Thank you to everyone for all of the wonderful words of congratulations and sharing in our joy! We are still in awe of what the Lord has done for us and for Asa and, honestly, it is still kind of unreal to us!
Asa is asleep right now. I want to document our day yesterday and I hope you find it worthwhile reading. Our prayer during this whole journey is that God would be glorified, no matter what happens. I hope that He is bigger, and kinder, and more merciful, and more gracious in your eyes after watching our journey to Asa.
We began the day by welcoming the other two adoptive families to the guesthouse. Bless their hearts, they had been traveling for anywhere from 36 to 72 hours already and the hard part was only beginning. We left the guesthouse at 8:20 am and headed to Bxxxxsk, about an hour outside of Bxxxxk
We arrived at the court building and found our coordinator outside. She made sure we were all there and told us to wait outside while she went inside to get our documents. Two hours later she emerged with our documents. Yes, two hours. Thankfully it was before noon, so the heat had not really set in. And no, the van we were sitting in did not have air conditioning. There is a conspicuous absence of air conditioning in vehicles here.
She had our court decrees! Next we went down the street to the notary to get the documents certified and to get the process started on the kids’ birth certificates. We waited another hour as we went in one by one and signed and dotted “I”s and crossed “t”s. We were told the birth certificates would be ready later that afternoon.
We went to our favorite (and the only) restaurant in Bxxxxsk for lunch. The kids were napping, so we had time to kill. We had a great lunch for about $4 a person and then headed over to the bizarre. We wanted to get some toys and other things for the kids and this was our last chance to do so without kids with us. We bought a few balls, water guns and a blow up pool. I also got Asa a backpack to carry his toys and books in for the flights home.
It was then time to head to the orphanage to get the kids! We arrived at about 2:30. The only western toilet (not a hole in the ground), that we know of, in all of Bxxxxsk is at the orphanage, so we made our requisite potty stop as they went to wake the kids from their naps.
We were told that the kids knew we were coming today. The kids came in two at a time. Krystina and Kolya were first and they were very happy to see their mamas. They also had lots of items with them: clothes, shoes, coats, hats, that had been sent to them over the last year or two. It was a very kind gesture of their nannies to keep those things separate and then return them to the families who had sent them.
Asa and Bakyt came in next. Bakyt was thrilled to see his mama and papa. Asa was in a bit of shock. He had been told what was going to happen. The psychologist had been working with the kids, talking to them, and preparing them to go with us. But that does not make it any easier for a 4 year old to fully comprehend or to say goodbye to the only life he has known. Many times when a person is facing a stressful situation, they shut down. Tune everything out and just go into a shell. Asa did that. He would not hold his toy, or his book, or his puppy. He just put his head on my chest and, I think, tried to make it all go away.
Our group had made a donation to help the orphanage replace a rotted out floor. The director asked if we would like to see the floor. We all filed behind her and Asa did something I have never seen him do. He clung to me as I carried him. He held on tight and was not letting go. I think that as much as going with us scared him, not going with us was just as scary. He wanted to go, but he wanted to stay.
When we returned to the director’s office, we all began changing the kids into the clothes we had brought. On our first visit in April, Asa would not let me put a shirt on him that I had brought. Today he gladly stripped down and let us put his new clothes on him. He had set in him mind that he was going to go with us and it would be okay. It was amazing to see the change in his demeanor in these moments.
We all wanted pictures of our kids with the orphanage director. I knew this would be emotional for her. She has known Asa since he was a newborn baby. She is the one who named him Vladislav Yurievich Kxxx. And he was the only child in the orphanage who had been there since he was a baby. They had a very sweet time of her telling him that he would be very happy with his mama and dada and that she loved him very much. He nodded his head and gave everyone around his signature shy grin.
We went outside and took several pictures. I wanted a picture of us leaving the orphanage with him. There is much emotion wrapped up in those pictures. They capture the moment of him physically leaving that place, of him joining our family forever, and, they are a picture of the Gospel. Of God coming to us and plucking us out of our squalor and calling us His Own.
It was truly amazing to see those children with new clothes on. They looked so different. As one mom said, “They look like they belong to someone. Like someone cares for them.” We cannot discount the care Asa got at the orphanage, but it is an institution and there are limitations as to how much an institution can truly care for a child, and there are severe limitations on the love a child can receive in such a place.
We left the orphanage at 3:26 pm on July 23rd, 2012. Four children left that day as sons and daughter. No longer orphans.
We returned to the notary’s office. We were told that the birth certificates would be ready. Yeah, this is Kxxxxx. One more hour. And it was just flat hot by now. The kids did amazingly well. Everything was new, so it was not difficult to entertain them for that hour. Taking them to the outhouse behind the notary’s building was interesting. Asa refused to use the outhouse. Apparently he is partial to indoor plumbing. He’ll do well in America. At last, the birth certificates were ready.
We headed back to Bxxxx. We had one more stop to make. Another notary, another form. This one giving our permission, as his parents, for a passport to be issued to him. Yes, they needed OUR permission because We are HIS parents! That took another 1.5 hours. And these kids were long overdue for supper and we were long overdue for some air conditioning.
We stopped on the way back to the guesthouse for some pizza. The kids loved it and we had to stop them all from eating or we were afraid they would be sick. We gave them all baths and soaked them down from top to bottom in a cream that would kill any critters they might be harboring in their hair or skin. The kids played a bit more and then it was time for bed.
As we made Asa’s bed, you could see him getting nervous. We prayed with him and as I took him to carry him to bed, he began crying. Oh it was heartbreaking. I lay in the bed with him and it seemed to comfort him. I thought that he had fallen asleep and tried to get up, but he began weeping. I lay back down with him and this time he fell asleep. He slept well, only waking a couple of times crying but was quickly consoled when Daddy lay down with him. He has since woken up, at about 7:30 this morning and has been in a good mood so far.
This morning we did facetime on our iphone with the kids at home. Oh he loved that! It was one of the things I was most looking forward to: him “meeting” his brothers and sister!
Today we will go get his passport picture made and apply for his passport. Tomorrow we will have our appointment with the embassy and hopefully Thursday his passport will be ready and we will have everything we need to travel to Alxxxxx for his visa to come to the US..
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