September 28, 2012
Wow, what a day we have had. In the midst of a lot of boring paperwork, and driving around for hours and hours, we have had a wonderful day! We got to bring V. home for the weekend! Home away from home, that is!:) Let the fun begin!!!
We started our day on our way to the regional investigator and V.’s orphanage, lurching and lunging through Kiev rush hour - YIKES! It’s a scary adventure, to say the least. Many gasps were heard from our back seats!:) We were on our way to CPS (which may mean Child Protective Services??? Not sure. ) . We went to that office and picked up the “Investigator” (what they actually called herJ ) and took her with us to the orphanage to meet with the director and V. The meeting occurred with the Investigator, Orphanage Director and her assistant, our facilitator, us and V. The investigator asked V. several questions such as whether he knew us, whether he wanted to live with us, whether he wanted to live in America. He said yes to all, and had to put it in writing for the officials. With a little help, he mastered their document. Miraculously, we were able to bring him home with us for the weekend!!! He is sitting here beside me as I type, drawing on his new little dry erase board I bought for him! Ahhh….love, peace and joy goin’ on here!:)
Anyway, after we both heard the news that he was going to get to come home with us, he ran back up to pack. After quite a while, he came out with his backpack and we took our second family photo in the beautiful courtyard of the orphanage. After visiting Russia when I was 15, I expected drab and grey here, but there are flowers everywhere!!! Oh, and the weather is PICTURE PERFECT- in the 70’s or so.
We piled into Roman’s van and drove back to drop off the Investigator then to find a notary. Poor J. & P. must have had a different Investigator, as we were prepared for her to be old and CRANKY, but ours was young, sweet and even smiled a few times!:)
We struck out at the first notary- 50 people in line! So we decided to take our business to one closer to home. We were able to find one on the same block where we are staying and walk home from there. In the van waiting for our Facilitator to prepare the way for us to notarize documents, V. leaned over on me and said, “I love you.” Wow…so blessed.
Next, he noticed that I was lagging behind the group as we started to walk toward home (I had a handful of trash I was going to add to the nearby dumpster) V. looked back to find me, stopped and waited for me, then put his arm in mine and said, “I love you, Mom” Wow again. Blown away by this sweet boy!
When we returned to our Host home, we ate a lunch of cheese &/or peanut butter and crackers, watermelon, kiwi, and Nutella!:)
After lunch, our awesome Host, S., came home to let the Electric guys in to fix his power. When V. saw him he was overjoyed!! He ran and hugged him. Oh, he was overjoyed to see our host, not the Electric guys!:) HA! How amazing that our host has been visiting him for almost 2 years….but didn’t realize it was V. that we were adopting when he agreed to host us!! Only God- right??:) I couldn’t have planned this all better myself- AT ALL-….. we are SOOO thankful to God! And while S. was here he just happened to get involved in a finger rocket war with all of the kids…. in his work clothes! What a great guy! That was an amazing ice breaker for V. to have finger rocket wars with his new family and an amazing man he has known for years! All under one roof!!:)
V. is very curious and wants to investigate everything he sees. He is a smart boy and wants to know how everything works. He even knew where to insert his camera card on my laptop when he asked me to download his camera onto my laptop. I had never noticed that slot before! Yes, already I see how I need him!:) He hugged on me and told me he loves me one more time after we got back to the apartment.
Tonight we are making spaghetti for our host and his fiancé! So far, Weej is in there cooking the meat, onions and garlic to jazz up the sauce we found here. Smells gooooood. J So sorry to those of you who have gone ahead of us and accidentally bought ketchup when you came to the store for the first time- we had a Ukrainian with us (S.’s fiance ) who helped us find the ONE, tiny little container of spaghetti sauce-the ONLY choice for Spaghetti sauce…in a pouch just a bit bigger than toothpaste! Hope it’s as good as it smells!
When Dad went to the store for bread, etc, V. ran up and asked, "where you going?" "Store" "I go with you, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE?" Ha! I wondered what V. would think about Daddy, because they really only interacted for an hour before V. left the States. BUT, Daddy has hugged on this sweet boy all day long, telling him we're glad he's here. It's surreal!
Now my two littlest ones are coloring together at the table! Ahhhhh, God is soooo goodJ
I agree with J.’ s post on her blog when they first brought E. home for the weekend….”God is good, all the time, but today He’s really outdone Himself!”
Until tomorrow!
With Love,
W,D ,A, J, V,A (although V. said he would like an American name, so stay tuned for that!)
Congratulations!
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