Sometimes things happen that make you really wonder……
I mentioned early on about Nicholas & the twins and wanted to share what happened. When we started talking about a 2nd adoption we had asked Nicholas if he would like to have a brother or a sister……he of course responded eagerly “Yes”. So we started down the road of another adoption in January 2010 & during that time we would mention things to Nick about when he had a brother or sister and things like that….when we hit 2011 Dennis & I felt maybe another adoption might not happen since it seemed to be taking so so long. We decided to not refer to anything about the adoption to Nicholas since it might be unfair & confusing to him seeing that nothing serious was happening in all this time. Over the course of 2011 on random occasions Nicholas himself would bring it up and say things like when I have my brother & sister I’m going to do this or let’s save that for my brother & sister and I would always correct him and say it’s a brother or a sister not brother & sister…..Dennis & I thought it was odd and funny but again we were being very cautious about any talk of adoption. One day while I was doing a switch with Nicholas’ sneakers –I was explaining to Nicholas that he had a new pair as his feet had grown & his old pair would now be his play sneakers. He then asked what would happen to his old play sneakers & I responded I’d have to get rid of the old pair because they are now too small for him and without missing a beat Nicholas said we should save them for my brother & sister…….again I reminded him that it is his brother or sister not both…………………………………when we then received our referral for the twins , a boy & a girl……………………what??
Dennis & I often wonder about how, how did our little man know before we even knew about his brother & sister………when I think back on this it always makes my heart smile knowing that the plan was always in place for us to have our twins even if we didn't know it.
Thursday, December 29, 2011
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Day Two
So before I go into day two let me fill in a few details of our conversation with our Coordinator Tatiana on the car ride back to the hotel. Tatiana asks us if we were planning to go back to visit the twins the next day....my heart sank and Dennis replied of course......she must of sensed that Dennis & I were concerned about our first two visits and of course we were.....we were to say the least shocked and confused but not for one minute were we thinking we wouldn't move forward.....
We ate dinner with Tamra & Steve who had court the next day and then we headed to our room to get some much needed sleep......again Nicholas woke up to have snack in the middle of the night...... We needed to be downstairs to meet the group at 9:30 AM to go to the notary to sign papers that we were visiting the twins.....Dennis woke up first and it was still dark out and we still hadn't found our travel clock and didn't know what time it was. Dennis decided to head downstairs to get coffee. Nick & I were sleeping when Dennis burst into the room to announce it was 9:00.....WHAT !$%@@ we jumped up - now Nicholas is sleeping & I'm still half asleep and we needed to be downstairs in 30 minutes.....no shower for me - great!! Got Nick up and got him dressed...did the best I could with myself....Dennis decided the night before he needed to have a clean shaven face to help not scare the kids so Dennis is shaving/showering and basically we are scrambling to get ready - we hustle downstairs I grab as many cups of tea as I can drink in five minutes, offer Nick some quick food and milk and they come looking for us - we had to go.......what a great start to our morning.......we do the notary thing and discuss the plan for visiting with the children today. We agree that we will go to the kids normal room and observe them...sure why not however when we get to the room they actually have them in a broom like office next to the main room and as soon as they see me they cry & as soon as they see Dennis they scream. So I'm in this little room where Angelina is being forced to sit with me and Anthony is at a play table and once Angelina cries he cries....and any time Dennis peeks into the room and she makes eye contact she started screaming and then he would start screaming (Anthony that is!).....they ushered Nick in - God bless our little man - here he is not understanding a real word of what they are telling him to do in broken English - he looks to me for direction and follows along - they want him to sit with Anthony and try to play with him....Nick was happy playing with the toys - Anthony wanted no part of him and Angelina kept looking through the crack of the door to make certain Dennis was not peeking in - now she is just crying....doesn't want me holding her - they have 2 women in the room - one the normal caregiver and the other is the other coordinator since Tatiana is at court with Steve & Tamra.....everyone is trying something and Nick is going back & forth between us in the room and Dennis still outside in the main room where all the other little kids are playing but more so they are just trying to get a peek at Dennis - leaning over trying to see him - it was cute....this of course now really concerns Dennis because he can't understand why the twins are crying/screaming at the mere look of him yet the other kids are curious to see him? One little boy is inching his way over to Dennis and the coordinator sees this and brings the little fellow into the room with us to help play with Anthony in hopes that they will see him not crying and maybe the twins will follow suit.....yeah not happening.........again we did not have a good visit.
For the afternoon visit - mind you this will be our last visit with the kids, Dennis tells the coordinator that he wants to split them up - I stay with Angelina and he stays with Anthony...........this will be the plan of attack.
