Whew ... where do I start?!

Addison and her favorite caregiver

Today has been a very emotional day for everyone. This morning we got to visit with Addison for a little while in between running around to apply for her passport and then to pick it up. As crazy as it sounds, I was really nervous for our afternoon trip to the baby home, because I knew it was going to be hard ... really hard.

Hard for us to take Addison from the only place she knows.

Hard for us to take Addison from the only people she knows.

Hard for us to imagine how her caregivers must be feeling as they lose Addison from their care.

Hard for us to imagine how Addison will feel after leaving the baby home with these two crazy Americans talking another language and feeding her food she isn't used to.

We got to the baby home and met the director for the first time. She was so sweet and we gave her a gift that we bought for her. She was very grateful that we are adopting Addison and she essentially meant that if it weren't for us, then she may not have ever been adopted. I got teary eyed and then we went to visit the social worker to give her a gift, and she told us the same thing as the director and I got teary eyed again. Then we went up to Addison's grouppa (aka: her "family unit"). There were four caregivers there and yes, her favorite caregiver was there. We gave each of the caregivers gifts that we bought for them and they thanked us. Our translator told us that we could get Addison dressed in the clothes that we brought for her, so we did. Good grief ... that really made her look like Payton! LOL.

There is another family that we know that is adopting a little boy from Addison's grouppa. We had court the same day and they also had their 10-day waiting period waived, as their little boy has a heart defect. They had left the room to change him and all a sudden he came flying through the door to show his friends his new digs ... a Nike warm-up suit. It was so cute! He was so proud and so happy ... it was so fun to watch his reaction, since he is old enough to know what it means to have new things (he is almost four years old). That alone almost made me cry. LOL.

So both of our families joined the caregivers in another room and they were already crying. I lost it, Kyle lost it, our translator lost it ... we all just cried. How could you stand there and watch this and not lose it? Seriously. I know they are so happy that these kids now have families, but their hearts are also aching. I promised them that we would send lots of pictures so that they can rest assured that Addison is doing great and that she is in a great place. I know the "not knowing what happens" is the hardest part for them. It would be for me too.

Before we left, we let Addison's favorite caregiver have her time with her ... she was so sweet. She has given her entire soul to our child and I just hugged her and we cried. What a special lady.

It was time to say goodbye and all the caregivers were there. The one in red that is holding Addison is her favorite caregiver and the one to the left in green in the physical therapist that had told us she was giving Addison lots of massages ...
We are emotionally drained and we are headed for Moscow tonight ...

Her favorite caregiver

Yesterday we got to meet Addison's favorite caregiver. She must have been on vacation when we were there for our first trip, because I don't remember her. She is so sweet and Addison clearly adores her. She was singing nursery rhymes to Addison and she was totally doing all the motions to them ... I loved it!

Today our translator told us that the caregiver asked our translator this morning when we would be coming to take Addison for good. She said she couldn't handle it and didn't want to be there. She said she has been crying for days and she just doesn't want to be there. That makes me so sad! I almost feel guilty for taking her. I can't imagine the pain this caregiver is experiencing ... to have raised Addison for the first two years of her life, and now she will be gone to another country. It makes me teary eyed just thinking about it. I told our translator I was sad that we wouldn't see the caregiver because I really wanted to take a picture of her and Addison. I also wanted to video tape her singing the nursery rhymes to Addison so that I can play them for her when we get home. It turns out that we are picking Addison up at a different time than we originally thought, so we may end up seeing the caregiver tomorrow after all.

Either way, I told our translator that we would send plenty of pictures, as I know how much they love that. I'm sure it helps to see that the children are thriving in their new environments.

Our first day back ...

We didn't really start the day off on a good foot ... we woke up at 9:40 a.m. and our ride was picking us up at 10 a.m. I guess in my tiredness last night I set my alarm wrong ... now I know I set it to wake me up at 8:30 a.m. EST instead of 8:30 a.m. Russian time. Nice work, eh? Apparently I had no problems sleeping my first night here like I did on our first trip, even though the time difference is eight hours.

Anyway, we made it to the baby home around 10:30 a.m. When we got there, we were told that Addison was having testing done. We later found out the people from PITT that are involved in the research study of Baby Home 13 are in town and they are doing their testing on the kids. I believe they come every three months and the purpose of the testing is to see if the changes that they have implemented (i.e. making the environment similar to that of a home) have made a difference in the development of the children. This has been going on for a few years now and I know they have seem improvement in the kids, which is why Addison's Baby Home is such a great place.

After about 10 minutes or so, they brought Addison to us. She was a little hesitant at first and was sort of shy all day ... we broke her out of her shell a few times, but pretty much she just wanted to cuddle and suck on her two fingers. She is taking a little longer to warm up to Kyle this time, which sort of leaves me wondering if she has had any encounters with men since we were here last. The kids in the baby home are not used to being around men since most of the staff are women, so I was anxious to see how she would respond to Kyle back on our first trip. Clearly, she had no problems that time and she warmed up to him as the day went on today.

She is progressing with her standing unassisted and her walking. She took about 10 independent steps to me today ... I don't think it will take her long once we get her home. The woman in the baby home who does massages said she was giving Addison extra massages trying to get her walking by the time we came back for her ... we thought that was so sweet. Her caregivers love her so much and I think some of them got emotional today when they were asking when we would be leaving with her. I anticipate that the day we take her from the baby home will be a very emotional day for all of us.

Luggage update ... our luggage is here in St. Pete ... it came in on the flight at 5:10 p.m. (Russian time) this evening. It is going to be delivered to some hotel at like midnight and then our translator will pick it up for us tomorrow morning before she picks us up.

So tomorrow at noon (4 a.m. EST) we have court. We have a good feeling about the whole thing, but please keep praying that our 10 day waiting period is waived! I'll update when I can ... I think we have some running around to do tomorrow after court ... until then ...

Baby Home 13 {... and the kids}

The kids at Addison's baby home are split into family units, for lack of a better term. When you walk down the hallways of the baby home, all you see are a lot of closed doors. Behind each of those doors are family units. Addison's family unit has three rooms {one room with cribs and two play rooms with tables and chairs for eating ... oh, and a bathroom}. Within those three rooms the family unit is split once more, I believe into two groups of four kids, mostly just for meal time, from what I can tell. The kids in Addison's family unit range from a few months old to four years of age. After the kids turn four, they are transferred to homes for older kids or if they are incapacitated, they are transferred to institutions.

We have spent a lot of time with Addison's family unit. All of the kids call us mama and papa ... it is so heartbreaking! However, at the same time, all of the kids know that we are there for Nika {short for Veronika}, as they so affectionately call her. This morning when we got to the baby home, we saw some of the kids from Addison's family unit going out to play. Every single one of them told our translator in Russian that Nika was upstairs ... they knew who we were and they knew we were coming for her. That just breaks my heart that these two and three year olds know that there are mommies and daddies that come for some of the kids, but that their parents have yet to come. They absolutely crave your attention and if you pay them attention, it is hard to break away because they crave it so badly. I wish there was more that I could do ... what can you do to help? ;)