This will be my last posting on our adoption story for a while. Today's entry will be the culmination of what you have all been reading about because...today is our GOTCHA DAY! That is the term that most people use to mark into memory or whatever the day that their adoption was finalized. Today marks 5 years that these little girls have been in our family. Here is the story from that day five years ago......
"We had court at 8 am this morning. The judge didn't wear a robe or anything to signify that she was even a judge. We had to state our names, birthdays, and the reason we came to Ukraine and that we want to adopt the girls. Then the Inspector read our petition to adopt and the judge stated the court decision that we were the girls' parents. It took all of 15 minutes. Then we went to the Marriage/Licensing Building to get the new birth certificates. That took forever. Then they had to be legalized. Then we got to come back to the apartment and rest whil Sergei and the Inspector waited for the girls' Ukrainian passports to be done.
Nikolai was supposed to be there at 4pm to take us all back to Kiev, but at 2:30 he called and said he couldn't be there until 7pm. This ruined our plans of getting the girls from the orphanages at 3:00. We went instead at 5:00. The director of Meghan's orphanage told me that I needed to serve soft meats to the younger girls. I thought that was pretty random. It's not like I have never been around kids before. Sheesh! We did the ritual changing of the clothes. Out of the orphanage ones into the ones we brought for them. That was strange because they were all standing there watching me like I wouldn't know how to dress a child or something.
Rachel's caregivers all cried when she was leaving. She gave a kiss and a hug to all the kids in her groupa. At Jenny's room, the caregiver came out to tell me that Jenny still had a fever and I told Sergei to tell her that it didn't matter, because we were there to get her and she was my responsibility now.
After we picked up the girls and dressed them, we headed to McDonalds for our first meal as a family! It was awesome!!
The rest of the day went by in a haze or craziness. Nikolai was even later than he had anticipated and we did not get on the road back to Kiev until nearly 10 pm. We had to just let the kids run around the apartment because we were so tired and they were not. We got them in their jammies and all ready to go and waited for Nikolai. We tried to get them to sleep in the van but it didn't work very well. We got to Kiev around 3 am and then had to try to get them to sleep again. Man, being a parent is hard!"
Meghan's groupa and caregiver Luda
Rachel's groupa
Jenny's groupa
All dressed and ready to go! We are a FAMILY!!
Eating our first meal as a family at McDonalds. Can't get more American than that!!
7 comments:
I can't get over all this. I want more!!! I love to read about it all. It is interestingly amazing! Wow! CONGRATS on 5 years! You have to give us a little update on each girl and how they adjusted and stuff to today. They are are beautiful girls. I am so glad things have worked out so well. I am also dying to know what your family said when you brought home the 3 girls AND you told them you were pregnant!!!! SO COOL!
Do you remember the Wall's in Aunt Connie's ward? They adopted 2 girls from the same area I think, and has been a challenge. At least at first, they were so quiet and calm in their country and through the whole process and then went nuts when they got home. Neal said that on the plane ride home he thought he and gotten the wrong girls. ;) What an experience!
LOVE YOU!!!
thanks Laura, you are too sweet! I probably won't get around to actually posting the story of when we told them we were also pregnant....so I'll do it here. It was funny! We sent an email about a week after getting home with pictures of the girls and we included a picture of my sonogram. LIterally within moments our phone starting ringing and they (my sisters) all cussed me out for not telling them sooner. It was so funny!!
Such an awesome story! I have really loved reading all these posts about your adoptions. How wonderful to be able to take 3 girls at once. :)
Bless you and your little family - I'm sure they've been the happiest 5 years of your life. ;) I know they would be for me.
Thank you so much for sharing your story, and journal, and thoughts about the experience. We might find ourselves adopting in a few years.
Love it. :) All of it, stories, pictures,...
It's wonderful. :)
(Funny, about telling your family the baby news.) ;)
I have LOVED reading your adoption story. Oh please don't stop! Tell us more about how the trip home was, how you coped with three little ones and a pregnancy..and then a little baby, how they adjusted....and everything else! It's been so wonderful to read. =)
I have loved every part of this story, and I lived through it with you!! It has been so awesome!! Thank you for the glint into your journal!! Take care extreme!!
So awesome! I am so glad that you took the time to share your story with us! I hope that you'll share more at some point in the future :)
This made me cry. I loved it. You are so blessed! I can't get over how many children there are in their groupas. I want to take them all home. Such sweet little faces. You are so awesome for taking all three of them together!
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