The second visit is underway & they take us up to the 3rd floor - the floor that is under renovations....we are put into a small office room where they bring Angelina to me - Nicholas is hanging as well playing with the Nook and I hear Anthony screaming - so I'm guessing he is with Dennis. Nick & I are attempting to feed sweet treats to Angelina - it's keeping her from crying anyway & Nick is moving back & forth between the room we are in and down the hallway which is where Dennis is with Anthony. The Coordinator is trying to snap pictures of us and anytime she opens the door and Angelina sees her she thinks it is her escape and cries - perfect photo opt time?? Anyway our visit is short. A few things I did discover...as I was holding Angelina at one point her hand fell onto my skin - not my shirt which is where she kept her hand when she wasn't reaching out to Nick for a treat...so she touches my skin and you would have thought I was fire - she became startled and moved it immediately - yeah no skin to skin contact going on here...........when Nick wasn't in the room I let her reach her hand into the bag of treats to take one - she would take as many as her little hand could hold and stuff them into her mouth....yep pretty sad. It was cute how Nicholas was trying to talk to her - I explained to him she doesn't understand English but he still tried to talk with her - he is a darling little boy. One other thing was at one point Angelina must have really had a enough of being in the room and realizing every time the door did open she wasn't being freed and she also at times does hear her brother crying.......towards the end of our visit she looked up at me with pleading eyes and was struggling to get a sound out of her mouth - it was heartbreaking to see her try so heard to say something...she managed to get out the word Momma as she reached and pointed to the door - in other words she wanted her caregiver..... I gently kissed her head and said your Momma is here you just don't know it yet....
Dennis filled me in on his visit with Anthony - basically they were in a hallway (plastic hanging over the door frames - white dust everywhere, sheetrock, tools - all good stuff for kids to be around). Anyway he said at one point he put Anthony down and Anthony was very gently taking the tiniest of baby steps along the wall inching away hoping that Dennis wasn't noticing his plan which was to get away from him without Dennis noticing his attempt to escape......Dennis said it was quite funny and that for the most part he had plenty of crying going on..........
We said our goodbyes knowing we won't see them again until court....they also said they may request we come in a few days before to get in some more visits with the children before court..........we expect court to be around April/May based on the other couples timeline but are hoping and praying maybe March.............if that is a possibility it is a goal we will work towards.
We go back to the hotel, pack up and meet downstairs at 8:00 PM to make the 9:00 PM train back to Moscow.................we are heading home.
The train ride overnight brings to Moscow at 6:00 AM. The train ride is a bit better - we sleep and then hustle off to find out that my request to go shopping isn't going to work out since they had no one who could stay with us for the day - they will drop us at the airport. Mind you we get to the airport @ 7:30 AM and our flight is not boarding until 3:30.
Once again Nicholas was truly amazing - he had the company of Steve & Tamra who were also flying home after a successful court day - so they entertained each other for awhile and then we went for lunch at TGIF - where Dennis was convinced the waitress was flirting with him big time!!
The flight home was better - we had on board movies & games for Nick and although he did have a few minor meltdowns & he did sleep a bit - this was nighttime for him in one of the times zones & yet he did amazing. While waiting to get off the plane after 10 hours of flying people turned around to tell us how amazing our son was during the entire flight - I interjected to let them know yes considering before the plane trip we had a 10 hour train ride and then sat in the airport for 8 hours and then we did the 10 hour flight home - yes he did AMAZING!!!
We arrived to rain which means delays in getting a yellow taxi - something Nicholas was so looking forward to since the beginning of the trip...meanwhile this is a replay day for us - we left Moscow on Wednesday and arrived in NY on Wednesday evening during rush hour with rain - can't get any better then this!!
While taking the taxi to my MIL - which is normally a 15-20 minute ride & is now taking over an hour I start feeling car sick......just as we arrive to my MIL's house Nicholas had dozed off so I pick him up & carry him inside where my MIL points our he is as white as a ghost - I put him down and he starts telling me his stomach is rumbling - so yes he must have been getting carsick as well but he ate some soup and he was fine - I was feeling better to.
My MIL cannot wait to hear what happened so I ask Nicholas to tell her about the trip and who we met - he simply says he met the pink baby and the blue baby...I asked him if he could tell grandma one thing about the babies what would it be? Again he simply says that they cry ALOT!!!
Next Nicholas & the twins......................
