D-Day

Jet lag got us really good today. We were scheduled to leave for Ust today at 7:25AM with a 5:00AM pickup. There were no worries of us oversleeping our alarm as I did not sleep more than an hour the entire night. Terri was only able to get slightly more sleep than I was able to get, so we found ourselves getting up at 3:30AM with plenty of time to get ready and pack our bags. We caught our flight, in the front row for the first time ever. Of course it was a bit unnerving watching the propellers start up at a billion revolutions a minute right next to your head. The flight was uneventful, which is what you always hope for isn’t it?

When we arrived in the terminal there stood our trusty sidekicks, Anya and Bulat. Anya came back from Russia to be here for when we finished our journey. When we got into the car Anya informed us the paperwork was in order and we could take custody of the children—today. We had a slight chuckle of people who had not had any sleep for sometime and then had the realization that this was it, the boys were truly going to be ours. It then dawned upon us we needed to shop for food for the boy’s with no clue what their diet really consisted of. We tried to cover all the bases and realized there just may be some trial and error here. During our whirlwind in the supermarket we picked up what we thought were jumbo rolls of toilet paper to only realize while checking out that it was actually four massive rolls of paper towels. This would be fortuitous later (heavy foreshadowing here). After we hit our trusty Daniel supermarket we had the opportunity to get in a couple of hours nap before heading to the baby house.

I had to laugh at Bulat when they came to pick us up to take us to the baby house. One of the gifts we brought back for him was one of the oval car stickers like the KZ ones we got on our last trip, but we got him the TX sticker. He already had it on his car when they came back. Anya was concerned that Bulat would get in trouble for having it on his car to which he replied that if he got pulled over he would tell them that it meant he was a taxi driver. He really cracks me up. When we went to the baby house we went to see Liam first. We could not fully figure out if he remembered us but it did look like he had recognition. What was really funny was that while they were changing Liam the caregivers showed him the book we left behind and he just beamed with a smile—all the while we were standing in front of him not knowing what he thought. Terri joked that he liked the book better than the movie. Speaking of changing, when you pick up children at the orphanage you are just getting a butt naked child, none of their fancy outfits come as standard equipment. So when we got there, we watched Liam get decked out in clothing that matched and coordinated with accessories—probably for the first time in his life. No wonder he seemed happy. We dropped off a jumbo box of the larger sized LEGO blocks for Liam’s group for the rest of the children to enjoy. After Liam had his goodbyes and picture taken with the caregivers we headed up to see Aidan. This would be the test.

When we got there we heard that Aidan had really missed us a lot more than we were led to believe. He did not look overly happy when we got there and when Terri bent down to hug him he ran of to an opposite corner of the room. Nice start. While he was being changed he kept a furrowed brow and occasionally closed his eyes really tight in an effort to will the situation away. He perked up a bit when the camera came out for pictures with his caretakers—let’s face it, he is such a ham. When Terri went to pick him up to leave he made sure to not really put much effort into it. We also left two big boxes of LEGO blocks for Aidan’s group. I felt sad as we left seeing all the other children who did not have homes. Terri was sad taking the boys away from all the people and love and care they had ever known. We know they will have wonderful lives but know that at first it will be scary for them.

When we went out to the car you could tell Aidan was very nervous but he did not go into a screaming panic. Liam’s eyes just got incredibly wide and inquisitive as we started to drive off. Liam was just taking in all the sights as we headed back to our apartment (we are on a different side of town now, but we have a child’s room), while Aidan stayed nervous and withdrawn. When we got to the apartment you could see Aidan’s mood start to thaw when we brought out some of his familiar toys. He started to at least interact with us, and soon his loyalty was completely our when Terri brought out some banana yogurt. He went right to Terri’s lap and it was like we never left. Liam also got into the yogurt action for the first time as well (almost devouring the spoon). Liam was just an incredibly happy baby the entire evening. He is getting really good at pulling himself up now and we helped him walk around, which he really loves. Aidan really started to warm up once it was just the four of us. We played on the floor and he would run up and hug us while playing. I had stepped out of the room at one point and Terri said he pointed in my direction and said “dada”. Liam loved being up close to us all evening and I even caught him looking through a golf magazine I had taken on the plane with me. I told him I would take him to be fitted for clubs as soon as he wanted. Liam was amusing when he saw his reflection in a floor length mirror. He would smile and crawl up to the mirror and bump his head with mirror Liam. He would put his mouth on the mirror and leave a fogged up spot, again he was just great and funny.

 

Terri prepared dinner as I introduced the boy’s to their first DVD, an Elmo alphabet show. Yes, I know—don’t think the irony is lost on me as I have gone from watching all seasons of 24 to watching Elmo. The boy’s were mesmerized, which was good because the dish in which Terri was making dinner exploded on the stove top basically forcing us to rethink dinner (Terri says the lesson learned is that not all glassware is Pyrex). Fortunately, Terri was not hurt and the kid’s remained fixated. We ended up having a mix of breads, cheeses and vegetables that ended up a good substitute. The boys are little food hoarders, shoving as much food in before chewing and trying to collect as much food as possible as their very own. After dinner I had a battle of wills with Aidan when it came to keeping him on his garshock (toilet). A couple of times I had to forcefully put him back down until he did his business. By the time Aidan had finished up, Liam had already fallen asleep and Terri laid him on our bed. I took Aidan to the kid’s bedroom and tried to get him to turn in. He was tired but the whole experience had him fighting sleep. I stayed with him a while and I think at this time he really understood it all, because he just smiled and looked at me for approval and I could tell he understood what being a family meant. Still, the little stinker wouldn’t go to sleep! Finally, I brought him back into the living room for a while until he fell asleep.

So how did D-Day go? We were incredibly nervous in the beginning and were a bit worried by Aidan’s initial reaction. But considering how their lives were completely uprooted this afternoon, it went REMARKABLY well… and the parent’s survived too.