What have we done while waiting for passports?

 Well,  we've done a little painting.

A little eatin' and cheesin'

a lot of snuggling and bonding

a little Pilates :)

 

 

a little organizing

 

and of course...a little shopping!

I should have brought my camera when we ventured out to the mall today. The kids loved it and they were so adorable there. We ate at the food court, then stopped at a big toy store and bought some cute Russian books, dvds and toys.  Vahnya and Anya both were totally fine with the crowds and really didn' t pay any attention to anyone but us.

Anya used her first sign today!  When we were eating fries at the mall, I was trying to just give her a few at a time (gotta watch that waistline, you know...) and she was of course in love with them. She first asked me for more by tapping my arm and pointing to them and saying something like, "didooba".  I ignored her.  So she surprized the heck out of us.  She signed "more" by putting her fingertips together!  Katrina and I both gasped and made a big fuss over it. Of course I gave her more. So she did it again and again until I finally threw the rest of the fries away so she couldn't ask for any more. Ha ha.  Anyway, I was amazed that she learned that in 2 days!  She's on her way to communicating already. Also, when she points to a picture of herself, I ask her, "who's that?" and she says, "Ahna." Dang, we should have left her name Anna. We changed it Anya because it was closer to Tanya, which she's used to hearing. But she can't say the "y".  Too late, it's already on her birth certificate. I wonder what year she'll be able to say her name right.

Both Katrina and I are really glad we took our kids from the orphanage Monday (against our coordinator's advice) so we could have a few days to bond with them, with nothing to do but just be together, before heading to Moscow.  They have both come so far already. They are recognizing things we say and responding to our non -verbal cues and our words more. They each know who their mommies are.  Anya comes to me if she wants anything. Whenever I come in the room where she's playing, she motions for me to come over by her, then she scoots herself over right next to me. When I put her down at night, she cries, unless I lay by her for a few minutes. She even cried when she got hurt today and stopped when I gave her a hug. Great signs of attachment already!  Anya has been through so much change in her short life, yet she seems so trusting of me. I'm really amazed. I'm not saying her behavior is perfect. She definitely has a mind of her own, people.  But I can already tell she is going to thrive in our family.  

My fears of her being aggressive with younger kids was put to rest this week. She has been nothing but gentle and sweet with Vahnya, who is about the same size as our Eli.  What a relief that is! 

You know how you just worry about things?  All these months, I've worried about dumb little things and now that I have Anya, I just think, "Why in the heck did I waste my sleep worrying about that?"  If you're thinking about adopting or if you're in the process, you know what I'm talking about, right? I guess I can't speak for everyone, and I don't have her home with the family, so I probably shouldn't go tootin' my horn, but all those dumb little things that I worried about really don't matter any more now that she belongs to us.  I don't know if I'm making any sense. But I just thought I'd put that out there for all you worriers like me. :)

Tomorrow morning, we're headed to the passport agency to pick up the magic little papers that our kiddos need to travel. We have a babysitter (a friend of our driver, Boris whom we love and trust,) coming to stay with the kids so we don't have to make them stand in line with us for hours.

Then, we'll come back to the apartment, get packed and hang out for a while longer, then we'll walk to the end of the block where the train station is (how perfect is that?) and hop on the 7:30 train to Moscow. It will take four hours to get there and our Moscow coordinator will have a driver there waiting for us.  

We're planning to stay in an apartment downtown that's close to the US Embassy for the first 2 nights, then move to some aquaintances of ours' house (a sister of one of Jeremy's high school friends who's husband works for the Embassy there) for the remainding nights. Our hubbies are coming Sunday. We miss them so much and can't wait to see them.  We're hoping to go home next Wed. but it might be Friday. We'll have to see how quickly we can get things expedited. 

I'll probably blog again on Friday after we get settled and we're done at the Embassy. Until then, Paka!

Gotcha Day, Part 2

I was in such a hurry to get our pictures up that I forgot one of the best parts of the day. It was watching my  daughter eat for my first time. I am so amazed at the manners she has at the table. She slowly ate each bite of her lunch, so politely. And just like a Russian, she held her fork in her right hand and her piece of bread in her left hand throughout the whole meal. 

I've read about kids coming out of orphanages and devouring their food like it's the first time they've been allowed to eat. Not these two. It was very apparent to us that they have always had plenty to eat and have healthy relationships with food. 

For her first five and a half years, Anya was taken care of and loved as much as her caregivers could love her. For this I am very, very grateful. I know that most here in Eastern Europe who are born with special needs are not so lucky.

So it looks like the Mac-n-Cheese got a thumbs-up.  And the apples and bread, too!

I walked to the store to get a few things and when I came back, they were both in the bath, happy as can be.  Another surprise for us.  They told me at the orphanage that they shower the kids once a week and don't give baths because it would take too much time.   Anya was a little hesitant when Katrina was filling the tub, but as soon as she saw Vahnya get in and start splashing away, she thought, "that looks fun!"  She was much more calm than him, since she's more mature and all. :) She just poured water from one cup to another the whole time. Neither one of them were a bit happy when it was time to get out.