We ate dinner with Tamra & Steve who had court the next day and then we headed to our room to get some much needed sleep......again Nicholas woke up to have snack in the middle of the night...... We needed to be downstairs to meet the group at 9:30 AM to go to the notary to sign papers that we were visiting the twins.....Dennis woke up first and it was still dark out and we still hadn't found our travel clock and didn't know what time it was. Dennis decided to head downstairs to get coffee. Nick & I were sleeping when Dennis burst into the room to announce it was 9:00.....WHAT !$%@@ we jumped up - now Nicholas is sleeping & I'm still half asleep and we needed to be downstairs in 30 minutes.....no shower for me - great!! Got Nick up and got him dressed...did the best I could with myself....Dennis decided the night before he needed to have a clean shaven face to help not scare the kids so Dennis is shaving/showering and basically we are scrambling to get ready - we hustle downstairs I grab as many cups of tea as I can drink in five minutes, offer Nick some quick food and milk and they come looking for us - we had to go.......what a great start to our morning.......we do the notary thing and discuss the plan for visiting with the children today. We agree that we will go to the kids normal room and observe them...sure why not however when we get to the room they actually have them in a broom like office next to the main room and as soon as they see me they cry & as soon as they see Dennis they scream. So I'm in this little room where Angelina is being forced to sit with me and Anthony is at a play table and once Angelina cries he cries....and any time Dennis peeks into the room and she makes eye contact she started screaming and then he would start screaming (Anthony that is!).....they ushered Nick in - God bless our little man - here he is not understanding a real word of what they are telling him to do in broken English - he looks to me for direction and follows along - they want him to sit with Anthony and try to play with him....Nick was happy playing with the toys - Anthony wanted no part of him and Angelina kept looking through the crack of the door to make certain Dennis was not peeking in - now she is just crying....doesn't want me holding her - they have 2 women in the room - one the normal caregiver and the other is the other coordinator since Tatiana is at court with Steve & Tamra.....everyone is trying something and Nick is going back & forth between us in the room and Dennis still outside in the main room where all the other little kids are playing but more so they are just trying to get a peek at Dennis - leaning over trying to see him - it was cute....this of course now really concerns Dennis because he can't understand why the twins are crying/screaming at the mere look of him yet the other kids are curious to see him? One little boy is inching his way over to Dennis and the coordinator sees this and brings the little fellow into the room with us to help play with Anthony in hopes that they will see him not crying and maybe the twins will follow suit.....yeah not happening.........again we did not have a good visit.
For the afternoon visit - mind you this will be our last visit with the kids, Dennis tells the coordinator that he wants to split them up - I stay with Angelina and he stays with Anthony...........this will be the plan of attack.
The second visit is underway & they take us up to the 3rd floor - the floor that is under renovations....we are put into a small office room where they bring Angelina to me - Nicholas is hanging as well playing with the Nook and I hear Anthony screaming - so I'm guessing he is with Dennis. Nick & I are attempting to feed sweet treats to Angelina - it's keeping her from crying anyway & Nick is moving back & forth between the room we are in and down the hallway which is where Dennis is with Anthony. The Coordinator is trying to snap pictures of us and anytime she opens the door and Angelina sees her she thinks it is her escape and cries - perfect photo opt time?? Anyway our visit is short. A few things I did discover...as I was holding Angelina at one point her hand fell onto my skin - not my shirt which is where she kept her hand when she wasn't reaching out to Nick for a treat...so she touches my skin and you would have thought I was fire - she became startled and moved it immediately - yeah no skin to skin contact going on here...........when Nick wasn't in the room I let her reach her hand into the bag of treats to take one - she would take as many as her little hand could hold and stuff them into her mouth....yep pretty sad. It was cute how Nicholas was trying to talk to her - I explained to him she doesn't understand English but he still tried to talk with her - he is a darling little boy. One other thing was at one point Angelina must have really had a enough of being in the room and realizing every time the door did open she wasn't being freed and she also at times does hear her brother crying.......towards the end of our visit she looked up at me with pleading eyes and was struggling to get a sound out of her mouth - it was heartbreaking to see her try so heard to say something...she managed to get out the word Momma as she reached and pointed to the door - in other words she wanted her caregiver..... I gently kissed her head and said your Momma is here you just don't know it yet....
Dennis filled me in on his visit with Anthony - basically they were in a hallway (plastic hanging over the door frames - white dust everywhere, sheetrock, tools - all good stuff for kids to be around). Anyway he said at one point he put Anthony down and Anthony was very gently taking the tiniest of baby steps along the wall inching away hoping that Dennis wasn't noticing his plan which was to get away from him without Dennis noticing his attempt to escape......Dennis said it was quite funny and that for the most part he had plenty of crying going on..........
We said our goodbyes knowing we won't see them again until court....they also said they may request we come in a few days before to get in some more visits with the children before court..........we expect court to be around April/May based on the other couples timeline but are hoping and praying maybe March.............if that is a possibility it is a goal we will work towards.
We go back to the hotel, pack up and meet downstairs at 8:00 PM to make the 9:00 PM train back to Moscow.................we are heading home.
