Day 7-Pure, Pure Joy!

Today we met our sweet baby boy. Today was the day we have waited for for so long!

 

 

 There was so much joy in our heart today!

The orphanage director described him as very smart and high functioning among his peers.

 He is already crawling!

Tessa and Nate are going to have so much fun with him!

 This is the smile I got after my attempt to tickle.

 

He is such a busy little boy. He is going to give his big brother a run for his money!

 "Mama, I can touch my toes!"

 

Here he was looking at me with such searching eyes! I can help but think that he was wondering if we would love him forever....

Why yes, we'll love you forever!

 He is holding onto my starfish necklace.

 

He melted in my arms and I melted in his.

Trying to get a picture of the three of us!

We were also given lots of information about him. Following our visit we had to run around and sign papers to get our court date moving. The judge is hopeful that he can get us in on the 17th, which would be amazing! Please continue to pray for a quick court date. We want this little boy home!

 

We are choosing to not publicly share the details of his parent's choice to place him in an orphanage, but we wanted to share one tidbit. The middle name we have chosen for our sweet boy (which we won't reveal until we have court) is actually the name of his biological brother. I was blown away when I heard that. What an awesome thing to carry with him for the rest of his life. I love that the name we have chosen has a small piece of his biological family!

 

Right now I am running on fumes. Last night I was both queasy and restless, probably due to my excitement and only ended up getting one hour of sleep, so I best be off to try to catch up. We have another visit bright and early tomorrow morning!



Day 5-Exploring Kiev

Today we got to see some amazing places in Kiev. Our first stop was this beautiful monastery. It actually started in some caves, but the land around it was built up to be this massive area filled with cathedrals, bee hives and even a winery.

 Adam has made an observation of the birds here....he believes they are all huge, especially the pigeons. He wanted to document his findings.

 We thought this was neat because it is a Cyrillic typewriter.

 Most of the cathedrals had massive portraits painted all over, and when the light came in from the window, it added to its radiance.

 We then moved on to a World War II Museum. Adam and I kept thinking how much my sister Kamie would have loved to have been with us.

 This monument was very large. This and the museum were built in the early 80s. It is so fascinating to see a World War II museum from the perspective of one of the persecuted countries. We saw many photos showing how Kiev was destroyed by so many of the bombings.

We were unable to take photos inside the museum; however, some of the images I will hold onto forever. One item in particular was in a section of the museum dedicated to the concentration camps. There was a pair of gloves hanging from a piece of barb wire. These gloves were actually made from human skin. This made my stomach turn. One of the hardest things to think about is that our little boy would have been one of the many that were killed without a hesitation. No other reason other than his Down Syndrome. This lack of respect for human life is probably the same belief, in a more modified form, that so many use to throw these children away in institutions.

 

Counting down the hours till he is in our arms!

Day 4-continued

Here are a few photos from Day 4. Here is our apartment.

Bedroom (with drying rack)

 Kitchen

 washing machine (so tiny)

 Bathroom

 Long spooky hallway/entrance to our apartment

 Here is the cathedral that was right next store to the adoption office.

 Here is the two of us braving the long dark street outside our apartment building to go get some dinner. That walk seems so much longer in the dark.

 

Day 4

The only thing that Adam and I had "scheduled' today was to pick up our referral at the Department of Adoptions at 3:00. We are still adjusting to the time here and had a really long nap yesterday afternoon, so we were up pretty late. We slept till noon! I can't remember the last time I slept that late. We got up, showered and waited for a call.

We received a call from Victoria, our driver, and she told us she would be here around 2:30. Right before 2:30 we got another call from her saying she was at the embassy with another family and she would be picking us up at 3:30 to be at the Department by 4:00. We then received another call from another facilitator that said we were having another driver pick us up instead, we assumed Victoria was unable to leave the family at the embassy.

So Eugene picked us up around 3:15. The traffic was horrible. Adam and I are amazed every time we go any where that there are not more accidents. Drivers cut each other off, drive up on side walks and park wherever they want...even in the middle of intersections. We go to the office just in time to receive our documentation. We have to hand carry a large portion of our dossier to the region on Monday, making us very nervous. If anything happens to these papers, our adoption will be jeopardized.

After we got our papers, we were able to see a beautiful old cathedral right next to the office. This building was built in the 17th century. It was beautiful. Tomorrow Eugene will be taking us to more cathedrals around the city. We will post these pictures with tomorrow's blog.

It is very cold here. We have been told that it is snowing in a few regions. Right now it is just cold in Kiev, around 40 degrees. The heat has no been turned on in our building. We have a small heater in m our bedroom, so we spend most of our time cocooning ourselves in there. Praying we have heat soon.

We are looking forward to seeing some beautiful parts of the city tomorrow.

Day 3

Adam and I are still adjusting. We slept pretty well, but the jet lag caused us to wake a little early. We were picked up around 9:15 to head to our DAP appointment.

 

At the appointment they pulled out "Nigel's" file. They went over some brief information with us. All the information they gave us was current as of when his adoption paperwork was file. We know for sure that his birthday is January 29th, 2012. He has Down syndrome (no surprises there). He has a heart defect listed, but we are unsure of the severity. It also says he has swallowing problems, which again is another common problem with children with Down syndrome. All of these medial issues will be explained in greater detail once we get to the orphanage.

 

One thing that was also confirmed to us is that he was given up when he was born due to his Down syndrome. By law, parents are not allowed to sign the papers to give up their rights until the child is 2 months old. For some reason, his parents waited until he was six month.

 

There was a weird feeling that came over me when they read us his parent's names. I can only think it was a feeling of sadness. Sadness that they will never get to experience how truly special this little guy is.

 

Here is a little boy that we are anxiously waiting for the chance to love and call ours.

 

 

 

We will pick up our referral tomorrow at 3:00 where we get  permission to visit him. We can't wait!

 

Our facilitators have offered to take us on a tour of many cathedrals some time this weekend. Other than that, we are just relaxing and enjoying our time in Kiev. We were even able to have lunch at McDonalds.....nothing like a Big Mac to make you feel at home! 

Day 1...and 2

WE MADE IT!

 

We left Phoenix on Tuesday morning (arriving on Wednesday afternoon). I was dreading the thought of saying good-bye to my two precious babies. They of course took I better then we did, skipping off like it was any other day.

 

We flew from Phoenix to Chicago, to Zurich, and then finally Kiev.  Overall, we were in the air for about 14 hours. It was a relatively easy trip, just awkward to get any sleep. The only eventful thing that took place was that in Zurich we were stuck waiting for the police to open up the one escalator that took us to our gate. We aren't sure what happened in that area, but it was blocked off from any entry for about a half hour. Thankfully we made it to the gate just in time.

 

We were met at the airport by one of our team members. She helped us exchange money, get some things at the grocery store and helped us settle into the apartment.

 

We have our appointment tomorrow at 10:00AM (midnight Phoenix time). We might get some info about our little info about our boy! We are so excited!

 

I'll hopefully have more to share tomorrow. I am off to bed to catch up on my sleep. Night night from Kiev!