All cozy in their new jammies.  Don't you just want to eat 'em all up?

 

 Today was Anya's first day ever in her life with no nap.  She was too hyped up from the excitement to settle down for one and I didn't want to fight it, especially since I've never had a child this age who takes naps!  I'm lucky if they make it to age three!

So she was pretty tired by 9:00.  It took her about 20 minutes to finally give up. But the whole time she was getting there, she had to have some part of her body touching me. If I moved, she would snuggle closer.

Tonight, my little girl experienced something she's never experienced in her five and a half years on this earth.

A mommy to snuggle next to.

Thank you, Dear Father for giving me this perfect child.  

I don't know why you chose me, or if I'll ever be worthy of this calling.  But thank you. 

She's simply beautiful.

Gotcha Day!

Woke up with butterflies in my tummy this morning. It was funny, but it felt like that first day back in November when Jeremy and I were going to meet Anya for the first time. Don't know why! I guess it was because I was going to discover a whole new world of Anya--out of that little room. And maybe because I was a little bit sad that her caregivers would have to say goodbye to her.

Our driver picked us up at 9:15, then we went and picked up our coordinator.

First stop: Vanya's baby house. I had to wait in the car while Katrina went in to rescue her boy.  It took about 45 minutes, then they were out!  Here's Mommy and Vanya.  Don't they look great?

 

Next stop: Anya's place.

Katrina and Vanya stayed out in the van with the driver while Elena and I went in. First, we went in to the social director's office for a minute so I could sign something saying I was taking her out. 

Then we were off to her groupa.

I wanted to videotape it, but my cell phone/camera was on "freeze" mode and I couldn't figure out how to unfreeze it. BUMMER!

Oh, my gosh she was so cute.  When she saw me coming down the hall, her face lit up and she started out the door immediately. They must have explained to her what I was coming for.  She grabbed my hand and pulled me toward the door.  

Wait--gotta get dressed first, baby girl. So here was the interesting part. I brought some 3T and 4T jeans because I didn't know which size she was.  First I tried the 3T's.  Nope, could hardly get them past her thighs.

So I grabbed the 4T's and pulled them on.  I could barely get those babies snapped shut!  She is short and chubbo.  I don't think she'll be wearing jeans unless I get 5's and cut them shorter.  Don't ask me how an orphan who eats a strict diet can possibly be overweight. Inactivity maybe? I know it's common for DS, so who knows?  They say her thyroid has been checked and it's normal.  We'll have to do that test over when we get home, I think.  

Anyway, the other thing I couldn't get on were her boots!  Her feet are wide and flat!  Her caregiver helped me pull as hard as we could to get them on.  We're going to have to take a walk around the corner to the mall and find this girl some wide shoes. :)

OK, all dressed and bundled to Eastern European caregiver standards. 

One last picture with Anya's caregiver. She got a little teary as we were leaving. How can anyone not become attached to these kids?  

Time to go!

These two pictures tell the story perfectly about how excited Anya was to fly the coup.  When we got outside the orphanage, I asked our coordinator if she would take a picture of Anya and I.  Well, Anya had one thing on her mind, and that was to go get in that "machina" (car) because we were GOING! If we stopped, that meant we might change our mind or something. So she wouldn't stand there for me. No way!  She squirmed and wiggled until I finally gave up. Not even a hint of  a good picture to commemorate our monumental day. Boo hoo.

The whole ride home, Vahnya and Anya were perfectly content.  They just sat there taking it all in. Anya kept pointing to things and gasping, like it was soo cool.  She was crackin' me up.

When we finally reached our apartment, they happily came in with us. When we opened the door, they both started running around, checking everything out, giggling, and chasing each other.

We are going to have our work cut out for us these next 3 days while we wait for their passports.  Or at least I will!  Think BUSY Toddler, discovering everything for the first time, but taller, more powerful and strong.

Those of you who have kids with DS, I would love any advice you have on teaching your big, strong child to be gentle, soft, etc.  When she grabs things she shouldn't, she grabs hard and won't let go, then she laughs like it's a game until I finally get it out of her hand. Also, if I need her to change activities and I take her hand to redirect her, she immediately sits down right where she is and laughs.  Oy, yoy yoy.  Wish we could get it nipped in the bud before we get home. :)  Ha ha.

Thank HEAVENS for DVD's.  The minute we turned on Signing Times, they were both glued.

Ahhh.... deep breath.

PS, They loved having their piggies exposed. I don't think they got that luxury in the orphanage.

The first thing I did as she sat there was take out her braids. I've never seen her with her hair down. 

Is she dang gum cute, or what?

Worth the wait, yes, indeed! All ten months.  She is a keeper. I love her soooo much.

Can't wait to bring her home.