The train ride overnight brings to Moscow at 6:00 AM. The train ride is a bit better - we sleep and then hustle off to find out that my request to go shopping isn't going to work out since they had no one who could stay with us for the day - they will drop us at the airport. Mind you we get to the airport @ 7:30 AM and our flight is not boarding until 3:30.
Once again Nicholas was truly amazing - he had the company of Steve & Tamra who were also flying home after a successful court day - so they entertained each other for awhile and then we went for lunch at TGIF - where Dennis was convinced the waitress was flirting with him big time!!
The flight home was better - we had on board movies & games for Nick and although he did have a few minor meltdowns & he did sleep a bit - this was nighttime for him in one of the times zones & yet he did amazing. While waiting to get off the plane after 10 hours of flying people turned around to tell us how amazing our son was during the entire flight - I interjected to let them know yes considering before the plane trip we had a 10 hour train ride and then sat in the airport for 8 hours and then we did the 10 hour flight home - yes he did AMAZING!!!
We arrived to rain which means delays in getting a yellow taxi - something Nicholas was so looking forward to since the beginning of the trip...meanwhile this is a replay day for us - we left Moscow on Wednesday and arrived in NY on Wednesday evening during rush hour with rain - can't get any better then this!!
While taking the taxi to my MIL - which is normally a 15-20 minute ride & is now taking over an hour I start feeling car sick......just as we arrive to my MIL's house Nicholas had dozed off so I pick him up & carry him inside where my MIL points our he is as white as a ghost - I put him down and he starts telling me his stomach is rumbling - so yes he must have been getting carsick as well but he ate some soup and he was fine - I was feeling better to.
My MIL cannot wait to hear what happened so I ask Nicholas to tell her about the trip and who we met - he simply says he met the pink baby and the blue baby...I asked him if he could tell grandma one thing about the babies what would it be? Again he simply says that they cry ALOT!!!
Next Nicholas & the twins......................
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
So a little about our first trip
Let me tell you a little about or first trip to meet our children.
First the travel - we left on Saturday on a 7:00 pm flight to Moscow. Not so bad - Nicholas laid out across the seats and slept pretty well - Dennis & I did not - so now we fly for 9 hours and arrive in Moscow at 1:00 Sunday afternoon. Nicholas is feeling pretty good - Dennis & I not so much b/c now we have been up for over 24 hours. We are met at the airport and need to decide what to do before our 10:00 PM train ride. Option A - sit in the lobby of a Marriot hotel - no not really. Option B see what renting a room at the train station is all about - apparently they never offered this option up to visitors so they didn't really know what that was all about but they didn't want us just hanging at the train station either & neither did we.
We arrive at the train station and after much heated Russian discussion between our driver and the woman behind the glass we finally get our room -simply 2 twin beds and a window (but free WI-FI - who would have thunk!!). Anyway we had stopped at a market to pick up some food - and this was taxing - don't forget we had no sleep so I'm really tired and not in the mood to walk around a Russian supermarket.
We had about 4 hours to waste and we couldn't sleep since we really didn't think we would wake up - so we sat - Nick watched DVD's and I had my Nook (love the Nook).
The train station was something right out of the movies - all the sights we saw were really just like out of the movies - dark, cold, depressing, dreary - so surreal. The train station which is a hub to about 9 regions in Russia literally stood still in time. The overhead lights were light bulbs hanging across what looked like extension cord power lines - it is so hard to describe - it was so much like the movies. The train station was full of people coming and going - thank goodness for that window view we had.
View at train station
Hanging
At 8:30 we needed to wait inside the train depot for our coordinator who we didn't know what she looked like but not to worry she had many pictures of us so finally she walks up to us and we are feeling much better! Nick is having a blast running around with Dennis keeping up with him!! We then needed to wait for the doctor we hired to come with us to examine the twins - she apparently was already waiting out by the trains. Now let me start by saying the train ride is an overnight train and we had to get a 4 person sleeper car since Nicholas was with us. You would not believe the train sleeper cars. What an adventure we were on.........
Train sleeper car
Train walkway
We slept some - Dennis & I - how could we not - we were exhausted - Nick slept good but now we are in a different time zone so about 3:00 AM Russian time Nick woke up and announced he was hungry - no worries I packed snacks for such an occasion - so we all had snack time & he fell fast asleep - Dennis & I did not!! One thing we were told is they knock on the door to wake you up about 45 minutes before the train hits the station and when it arrives they want you off - immediatly - and trust when I say you'd better listen - Russians are very serious people - meanwhile Dennis & I are just exhausted!! So the doctor passes our car at wake up time and we ask if she can help get us coffee & tea and - no one speaks English so she does and we are feeling better (ok we are feeling awake!). We pull in and hustle off the train to find out we had 45 minutes when we arrive to our hotel to either eat breakfast - which is what the others were doing.....Dennis & I and Nicholas have now travelled well over 2 days with no showers so we needed to at least freshen up before we meet the twins. Talk about rushing to get ready....shower, shower & shower and dress dress dress - forget about breakfast!
