Today we became parents. That fact still amazes me. We had a long day, we were waiting for most of it to have our meeting at the DEPARTMENT (that is what I am calling it now). When we got there, our representative kept telling us not to be nervious...but I could see she was nervious herself (not helping).
I believe we were one of the first (if not the first) families to come to adopt here in Tyumen (after that stupid lady...) so we were told they are very strict and will ask lots of questions. The first lady we encountered was actually nice, she asked us about Muskegon and our home.
The "head" lady was very stern looking and I am not sure she liked us at all! It is very hard to read the people here, they don't smile much (especially if they are an offical something). We we both so nervious and I am afraid our answers got lost in translation some times. She asked about our finances, our ability to provide for a child, or experiance with children, our home, our families.
Then she asked about discipline....we told her we did not believe in "hitting" a child but that if he were to stick his hand in a light socket...his hand would get a smack. Again, I think this was lost in translation....she looked confused and maybe not happy....maybe I am just thinking thats what she looked like? And last but not least we had to share out feelings about "that woman"...this was awkward.
I am still not sure what she thinks of us, she will speak at our court hearing when we get the ok to adopt Landen (next trip), so I hope we did OK. She gave us the paperwork to go and see him, so we didn't totally stink. She did say we were lucky they liked Americans after we talked about "that woman". She also told us many Russian families looked at him, but did not take him....I really have no idea why this is. I am glad because I believe he was ment to be our Son.
Glad that the meeting was over, I was nervious because we were told they would look to see that he liked us too...for some reason I was worried about this. No need though! He was cautious at first, he let me hold him but you could tell he wasn't sure about who I was. After about 10 min. of playing he leaned into me and snuggled right into my shoulder! I have to say that is a feeling like non I have ever had. When he hugged me.... my whole world fell into place. He took to Tim in the same fashion, the doctor told me she was suprised by this because he has not had much, if any contact with men (only women work at orphanage).
We were able to hold him and play alot. I was able to hold him and hug him while we talked to the head doctor of the orphanage (the head doctor in Tyumen too). She was very nice, talked to us like people and was very complete with all the medical info she had. There wasn't much more then the paperwork we recieved so we didn't have alot of questions. His iron is good now, that was really the only change. Learned a little more about how he came to the orphanage, he was left at the hopital by his birth mom. She gave no reason and they searched for her. She has 3 other children, it is assumed they are with her. He was in the baby hospital for 1 month, then he was moved to the orphanage. We got to see a video of him at 6 months, we are going to get a copy made :)
We then went outside to play in the little area they have. They bunndled the kid up like it was the middle of winter...yikes. He had me sweating! We were able to hold his hands and he walks with help. It was awsome, first steps with Mom and Dad. The rep. said he will be happy because she thinks he looks like me :) (some wives tale here). He has Brown hair, with maybe a hint of very dirty blond and very big, very brown eyes!
We get to go back tomorrow and spend alot of the day with him :) We will have people from the DEPARTMENT watching us to see how we interact with him and him with us. Even so, it will be a great day! We should even get to go for a walk to the big park in the middle of town.
So Thank you all once again for your love and prayers...we have felt them!
(sorry if anything is spelled very wrong...the spell check thinks it should all be in Russian...no help!)
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