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.

Our Day in Atlanta

On our way to Eastern Europe last week, we were so lucky to have a 10 hour layover in Atanta so that we could meet Gretchen and her cute family. I finally have a few minutes to blog about that day, since my sick baby is sleeping. It was such an awesome day, I want to make sure I write about it! Gretchen and I been friends online since last August when she began her journey to adopt Ian, who is in Anya's orphanage groupa. You get to know a person in such a different way when you meet in person. We feel so blessed to have had this day with her and the hour that we got to spend with Craig and Ari, too.

She picked us up at the airport at 6:30 am, then we headed off to a cool little restaurant called the Flying Biscuit, famous for it's incredible, organic southern comfort food. It's in the hippie section of town. :) Even the grits were absolutley divine. We had a great time getting to know Craig before he headed off to work.  I wish I had a picture of us all together there.

After breakfast, we took Ari to his school. He goes to an amazing school for autistic kids. Very impressive. It was fun observing their classrooms through one-way mirrors and hearing all about what they do for these kids. Ari is just a doll. He has his Mommy and Daddy wrapped around his cute little finger. What a sweetheart.

After we dropped him off, we went to the Georgia Aquarium. This is the largest aquarium in the world. Wow, was it spectacular!  It had several whale sharks, which are the largest fishes in the world! Incredible.

Gretchen and I posing for the camera.

This was my favorite part. The tunnel. There's nothing like having sharks swim over your head!

This sawfish swam right over us and wiggled his saw back and forth. It looked like he was waving to us and smiling. It was so funny!

How can anyone deny the existance of a God when they look at these spectacular creations?  I just kept thinking about that as we watched them peacefully glide through the water. So amazing.  I would love to go scuba diving some day!

Petting the stingrays.  One of those times you wish you had the kids with you. Actually, we did the whole time we were there! It was quite an experience.

After the aquarium, we took a drive to Stone Mountain, which is an enormous state park that houses a huge granite mountian with a carving of some civil war heroes.  What a beautiful place. Gretchen says they go here every week to run on the trail. I can see why!

Thank you, Gretchen for spoiling us rotten that day. And thanks for sharing your pictures with us. We only got a few before our camera battery died. Glad you're as camera happy as we are. You are a truly amazing person and we feel honored to have spent the day with you in your beautiful city!  We loved every minute of it!

We're Home

We made it home last night at 11:30. Ahhhh, home sweet home. We missed our kids so much. After the sleepless nights I had this past week and jetlag on top of that, I'm feeling a bit groggy.

Came home to a couple of sickies. Bennett and Eli both have fever/coughs.  Poor kiddos. It's kinda what I expected after having to toss the poor kids from one house to another all week. Just as long as everyone's better when I leave in 3 weeks to go get Anya!

It's hard to believe that we've just been to Eastern Europe and back!  The world is really a small place, you know it?

I still tear up every time I think about what just happened.  It all seems like a dream, but it wasn't. It was real and Anya is coming home with us in a month.  Wowee!

Life is about to change a little bit for us, but a whole lot for her. I pray that she'll be ready and it won't be too traumatic for her when we remove her from everything she has ever known in her life.  It's going to be quite the experience for her. 

So, the 10-day waiting period will end on March 5 and Anya will be totally officially ours. But I'm waiting until the 15th to go so I can travel with Katrina (who's picking up Vahnya) and Jeremy can stay home with the kids. Luckily, the orphanage has agreed to let her stay until I can come get her. I can't wait to have her all to ourselves!  These three weeks are going to fly by.