We arrive to the baby house - it is snowing & cold - not freezing cold like I anticipated but cold none the less. The baby house is buried deep in the back of a small untraveled road - deep deep in - I want to say like an old warehouse but refuse to think that since this is where about 70 orphans live and they only know this place to be home!! Quite sad yet very much set up like the baby house in Kaz - as far as the building goes.
Heading into the orphanage
We meet with the Director and they immediatly bring in the orphanage doctor to go over the medicals with our hired doctor - meanwhile we are sitting thinking come on already we want to meet the twins. By the way - thank goodness for my Nook this is what Nicholas had to entertain himself. THANK YOU DENNIS FOR INSISTING WE TAKE THE NOOK LOADED WITH GAME APPS FOR NICHOLAS!!! Imagine Nicholas sitting and not understanding anything that was going on - at this point he still doesn't know what we are doing here or why we have taken a plane & train ride yet. We listen to the rundown of the medicals for what seemed like hours -probably more like an hour and then they bring us to a "playroom" to wait. Again thank goodness we have the Nook!!
They finally bring in the twins - first let me note that they have changed from the pictures in our referral - the tiny girl was much bigger now and the little boy seemed about the same. Anyway when the kids seen us they SCREAMED - and I mean screamed in terror. Dennis & I will never ever forget the look of pure terror on these two babies faces. Now mind you Nicholas is taking this all in and Dennis & are in shock. Let me explain that with Nicholas we did not experience this at all - so we were thrown off by the reaction - and when I say reaction I mean screaming & crying and nothing or no one could console them. They decided to take the little boy out of the room b/c they felt that once she cried he then cried and visa versa.....it was incredibly unnerving for both Dennis & I.
First visit with the twins
Pretty much the visit was over and Dennis & I are unsettled & really concerned about our first visit. You see with Nicholas we did not encounter any of this - yes he was afraid but came to us easily and settled into playing with us pretty easily. We had 14 days with him one on one......here we have 2 days - 4 visits.
Back to the hotel to get some food and collect our thoughts...now let me explain Dennis was pretty adamant that we not drag my laptop - why he exclaimed, we have the cameras, the DVD player & the NOOK and your blackberry.......it is then I realized by blackberry was not working - not sure why since I work in the International Dept of my company....and no one within my company knew I was out of the country which meant I was still overseeing my work flow...........I was upset and concerned & now another thing to worry about!@#@!
View outside our hotel room
The afternoon visit was again filled with screaming crying babies who could not be consoled by anyone as long as we were in the room...they had recommended bringing sweets - I only brought toys (silly me!) but the doctor who was still with us was great and brought candies to the second visit - it helped but it was still not good. Everyone was trying everything to help them settle but nothing seemed to work. The doctor was impressed with the children and said they are just terribly freightened since they had never been out of the orphanage and most certainly never see men.........we left to go back to our hotel & regroup & sleep.
Dennis & slept for a bit, in our room we have three single beds - just like the Three little bears as we told Nicholas - Nicholas slept in the middle bed and settled in easily....Dennis & I woke up at midnight & were sitting talking it is hard for us to get in a real conversation with Nicholas being with us so we were chatting about the day when up pops Nicholas, yep about 3 AM declaring it's snack time.......we had snack and all went to bed..........
Day two next.
First the travel - we left on Saturday on a 7:00 pm flight to Moscow. Not so bad - Nicholas laid out across the seats and slept pretty well - Dennis & I did not - so now we fly for 9 hours and arrive in Moscow at 1:00 Sunday afternoon. Nicholas is feeling pretty good - Dennis & I not so much b/c now we have been up for over 24 hours. We are met at the airport and need to decide what to do before our 10:00 PM train ride. Option A - sit in the lobby of a Marriot hotel - no not really. Option B see what renting a room at the train station is all about - apparently they never offered this option up to visitors so they didn't really know what that was all about but they didn't want us just hanging at the train station either & neither did we.
We arrive at the train station and after much heated Russian discussion between our driver and the woman behind the glass we finally get our room -simply 2 twin beds and a window (but free WI-FI - who would have thunk!!). Anyway we had stopped at a market to pick up some food - and this was taxing - don't forget we had no sleep so I'm really tired and not in the mood to walk around a Russian supermarket.
We had about 4 hours to waste and we couldn't sleep since we really didn't think we would wake up - so we sat - Nick watched DVD's and I had my Nook (love the Nook).
The train station was something right out of the movies - all the sights we saw were really just like out of the movies - dark, cold, depressing, dreary - so surreal. The train station which is a hub to about 9 regions in Russia literally stood still in time. The overhead lights were light bulbs hanging across what looked like extension cord power lines - it is so hard to describe - it was so much like the movies. The train station was full of people coming and going - thank goodness for that window view we had.