Here We Are!

Well, after a tearful goodbye to the hubby and kids and a very long day/night in airplanes, airports and a car,  we're here and ready to get this party started!

Katrina commented that it felt like April Fool's Day, though. What a day!

The fun started when my luggage lost one of it's wheels coming out of the airplane in Chicago.  Then, when we were flying to Frankfurt, I opened my brand new portable, rechargeable DVD player that we bought for Anya's plane ride home and when I turned it on, saw that the LCD screen was shattered. Oh, boy. Another $125 down the tube.

When we arrived at the airport, our driver came to pick us up, then took us to a bank (??) that was a few blocks away from the apartment we would soon be checking into. We needed to exchange our dollars into rubles.  Wow, that was an experience in itself. You have to go into a private little booth with armed guards watching you while you do the exchange. It felt like we were doing  a dirty deal of some kind. 


Anyway, as we were walking back to our apartment (right in the hub of the city) we noticed something was missing. 

Katrina: "Um, where is your car?"

Driver: "I think the police took it"  But I don't know why.

Oh, man. We could only hope it was the police who took it. We envisioned the worst. Some of our luggage was plainly visible on the back seat and it would have looked enticing to a theft!


There were lots of other cars parked on this street, so our driver had parked like the rest of them.  Well apparently, there was a new sign posted that was only a few days old, further down the street, that said "No Parking."

The problem was that his car held not only all of our belongings that we had with us, but also some incredibly important documents that we had been gathering for the past year to give the US Embassy, along with some POA's that we needed for tomorrow morning.

Our poor driver had to walk probably a couple miles to the place where they were holding his car for ransom.  He had to pay the police officer triple the amount of money in order to get the car out today, as opposed to 3 days from now, when he was supposed to.

It was a pretty tense 2 hours as we waited at the apartment. We both wondered if we would ever see those Embassy Packets again. Without them, we would have had to go home without our children. YIKES!

It all turned out A-OK. We're back on the road again. Pwew!

Unfortunately, it doesn't look like we'll get to see our children tomorrow because there is too much paperwork stuff to do.  Maybe Friday.  The plan for now is to apply for their passports Friday and get them out of their orphanages on Monday.  Hopefully the passports will come Tues or Wed and we'll be on our way to Moscow to finish the process.

Time for some sleep!  We missed a whole night's rest and we have to be up bright and early!  Can't wait to see Anya again and squeeze the heck out of her.  Soon!

Feelings.

It's funny, but I've noticed that, as we are facing the reality that this is really happening, I'm feeling all the same emotions that I felt right before delivering each of my five babies:

Excitement about how happy she is going to make us

fear for the unknown

greater love for my amazing husband and kids

guilt that I won't have the time I have now to spend with each of my children.
but total amazement for all that I've been given and how much I've been strengthened. 


Then, there are additional emotions that are specific to the adoption:

Sadness that I have to be away from my family for a long time and miss important events like a birthday and play performances


exhilaration about giving Anya a loving family and the fact that there is now one less orphan in the world

even greater exhilaration that we get to have her...all to ourselves!

anxiety about traveling across the ocean again to a post-communist country where I don't know the language, but this time without my protective husband along for the first two weeks

worry about how scary this may be for Anya, taking her away from everything she has ever known

hope that she will be tolerant of her brothers who are younger, especially little Eli and the fact that she has to share our attention with him

wonder at the miracles that have happened in the past year of our lives

peace and assurance that we'll be protected, watched over and guided every step of the way

and most of all

gratitude

for our family

for Anya's grandparents and our friends who are sacrificing of their comfort and time to help take care of our children while we're away

for ALL the people who have given of themselves financially to help with the expenses of this adoption

for a little girl who will make our world amazing

and more than any of that

gratitude for my Savior, Jesus Christ who has been constant, steady and true to us every step of the way. He has never let us down and I know He never will. 

OK, Mom.

This is getting Serious!
WHEN are you coming to get me?

Be there in a week, Sweetie Pie.

I love you.

Today is a Special Day

How significant that this is the 100th post on this blog... 

As of last night,

Anya Irene

is

really

truly

positively

a
through and through

bona fide

legal 
member

of

the

Fillmore family!

The ten day wait is up!

If we were in her country, we could go get her today.  But we decided to wait another week and a half because next Monday-Wednesday, there's a holiday there that will prevent our coordinator from being allowed to go to the police station to take her name off the database.  I think I explained this in a previous post, but I decided to just wait one more week after that and go with my friend, Katrina, who will be going to get her baby boy. It's too scary for either of us to travel alone and this way, our hub's can stay home and make money and take care our families for the first week and a half. They are planning to join us on the 27th in Moscow for the last few days, to help us travel home.

So that's the plan and we're sticking to it! Ha ha--it seems like it changes every day. There are too many options.

It's just amazing to know that we have another child. She may be really far away, but she's OURS!

God is so good.