Gotcha Day
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Our alarm goes off at 7:30 am this morning. Gen hops out of bed like it was on fire and gets ready for the big day. I roll around trying to catch a little bit more sleep and made a mental note to set the alarm earlier. Why do you ask? Because according to the schedule given to us by the orphanage, Gabriel’s day starts at 6 am. This isn’t a problem for me because I’m usually up by then, but I can’t help but think about how much he’s changed our lives and he isn’t even home yet.
Gen and I go through our morning routine and head downstairs to wait for our ride. We walk down the street, which is still covered in ice, and meet the car. Our translator isn’t in the car, which is nothing new to me, but I thought since this was the big day she would be there. I brush aside any negative thoughts and get into the car.
The ride to the orphanage is a quiet one, well at least for me it is. If someone said something, I wouldn’t have noticed…I was too busy thinking/stressing out over today’s events. We arrive and head upstairs to wait for the children. When we open the door, we’re greeted by all sorts of decorations and something written in Cyrillic. For a fleeting moment I thought that this was a farewell party for the children, but I’m brought back to reality when I realize that these are for the New Year party in that “magical” playroom.
Gabriel is finally brought in, for the last time by one of his nannies. He’s got a serious look on his face, like he knows that something big is happening today. Gen picks him up from the nanny and begins to shower him with hugs and kisses. We sit down and begin to play. A little bit later, our translator and coordinator walk in with some documentation which needs to be signed. As we finish with the documentation, we are told to dress the children in their new clothes and jackets and get ready to leave. We tell our translator that we have gifts for the children’s nannies and would like to go down to the baby room to distribute them. As we pass out gifts for all of Gabriel’s they all have a look of bewilderment on their faces. Unfortunately, it turns out our translator didn’t inform the nannies about this being Gabriel’s last day here. Things get emotional as we say our goodbyes and give thanks to the two nannies that are present. We run back upstairs to gather the rest of our things and say our goodbyes to the other families there. Agnes will be staying for the rest of her appeal period with Sasha and Bernadette will head back to France to prepare for Gaia’s arrival.
We run into his nanny again on the way downstairs and she says goodbye again. It’s too bad I don’t understand what she’s saying, but she looked very emotional when she talked to him. Some of the nannies and nurses that were upstairs waved bye to Gabriel as we made our way to the exit. As we get outside, Gabriel’s eyes get wide and he looks around. I’m pretty sure that he hasn’t been outside much in his life and this is very alien to him.
As we get into the car, Gabriel looks scared. He’s very quiet and the look on his face is similar to when we first met. Gen gently reassures him that everything is going to be ok as he looks out the window. Our coordinators take us to the main baby house to meet with the head doctor and to sign some more adoption papers. He says something to us along the lines of a congratulations as we complete everything. We shake hands and leave to go back to the apartment. It’s a whirlwind of a day for Gabriel, but this is just the start. Our coordinators inform us that we need to go to the Department of Vital Statistics to pickup the kid’s birth certificate at 3 PM.
We head back to the apartment for a lunch break. Poor Gabriel is sweating his butt off. We peel him out of his snowsuit and let him plop down on his blanket with his toys. He’s still scared and not comfortable with his new surroundings. Both of us take turns to calm and reassure him that he’s going to be ok. Even when it’s time for him to eat, he won’t because of all the changes happening.
We then try to put him down for his nap and he won’t have it. He’s bawling his eye’s out and screaming at the top of his lungs. This didn’t happen at the orphanage so Gen and I get immediately get stressed out. We take turns holding him and after 45 minutes he falls asleep in our arms. As soon as we lay him on the bed, wouldn’t you know it, he starts up again! It takes another 10 minutes before he’ll sleep on the bed.
He wakes up after his short nap and we get him ready to go out again. We layer his clothes on and put him in his snow suit and off we go to get his birth certificate. After that’s done, we are informed that we need to go to the notary to sign more documentation and we also need to book our tickets to Almaty. He ate such a small amount at the apartment and hasn’t had a full meal since the orphanage. He’s a trooper though and isn’t fussing at all. He’s looking around and checking out all the new sights and sounds.
I expected that we were finished once we left the travel agent, but we still had more things to do. We went to an electronics store to pick up an all-in-one printer as our donation to the orphanage, and had to make a trip to another office that was going to process Gabriel’s passport. He was taking everything in stride and didn’t cry once in the car. In fact, he fell asleep for 45 minutes.
Finally, we get back to the apartment. Gabriel is placed on his blanket and we try to get him to relax a bit before his feeding. He’s still stressed out about his new environment and won’t eat much. Later that evening, Ben and Karla stopped by to meet Gabriel. He was a bit shy at first, but started warming up to them before they left.
After some fussing he finally went to sleep and Gen and I had a couple minutes to catch our breath. It’s been very overwhelming experience today for all us, but the main thing is he’s finally out of the orphanage and here in our arms.
More later, but for now, Paka!
