And Now We Are a Family of Five

Twenty two months of paperwork and more paperwork and then all the waiting, tears, and more waiting and tears our big day was finally here. To us the waiting seemed like so much longer than twenty two months. We were so excited to finally be able to love on these babies for a lifetime to come. As one friend put it very well, God has big plans for these precious children and we are so thankful, honored, overwhelmed and excited to be his vessels to put those plans into action. It is so hard to describe all our feelings from today. The joy and happiness was overwhelming. At both orphanages tears rolled down my face as we left. I think it was a combination of many things, the realization of so many answered prayers by us and all of you and you add the fact the caregivers at each orphanage seemed sad to see both children leave. I know they were loved while in the care of the orphanage and that was heart filling too.

Here are the details of the day:
We finally arrived in Syzran about 6pm on the 7th. After being up and traveling about 28 hours we found it easy to go to sleep but did not rest well be causing of thinking about the events to come.

We meet Sergey for breakfast and checkout out of the hotel about 8am. We arrived at the orphanage about 8:20. We were greeted by the doctor/director of the orphanage and we waited for the caregivers to bring Olivia Ann to us. In a very few minutes they brought her in and handed her to me. The caregiver abruptly left and we changed her clothes and got ready to go. Sergey seemed in a hurry to go to the other orphanage so we left. Olivia Ann seemed to remember us a little and was happy to put on new clothes and was especially excited about her shoes. She did not whimper a bit when we got in the car and seemed to be fine. We left and she just looked around as we drove away. She seemed to be taking it all in. She was not bothered by the car at all or we thought. Soon Olivia Ann was asleep and I thought wow this is going well. The next thing we know about forty minutes from John Mark's orphanage she sat up look around and promptly threw up on me and her clothes. I caught most of it in my hands, instinct I guess...Greg said why did you catch it, I said catch it or have an even bigger mess. I am sure she was very car sick from the travel, the roads are terrible, Sergey's driving is awful as we have mentioned before and to top it of it was hot in the car. All of that would make anyone car sick so a two year old who had never been in a car it was almost expected. We cleaned her up as best we could in the car and traveled on to the other orphanage. We went in the orphanage and just inside the entry way Olivia Ann got sick again. I was carrying her in and barely managed to get my head out of the way of a big mess. Needless to say this time I was forced to change back into the clothes I wore on the flight to Russia. Dirty clothes from a long day travel were a much better option than nasty clothes. Anyway after every one was cleaned up Olivia Ann was playing and seemed to be fine.

John Mark's group was outside when we arrived and after we managed to get everyone cleaned up frm the car sickness the caregiver brought John Mark in to us. He walked right to me with a big grin on his face. He was carrying the photo book we left with him the first trip. Olivia Ann just watched John Mark. They played independent of each other and really just watch each other from time to time. The orphanage caregiver brought lunch for John Mark and Olivia Ann. John Mark ate almost all his lunch and Olivia Ann ate her soup. Then John Mark left for a nap and Olivia napped in Greg's arms.

Right as lunch was over Sasha our translator arrived with our friends Eric and Elizabeth. Eric and Elizabeth adopted a little boy Alex who is about three and a half. Elizabeth and I went with Sasha to get snacks for the plane ride and lunch for the parents. Lunch came from McDonald's. Greg was happy about that, something we recognize for lunch was a good thing. Sasha helped us pick out some things the kids would like on the plane.

Once we returned to the orphanage, nap time was soon over and we had to prepare to leave. Sergey asked us about our tickets and found out we did not have a piece of paper from Aeroflot for a baby in arms and this appeared to be a problem. So we quickly packed up to go. John Mark cried when we got in the car but settled down quickly and we were on out way to the airport. Soon Olivia Ann went to sleep in the car and we were relieved she did not get sick again. John Mark watched everything going on as we traveled. His big brown eyes got even bigger as he watched the world around him go by. He traveled fine and when we got to the airport Sergey went in to solve our ticket problem. After all was said and done we had to pay $125 for John Mark because we did not get the baby in arms paper earlier. We felt like there was no way to win the argument...even though a baby in arms is generally free but without some paper they were not letting him on the plane without a real seat. At this point we just had to pay it and go on, the language barrier, even with Sasha translating, was going to keep us from doing anything but paying the fee and move on. So anyone traveling on Aeroflot Russian airlines...you must have a piece of paper from the airlines for a baby in arms or buy another ticket. Lesson learned.

Our first flight with the children went well. John Mark cried when we sat him down to put our stuff down but was fine once we were all sitting. Thanks so much to my sister-in-law, Laurie, had packed the best plane snacks ever. We snacked all the way to Moscow and no one cried or got very restless. Of course that was an hour and half flight, we will pray that Friday goes as smoothly.

Val meet us at the airport in Moscow and took us to our apartment. Both kids slept on the hour ride from the airport to the apartment. The apartment is nice and will be fine for our week here. Getting little ones to sleep was a little of a challenge. John Mark went right to bed but Olivia Ann did not want to be laid down so she fell asleep in Greg's arms and then he put her to bed. Olivia Ann did not sleep well at all. She cried out in the night a lot, never really awake but crying and restless. All in all the night was not too bad, considering all the changes in John Mark and Olivia Ann's last 24 hours they are adjusting better than to be expected.

Dressed and ready to go.

Director helping us out with Olivia Ann's hair bow... Something we know nothing about.

Ready for the ride!

Calm before the storm

Watching John Mark, she doesn't know what to think.

First photo together.  Looking at photo book we left with John Mark

Looking at his photo book

Dressed and ready to go

Dressed and ready to go to bed