was when we had our court date and then November 11 was when he became a United States citizen.”