Trip 2 - Day 18 - Gotcha Day
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Written on 5/6/2008 4:01:42 PM.
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 19 comments
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*Note this may be tedious to some who are not adopting. I wanted to make sure I gave an over view of the whole day to those who are adopting. Also to those adopting we did not have to pay for any of today’s activities. We did have Rubles in case we had to pay for copies.
Today was a beautiful day. Ok so the weather report did not say that, but it was the best day! Of course today had to be overcast, chilly, and scattered showers. Despite the rain and the wind – today was gorgeous.
We did it!!! We picked up Zachary and his is now in our care. We are so excited and we cannot even begin to express the joy and love we have at this moment. Just to go into the bedroom right now and just to look at this amazing little angel who is now really ours. We just cannot put into words the emotions and feelings we are sharing. So let me tell you about our day.
Today started when our new translator "K" and driver "A" picked us up at 9:30. I swear it looked like we were moving out of the apartment we had so many bags with us. Several gift bags, clothes bag, diaper bag, our lunch bag, and I am sure we had a few other bags. Anyway, we threw them into the trunk and we were off. We really enjoyed K and A. They are very nice and I feel like we had a good day understanding each other.
First stop Moscow Regional Court to pick up the court decree. We went to the 5th floor just as we did for court. Thank God we did not have the same stress and fear as we did on April 21st. K went to the secretary and picked up our paperwork. We sat in the waiting room and reviewed to makes sure all was spelled correctly. After we read and confirmed the decree we left to go to the registration office that is located in the same city as our court house. We went to the office of the register and waited behind another translator from our CSS group who was working on another family that we are close to so it was very good to see that their paperwork is very moving right along! At the registration office K filled out a lot of paperwork for us. This paperwork was reviewed by the register and we were given the Adoption Decree and the new Russian Birth Certificate with David and I as his parents - along with his name - Zachary Robert Dilworth.
After this we went back to the CSS office in Moscow and K made copies of everything. Including our passport and registration information. After the CSS office we went to the MOE (Ministry of Education) for an approval stamp on some part of all this paperwork that we have picked up. Only K went in so we did not have to use the worlds smallest elevator.
After the MOE we went to the Police Department to apply for Zach's passport. We arrived at the Police Department around 2:30. We went and stood in a long hall way with other people waiting on getting their passport. Evidently Russians have two types of passports as I understand it 1 domestic passport and the other is a passport for international travel. So, we waited and K gave a lady our paperwork. We waited longer.... K then said that they were very busy and we should go get our two cakes to take to the baby home.
Side note: To those who do not know. Most adoptive families take cakes to the baby home when they go to take custody of their child. The cake is then shared by the caregivers and staff to celebrate the sweet life the child has left their home for.
We went to the large "Wal-Mart" type store behind the Police Department and bought our two cakes. I should say that we did get three cakes because Dave was very impressed with this one particular cake. We walked back to the Police Department and saw the lady who was working on our paperwork. She again stated that she was very busy and that she hoped to have his passport ready for pick up on Thursday. K is to call her Thursday morning to confirm. So at 4:30 we finally left and headed out for our baby home.
At 5:30 we arrived at Podolsk. The doctor and administrator had already left for the day. Sweet little Zach was in the middle of playing after his afternoon snack and was busy when we came in. The caregivers called the doctor and she returned a little while latter. As we were waiting for her to return Zach was given to us in a diaper and we were told we could dress him. So as we were dressing him, he was smiling and touching my face the whole time. One of the caregivers gave a horrified look and asked (as translated) do you not have any tights for him? I said Nyet. NO MORE TIGHTS! She shook her head and finally agreed to the socks and shoes and long pants.
How precious is our little guy - no matter what he has on! Just precious. Anyway, the doctor came back and said that the papers were OK and she wished us good luck. We gave the two cakes and the small gifts to the doctor and the caregivers. As most people say there was no magical moment that happened as you leave with the staff. Just this overwhelming feeling of awe and disbelief - finally we are here at this wonderful point. The two caregivers did wish us luck and thanks be to God - we did not have to put him in a snow suit. I thought for sure they were going to make me after I had said Nyet to the tights. We bundled him up in his jacket and cap and we were out of the building!
We left Podolsk around 6:30pm and headed back into Moscow. Zach did great on the car ride “home”. We did not have a car seat, he just sat in our laps and played while he watched cars go by. We did a little apple juice and took a serious nap at the very end. He did so good on the way home. We had towels, paper towels, plastic bags, and you name it in fear that he was going to throw up and get sick. But, knock on wood, so far Zach seems to like cars and driving fast.
We got back to the apartment around 7:30. Zach haven been woken up from his nap and ready to go!! We spread out some blankets on the floor and played a few minutes. Then we fed him his final meal of the day, which was a little late. We are going to try to stay on his baby home schedule as much as possible. David went out to the grocery to pick up a few things and to get some dinner for us. (Might I add what a good job he did at the grocery store! He even found things that we could not find before.) When he got home we changed his diaper and he was ready for bed. Well we hoped to be ready for bed. We darkened the room and I held him a little while then we put him down with thumb in mouth. He never made a sound just went on sucking his thumb and is sleeping now.
What a wonderful and beautiful day. Zach is such a little ray of sunshine. His laughter is infectious and he is so curious about everything! We have our hands full and we are so happy that we do. We know that crib #5 is empty tonight and we pray for the little ones that are still there.
Here is a pictures from today, more to come tomorrow. Also below, Dave made a slideshow from our first trip when we first meet our son.
Thank you so much for your continued prayers and support.
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19 Responses to "Trip 2 - Day 18 - Gotcha Day"
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