View at train station
Hanging
At 8:30 we needed to wait inside the train depot for our coordinator who we didn't know what she looked like but not to worry she had many pictures of us so finally she walks up to us and we are feeling much better! Nick is having a blast running around with Dennis keeping up with him!! We then needed to wait for the doctor we hired to come with us to examine the twins - she apparently was already waiting out by the trains. Now let me start by saying the train ride is an overnight train and we had to get a 4 person sleeper car since Nicholas was with us. You would not believe the train sleeper cars. What an adventure we were on.........
Train sleeper car
Train walkway
We slept some - Dennis & I - how could we not - we were exhausted - Nick slept good but now we are in a different time zone so about 3:00 AM Russian time Nick woke up and announced he was hungry - no worries I packed snacks for such an occasion - so we all had snack time & he fell fast asleep - Dennis & I did not!! One thing we were told is they knock on the door to wake you up about 45 minutes before the train hits the station and when it arrives they want you off - immediatly - and trust when I say you'd better listen - Russians are very serious people - meanwhile Dennis & I are just exhausted!! So the doctor passes our car at wake up time and we ask if she can help get us coffee & tea and - no one speaks English so she does and we are feeling better (ok we are feeling awake!). We pull in and hustle off the train to find out we had 45 minutes when we arrive to our hotel to either eat breakfast - which is what the others were doing.....Dennis & I and Nicholas have now travelled well over 2 days with no showers so we needed to at least freshen up before we meet the twins. Talk about rushing to get ready....shower, shower & shower and dress dress dress - forget about breakfast!
We arrive to the baby house - it is snowing & cold - not freezing cold like I anticipated but cold none the less. The baby house is buried deep in the back of a small untraveled road - deep deep in - I want to say like an old warehouse but refuse to think that since this is where about 70 orphans live and they only know this place to be home!! Quite sad yet very much set up like the baby house in Kaz - as far as the building goes.
Heading into the orphanage
We meet with the Director and they immediatly bring in the orphanage doctor to go over the medicals with our hired doctor - meanwhile we are sitting thinking come on already we want to meet the twins. By the way - thank goodness for my Nook this is what Nicholas had to entertain himself. THANK YOU DENNIS FOR INSISTING WE TAKE THE NOOK LOADED WITH GAME APPS FOR NICHOLAS!!! Imagine Nicholas sitting and not understanding anything that was going on - at this point he still doesn't know what we are doing here or why we have taken a plane & train ride yet. We listen to the rundown of the medicals for what seemed like hours -probably more like an hour and then they bring us to a "playroom" to wait. Again thank goodness we have the Nook!!
They finally bring in the twins - first let me note that they have changed from the pictures in our referral - the tiny girl was much bigger now and the little boy seemed about the same. Anyway when the kids seen us they SCREAMED - and I mean screamed in terror. Dennis & I will never ever forget the look of pure terror on these two babies faces. Now mind you Nicholas is taking this all in and Dennis & are in shock. Let me explain that with Nicholas we did not experience this at all - so we were thrown off by the reaction - and when I say reaction I mean screaming & crying and nothing or no one could console them. They decided to take the little boy out of the room b/c they felt that once she cried he then cried and visa versa.....it was incredibly unnerving for both Dennis & I.
First visit with the twins
Pretty much the visit was over and Dennis & I are unsettled & really concerned about our first visit. You see with Nicholas we did not encounter any of this - yes he was afraid but came to us easily and settled into playing with us pretty easily. We had 14 days with him one on one......here we have 2 days - 4 visits.
Back to the hotel to get some food and collect our thoughts...now let me explain Dennis was pretty adamant that we not drag my laptop - why he exclaimed, we have the cameras, the DVD player & the NOOK and your blackberry.......it is then I realized by blackberry was not working - not sure why since I work in the International Dept of my company....and no one within my company knew I was out of the country which meant I was still overseeing my work flow...........I was upset and concerned & now another thing to worry about!@#@!
View outside our hotel room
The afternoon visit was again filled with screaming crying babies who could not be consoled by anyone as long as we were in the room...they had recommended bringing sweets - I only brought toys (silly me!) but the doctor who was still with us was great and brought candies to the second visit - it helped but it was still not good. Everyone was trying everything to help them settle but nothing seemed to work. The doctor was impressed with the children and said they are just terribly freightened since they had never been out of the orphanage and most certainly never see men.........we left to go back to our hotel & regroup & sleep.
