We have a court date!

We received unexpected good news late this evening: We have a court date! We hadn’t expected that news until tomorrow or Monday, so we were thrilled to learn that our court date will be 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, June 12. That helps to resolve a great deal of the ambiguity around our schedule; it doesn’t give us an exact return date, but it does narrow the scope considerably.

Now we’re praying to pass court. Remember that this particular town has not seen an adoption, much less an international adoption, in more than ten years, if not longer. International adoption can be a controversial, emotional topic in some quarters here; some people with strong nationalistic feelings believe these children are better off remaining in this country, even if that means institutionalization.

On the plus side, we believe that we have strong support from the orphanage staff, including the director, and that will count a lot in terms of the judge’s decision.

The other big issue is whether the judge will impose a ten-day waiting period. The ten-day waiting period is mandatory in every other region of this country. It is typically waived in this region, for a fee, but again, this judge has never handled an adoption case before. Our facilitator feels we have a fifty-fifty chance of getting the waiting period waived. Personally, I am less optimistic than that; however, we will pray and take it as it comes.

If the ten-day waiting period is waived, then it is very likely that we would return to Winona (with Alex!) the following week (the week of the 18th). If it is not waived, then we have tentative plans to return to Winona immediately (at the end of next week), with one of us returning alone (or possibly with a friend to help) to pick up Alex later in the month. Obviously we prefer Plan A, which would be quicker and less expensive by several thousand dollars, but we will just have to wait and see!

Visiting Alex, Day 10

“There’s blood everywhere!”

Yes, there’s nothing quite like looking down at your child and seeing blood everywhere, is there? Especially when that child has been entrusted to you by orphanage staff who have left you alone with him for the past several days.

Fortunately, it was just a nosebleed, which we have lots of practice with (our oldest son used to get lots of them), but it did end our visit with Alex prematurely. We brought him inside, to be on the safe side, and he wound up in the nurse’s office, where a doctor came to see him. They took his temperature (just slightly elevated—probably from all the fun he was having) and decided to keep an eye on him. There was talk of maybe it was too cold “on the street,” which is their idiom for being outside. Somehow, things always seem to come back to keeping the kids warm!

Before that little incident, we had a very nice visit with Alex that started with another demonstration of his progress toward walking (see video). What is not shown in the video is the absolute fit he pitched when he got put on the walker instead of getting to go with us immediately. What was interesting was listening to Yanna reason with him: “First you do this, then you go out on the street.” She had to repeat that several times, but it clearly registered, because he ultimately complied, as the video shows.

The other interesting thing was that he actually initiated getting off his beloved swing, asking to go over to where some construction work was happening (converting stairs into a ramp). He directed us to the bench swing, which we sat in and rocked while singing to him and watching the maintenance staff, who knew him by name. It seems that everyone here knows “Sasha” by name.

We also fed him by ourselves again; he was very trusting and communicative. “Ti hochyesh yatsa?” “Da!” (“You want some egg?” “Yes!” Of course I want some egg!) He helps to clean his own face, too.

After we fed him, we helped him go down the slide (holding onto him the entire time)--something we suspect he hasn't done before, or only done rarely. We were getting him set for another trip down the slide when we noticed the nosebleed. (No, we don't think it was caused by the slide, per se -- we had a firm grasp on him every trip down.)

Overall, we have definitely felt our bond with this lovable little boy grow stronger and stronger every day, which is a real answer to prayer. We’re so excited to be bringing him home!

More tomorrow!

A power outage ate up our blogging time today (June 7th).  We'll update everyone tomorrow about Alex and everything else going on!

June 6 visit

Today we were slightly concerned going, because Jerry had one of his allergic reactions and was up quite a bit last night (he brought some of the right medications, so he's OK)--since he was up, I was up too.  Going to visit Alex tired is not good!  This kid wants lots of physical interaction (I'm afraid crafts are not going to be his thing!).  I had created a "goody bag"--a large ziploc bag with three small toys attached with a ribbon and duct tape to the outside.  Yeah, I feel like MacGyver here.  We bought a small plastic car, since he broke the other one.  Otherwise, we were pretty sure it would be back to the swings.

But even with both of us feeling at about 50% power, it went OK.  We open the door to his therapy room, where his groupa is regular day at 10am, and he gets a huge smile when he sees us.  Like I said, we're the ticket out.  Since Yana was there, Jerry was able to ask about whether he has been potty trained.  The answer was long and in Russian, but basically no.  I totally think he can; I strongly suspect they do not have the people and time to do this (she seems to be demonstrating he cannot really sit up without support).  So we will figure this out.

Today's activity agenda: swing! tiny slide that Jerry slides him down, holding him.  An empty bench swing, where we tried out the goody bag (mixed results--although he was interested in the "there it goes, now let's draw it back with the ribbon" idea).  Walk around on the merry go round (all this is kind of tough because we have to hold him for safety the whole time).  One new thing--they brought out his "second breakfast", and with me holding him in a sitting position, he fed himself.  That includes the kasha.  Not perfectly but honestly, pretty well.  He reached into the bowl that held a roll to get the bread crumbs.  That broke my heart...this child inhales every bit of food he gets (well, except when we got him a strawberry, offered to us by the staff there.  May have been too new a taste to him). Then we went for a short walk in the stroller, and back to the swing.

Paka-paka, Alex.  We'll see you tomorrow.  Hopefully with more sleep under our belts.

A few birth details about Alex and his name

Just so we don't forget ourselves!

*Weight at birth: 1.48 kg = 3.26284 lb OR 3 lb and 4.20 oz (yes I needed a converter for this!)
*born at 31 weeks gestation
*born in a small village about 30 miles from here, birth certificate should be in a larger city about 20 miles (?) from here.
*possible he was baptized, but there is no record of it.

It's a miracle he survived, honestly. No question that tiny village has no hospital--I don't even think the decent sized town we're in has one.

We are naming him Alexander Joseph. There is a strong tradition of giving children patronymics here for a middle name...his birth name is (in English) Alexander Alexanderson. His mother was a single parent and when we asked if this could be his birth father's first name, the response was maybe, but it is common for single mothers to give their children patronymics that are the name of the mother's father, or just a name she likes. We are keeping his first name because it is the name he has grown up with...and we like it anyway. The second name, Joseph, is to recognize that St. Joseph has always been his spiritual father, whether he has known it or not. We've prayed for the intercession of St. Joseph to keep him safe, and this seems like a good way to honor that as well. We found out a few more things, but honestly not much--and we're just sharing here online what we will sharing with Alex pretty much immediately. Since he is older, he will always know he is adopted. We want to be open about his origins and honor them as much as we can.