"Gotcha" Day!!!!! (double click for pics)

Friday, August 4--- “Gotcha Day

Privet from KA3ACTAHCKNN. As we noted earlier today, we have Landen….yeah!
I would torture you by starting with some of the same old day in day out stuff you have heard for weeks, but instead let’s get right into the details of the day.

Lena was to call around 12pm and update the status of the paperwork for our final step to pick up Landen. This call actually came in around 11:30am with some good news. All of the paperwork would be complete around 1pm, so we would be picked up after that, but she would call back around 1pm to give us the exact time. As one may imagine, we had some of the longest hours this morning. From 6am (yes, we were all up at 6am) to 1pm, we officially went stir crazy. I would clean something, then Rylee would clean it, then Kim would go behind us and clean it again. I must say that Rylee did a majority of the cleaning around here (all on her on). She was so excited that she could not stop. It was wonderful to see an only child get this excited about having a sibling. It meant the world to Kim and me. Back to the update; Lena call around 12:55pm to say they (Lena, Svetlana, and Sergey) would be here at 1:15pm. Of course we had been ready to go since 9am, so this was no big task. We jumped into the van as it was pulling up, not giving it a chance to stop as we were ready to go. Just kidding, but we piled in and headed off to get the cakes and pick up Nina. We selected two cakes for the “party”, and then we stopped by Nina’s apartment before we could arrive at the baby house. Around 2:10pm, we pulled through the gates for the last time. I can not express in words the feeling that we had as we did this. Let me prepare those “weak at heart” people out there, the next few details will make you cry (well Kim cried).

The atmosphere was so different as we entered the baby house. All of the staff was smiling at us and some had soft tears rolling down there face. You can truly tell that these people care for the kids. I thought the tears were from all the gifts, cakes and champagne that we were caring in, but Kim quickly corrected me. Our crew started off going to visit the doctors as the Director was not there today (Svetlana will take her gift later for some brownie points down stream). We soon figured out that this was not the type of party we are accustomed to. Kim was ready to set up for the party, when we were told to leave a cake, a box of candy, a bottle of champagne and the doctor gifts in the doctor’s office. Needless to say, we were not expecting to have gifts for the doctor, much less 2. If you know my wife well, you had confidence that she would have over packed gifts just in case… and she had! She saved us big time and never missed a beat by pulling out some gifts and acting as if she had planned it for days. We said a few words to the doctors, then as customary here, we all sat for 1 minute of silence to reflect on Landen’s life there and his future. I was praying for a safe and speedy trip home with my family, if I must be 100% honest. This “party” was over almost as quickly as it started and we had not seen Landen, but we were down 50% of the party supplies….smile!

We then made the trip upstairs to Landen’s room. This is the sad part…. Landen’s room Mom as we refer to her broke into tears when she saw us coming up the stairs and cried until we left. She was so glad that Landen was getting a new start to his life, but you could see the pain she was feeling by letting him go. Lena asked Kim to say a few words to her, but I soon noticed that Kim was also crying and in no way could she say a word, much less a few…I tried to refocus the group and motioned to the gift in my hand. This did move the “party’ to the play room where we had picked Landen up every day. There were only two caretakers in the room, so we placed the gifts on the table and showed his room mom her gift and had Lena tell her that we had a special photo album in the bottom of the bag. I’m not sure if she heard a word as she was deep into the saddest cry one can imagine. It truly was touching to everyone in the room. We asked if we could see where Landen slept which was granted. We took a few photos, even one with him in his bed for the last time. All of the children have their own cribs without sheets from what we could tell. We were then escorted to a changing table where Landen was stripped down and given to us “as is”. We were happy to get him anyway we could and quickly put a little outfit on him for his first car ride. We left the other half of our “party” supplies in the room for the caretakers and gathered our things and headed for the exit. I wanted to make a run for it, but Kim stopped me to take some more photos with every person we passed in the hall.

The next adventure started as we walked out of the door. Landen’s head was on a swivel with his big eyes not missing a thing. To our surprise, he seemed to know exactly what was going on and never once seemed afraid. He enjoyed the ride without a doubt as he watched the trees, cars going by and people. We videoed some of the ride and took several photos to remember the day. We first dropped off Nina, and then went to get his passport photo made. This was interesting as Kim sat and held him, but with in 10 minutes the photo came back with a white background as if he sat by himself. We then came back to the apartment for the 1st time with our son. We were so proud that we stopped in our little grocery store downstairs to show him off. I gave it a good attempt to explain what was going on with my SpanEngRussian language, but I soon figured out they did not have a clue as to what I was saying. I guess showing up with a baby after weeks of not having one kind of said it all. Maybe we won’t have the police called on us.

We started making some calls to spread the news, when we had a knock at the door. The lady from down stairs was at our door. My first thought was….. Oh no, they did call the police. From the peep hole I could she was alone, so I liked my chances. She had a note to call Lena and gave her cell number. Kim called Lena and we got some great news about his birth certificate and adoption certificate. We were expecting to go on Monday and pick this up, but Svetlana pulled some strings and we got them the same day. Wow, this was the first time we got something done ahead of schedule. It was time for us to retire for the day and spend the first evening together as a family.

As in the car, Landen seemed very aware of what was going on. He crawled around the floor in the apartment like he had for been doing this for months. He played with some toys, but soon found an empty water bottle that he found to be most interesting. He would bang his head, the floor, and his head and so on. That’s my boy! He seemed to be getting a little hungry around 6:30, so we fixed him some carrots and cereal. He loved the cereal, but we are definitely going to have to adapt to his style of eating. We could not get the spoon to his mouth fast enough for him. We got a good bit in him, a good bit on me, a good bit on the floor, etc… This was so funny for us, frustrating for him and overall we got the job accomplished. With a full belly, he was ready for some more play time. He and Rylee played around on the floor for a while then he started showing signs that it was time for bed. He went to sleep in his Mom’s arms (I knew we did not need to have a crib) and is now fast asleep… Thanks to all of our friends and family for thoughts and prayers again, we made it!!!!!!! It’s time to rest from a wonderful day!

By the way…..it is 10:45pm here and Kim is still crying (Thanks Bob for being a strong shoulder for her) ….she keeps going in the bedroom and seeing him sleeping and cannot believe we have him. It may be a long night---but one we have waited for for a long time…. THANK YOU GOD FOR SUCH A BLESSING!!!!