Dennis & slept for a bit, in our room we have three single beds - just like the Three little bears as we told Nicholas - Nicholas slept in the middle bed and settled in easily....Dennis & I woke up at midnight & were sitting talking it is hard for us to get in a real conversation with Nicholas being with us so we were chatting about the day when up pops Nicholas, yep about 3 AM declaring it's snack time.......we had snack and all went to bed..........
Day two next.
Saturday, November 19, 2011
Introducing
For the very first time.................
Our children
Angelina Capri & Anthony Christopher
Due to the pure CrAzInEsS of this trip we do not have many photographs at all................basically we had 4 visits in total over two days so that left very little quality photography time with the twins.
Angelina & Anthony are 2 years old and were born on September 9, 2009.
Dennis & Darlene
Our children
Angelina Capri & Anthony Christopher
Due to the pure CrAzInEsS of this trip we do not have many photographs at all................basically we had 4 visits in total over two days so that left very little quality photography time with the twins.
Angelina & Anthony are 2 years old and were born on September 9, 2009.
Dennis & Darlene
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Back from Russia
Yes we are back since last night.......
Dennis and I and big brother Nicholas traveled to Russia on a whirlwind trip and are very happy to annouce that we have met the newest additions to our family..................
TWINS!!!
Yes twins.......... they are two very cute two year old boy & girl!!!!!
This was such a whirlwind of activity and so much going on and so much to tell but due to the fact we are both mentally & physically exahusted I don't have the brain function to get to more then yes we have TWINS!!!!!!
We are so so blessed and of course still in shock but we are so thankful & grateful and thrilled to have met our children.
The process with Russia is a very long one so we don't expect to be travelling again until sometime hopefully in the Springtime - April or May for court and then a few weeks after court we will travel again to get all the paperwork completed and bring them home.
It's all good and we are so blessed.
I will update again when my brain can process all my thoughts and I can write in more detail about our experiences and our trip.
Thank you for your love,
Darlene, Dennis & big brother Nicholas
Dennis and I and big brother Nicholas traveled to Russia on a whirlwind trip and are very happy to annouce that we have met the newest additions to our family..................
TWINS!!!
Yes twins.......... they are two very cute two year old boy & girl!!!!!
This was such a whirlwind of activity and so much going on and so much to tell but due to the fact we are both mentally & physically exahusted I don't have the brain function to get to more then yes we have TWINS!!!!!!
We are so so blessed and of course still in shock but we are so thankful & grateful and thrilled to have met our children.
The process with Russia is a very long one so we don't expect to be travelling again until sometime hopefully in the Springtime - April or May for court and then a few weeks after court we will travel again to get all the paperwork completed and bring them home.
It's all good and we are so blessed.
I will update again when my brain can process all my thoughts and I can write in more detail about our experiences and our trip.
Thank you for your love,
Darlene, Dennis & big brother Nicholas
Sunday, November 13, 2011
We arrived
We are in Russia......we left NY at 7 PM on Saturday and Nick was the lucky one to actually sleep for a good portion of the flight...Dennis and I not so much.
We were met at the airport and headed to the market to pick up some food to bring to tne train station were we rented what I would call a hostel 2 beds a table and nothing else but we really needed a place to crash until our train at 10:00 tonight - we got here around 4 (7:00 am to us!)
So we are sitting here wiped out afraid to sleep that we wont wake up and praying we sleep on the overnight train tonight.
So tomorrow is the magic moment and we are very excited and of course nervous!!!
Nick really is doing super very well behaved and a trooper and still doesn't know why we are here!! He is just a wonderful child and we are so blessed!
We have wifi here and I'm using my nook and hoping we are as lucky tomorrow at the hotel
We are here and its all good.
Darlene
We were met at the airport and headed to the market to pick up some food to bring to tne train station were we rented what I would call a hostel 2 beds a table and nothing else but we really needed a place to crash until our train at 10:00 tonight - we got here around 4 (7:00 am to us!)
So we are sitting here wiped out afraid to sleep that we wont wake up and praying we sleep on the overnight train tonight.
So tomorrow is the magic moment and we are very excited and of course nervous!!!
Nick really is doing super very well behaved and a trooper and still doesn't know why we are here!! He is just a wonderful child and we are so blessed!
We have wifi here and I'm using my nook and hoping we are as lucky tomorrow at the hotel
We are here and its all good.
Darlene
Friday, November 11, 2011
Start to our journey........
Well I began this blog when we made our decision to take another journey to add to our family......that was almost two years ago so let me start with telling that we have been registered in the Tambov Region of Russia since last fall.
We since had to re-do our dossier....oh what fun........you lose the drive and your pep after the first round and then it just seems so burdensome - I mean come on already........... with our adoption in Kaz it lasted 10 months start to finish & here we are going on two years and updating our dossier when it seemed like another adoption would never happen.
In the meantime I was my usual self finding out whatever I could and amazingly in my search I came across another blog in the same region as us that was also using the same agency as us. I was able to follow along on their long, long journey and it has been helpful. The funny part of the story is that our agency decided to connect us so that the other couple who were in process could could shed some insight on things for us. Little did they know that I had already reached out to Tamra and we had already been in touch..........we thought this to be quite funny!!
Steve & Tamra are in the midst of adopting a precious little girl named Oleysa and they are over the moon excited and anxious but the long, long wait in between meeting their daughter and court has been agonizing to say the least. Right now they are at the 5 month mark and were waiting and waiting to find out when they would have a court date.
Dennis & I received our referral on October 21st and please understand why I will not go into details just yet....as you know anything & everything can change in an instant in the world of international adoption so we are navigating cautiously until we know more.
Shortly after we received word on our referral Tamra & Steve received their court date and as the fates will have it we will be in Russia at the same time.
So we leave for Russia on Saturday November 12th & arrive in Moscow early Sunday afternoon. Sunday night around 9:00 we board a train for a 9 hour overnight trip to the region of Tambov. Nicholas is coming with us as I feel he is part of our family and we want to include him in our journey to add to our family.
As far as Nicholas goes, when we started this process we of course talked to Nicholas about having a brother or sister and he was very excited..... after a year passed and nothing was happening we decided to just not bring it up any longer since it seemed to be unfair for him not understanding this very long process. So we haven't mentioned anything to him ourselves although Nicholas has at certain times mentioned it and if he was asked about having a brother or sister by others he will simply reply not yet......more on this later.
Although our agency was supportive of our desire to have Nicholas be part of the process when we started communicating with our incountry coordinator and reminding her that Nicholas was coming along for the ride she was not as supportive...I just ignored her input and continued pressing on knowing that our stance with Nicholas coming with us was not changing. Now the hard part... we have not told Nicholas any thing about our trip yet.....we are planning to say we are taking a family trip with long airplane rides and train rides and that we are just going to be travelling for a long trip...............haah nice and easy...........the hard part will be that we prefer to meet our referral first before Nicholas - meaning keep him out of the room for a short period of time...10 minutes or so to make certain everything is in order and then bring Nicholas in to meet.....................this shoud be fun!!!
We since had to re-do our dossier....oh what fun........you lose the drive and your pep after the first round and then it just seems so burdensome - I mean come on already........... with our adoption in Kaz it lasted 10 months start to finish & here we are going on two years and updating our dossier when it seemed like another adoption would never happen.
In the meantime I was my usual self finding out whatever I could and amazingly in my search I came across another blog in the same region as us that was also using the same agency as us. I was able to follow along on their long, long journey and it has been helpful. The funny part of the story is that our agency decided to connect us so that the other couple who were in process could could shed some insight on things for us. Little did they know that I had already reached out to Tamra and we had already been in touch..........we thought this to be quite funny!!
Steve & Tamra are in the midst of adopting a precious little girl named Oleysa and they are over the moon excited and anxious but the long, long wait in between meeting their daughter and court has been agonizing to say the least. Right now they are at the 5 month mark and were waiting and waiting to find out when they would have a court date.
Dennis & I received our referral on October 21st and please understand why I will not go into details just yet....as you know anything & everything can change in an instant in the world of international adoption so we are navigating cautiously until we know more.
Shortly after we received word on our referral Tamra & Steve received their court date and as the fates will have it we will be in Russia at the same time.
So we leave for Russia on Saturday November 12th & arrive in Moscow early Sunday afternoon. Sunday night around 9:00 we board a train for a 9 hour overnight trip to the region of Tambov. Nicholas is coming with us as I feel he is part of our family and we want to include him in our journey to add to our family.
As far as Nicholas goes, when we started this process we of course talked to Nicholas about having a brother or sister and he was very excited..... after a year passed and nothing was happening we decided to just not bring it up any longer since it seemed to be unfair for him not understanding this very long process. So we haven't mentioned anything to him ourselves although Nicholas has at certain times mentioned it and if he was asked about having a brother or sister by others he will simply reply not yet......more on this later.
Although our agency was supportive of our desire to have Nicholas be part of the process when we started communicating with our incountry coordinator and reminding her that Nicholas was coming along for the ride she was not as supportive...I just ignored her input and continued pressing on knowing that our stance with Nicholas coming with us was not changing. Now the hard part... we have not told Nicholas any thing about our trip yet.....we are planning to say we are taking a family trip with long airplane rides and train rides and that we are just going to be travelling for a long trip...............haah nice and easy...........the hard part will be that we prefer to meet our referral first before Nicholas - meaning keep him out of the room for a short period of time...10 minutes or so to make certain everything is in order and then bring Nicholas in to meet.....................this shoud be fun!!!
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