An Awesome Day

We had a great day meeting with our new children.  Or rather, we didn't spend much time with the children.  We spent a lot of time with the entourage.

When we adopted Elena and Juliana - they had no supporters.  There was no fanfare or excitement.  They had nobody who was interested in their lives.   We adopted naked children.  They were not even allowed to take a diaper with them.  We had to provide everything.

This time is different.  Katerina has many surrogate mother/sister figures at the orphanage.  Andrew has a network of people in many countries who have been fighting for him.  He also has godparents who have been helping supply him with food and supplies.

We first went to Katerina's orphanage.  Many of the older girls had gone shopping at the bazaar.  They bought many clothes and outfits for her.  They gave us a bag of clothes she had at the orphanage.  Her favorite teacher bought her a dress also.  Katerina's grandmother also came and gave us a lace doily she had made, as well as more clothes for Katerina.  The girls had even bought an outfit for Andrew, and hair accessories for Juliana and Elena. 

Mmmmmmm........   apple!

Katerina, Kelly, and Katerina's grandmother

At Andrew's orphanage, his godmothers (and one of their sisters) came to visit Andrew.  They brought an outfit for Andrew, including a traditional Ukrainian shirt to match his eyes.  They brought a book of traditional folk stories in Ukrainian and English.  They brought some bubbles and a toy and told us to take his walker when we left.  

The climate is so completely different.  These children have had people loving them and caring for them.  It makes such a tremendous difference in the lives of these little ones to have had the care and sponsorship that these children have had. We are blown away by the generosity that all these people have shown to our children (and to us).

Nurse feeding Andrew

Helena (one of his godmothers) holding Andrew

Andrew looking cute

Oksana (sister of godmother) playing with Andrew and bubbles

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 Stuffed animals are everywhere in Ukraine.  The buses and taxis each have one as a talisman / good luck charm.  Given the state of some of the vehicles, the plushie talisman is the only thing keeping the thing together.  The orphanages have many plushies in the play room.  Some even have the neon plushies the size of a grown man that usually inhabit carnivals.    Anyway - the plushies range from "Ohh.... so adorable"

 

to slightly creepy....

 

to more creepy knockoffs of trademarked characters.....

  

to the run-away-fast creepy thing below.  Would you let this thing babysit your child?   Thought not.   The flash actually makes it a LOT cuter/less creepy.  Seriously - this thing weirds us out every time we visit the playroom.  

The icing on the cake is some of the pavilions at the orphanage. They get the toys down occasionally so that the children can play with them.  When not being used - the toys are hung from the roof in a macabre display.  We like to imagine the town drunk staggering into the pavilion at night only to wake up and see all the beady eyes staring down at him. 

We will  end with cute.  Andrew fell asleep in the swing today with a hedgehog plushie.  

Awwwwwww.............

The calm before the chase

We sat and watched the cars again today.  Andrew made the "tbbtbthhht" noise when he saw a car.  One time I was not paying attention and he said "tbbttbbtt" - yep, there was a car that he had spotted.

He especially liked the yellow city buses.  He started saying "buh" when he saw a bus (or also a delivery van), but not saying it with small cars. 

Tomorrow we start the paper chase - racing all over town doing paperwork.  Hopefully "Gotcha" day will be soon.

Here Andrew is practicing the dance move "The Sprinkler". Sadly, we are not making this dance move up.

Many of the trees at the orphanage look like they have eyes. "Hooom,  Hoooom". 

Here he is raising his arm for Daddy to kiss it.  Daddy has no problems with it. 

He turned his hat sideways all by himself.

Visting Andrew

 

It is good to have fluffy hair.  Father and son agree.

Andrew likes to watch cars.  He is interested in seeing all the different types of cars drive past the orphanage.  "Thhhhhbbbbttt" he says, imitating a car engine.

 We  couldn't visit Katerina today (Monday) because it was a holiday.  We did visit Andrew.  Andrew is starting to copy us on words.  Today, he said "Mama" "Dada" and "no".   We don't think he knows what they mean (except no), but he is copying the sounds when we talk to him.

Visiting Andrew

Here our pictures from visiting Andrew. Sadly, we can not visit Katerina on the weekends.

One of Andrew's supporters sent him a toy.  We thought it would be fun for him - it has a drum, and sliders, and a cymbal.  The first time he saw it, he was terrified.  And the second....  and the third....  and the fourth... Little by little we have introduced the toy to him.  He is no longer scared of it.  He now enjoys playing with the toy.  Life would be very difficult in America if he is scared of toys.

He loves playing on the tablet.  His accuracy is improving.  He especially likes watching Taylor Swift.

Andrew continues to improve in sitting up.  He has also getting much better at holding on to us with one arm.  He is making more and more "babble" talking sounds the longer we have been with him.

Successful Court

No more aliases.  No more "Bowen" or "Rini".

 

We are now the proud parents of Andrew Justice and Katerina Rose.

 

After a two hour court grilling, we have come out OK on the other side.  All of our requests were granted.

1) That we would be allowed to adopt Katerina and Andrew

2) That we would be named as their parents

3) That their names would be changed (slight Anglicizations and middle names).

4) That the 10-day waiting period would be waived.

We will not know this side of eternity how many people were praying for us.  We know that there was a network of hundreds(even thousands, if her English is right) of people praying for us in Ukraine and Russia, plus our friends and family back home. 

Everything went smoothly.  Thank you for your prayers and support.

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When Andrew was born, his father gave his mother an ultimatum - "Choose him or me!" he said, and she left her baby.  He was named Andrew (by the hospital staff? (we aren't sure) after the recent commemoration of St. Andrew.  When he heard this, Andrew's father rushed back to the hospital.  "My name is also Andrew" he said.  "I will not have that (his son) sharing my name!  Call him "Arthur" instead!"    Before this day, Andrew was one of very few Ukrainians to have a middle name - Andrew Arthur.  Today - Andrew is like most Americans in that he has a first and a middle name.  This time, however, he has a name from parents who love him.

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The funny moment was when the judge, at about the 90 minute mark, after having read the letters of recommendation from the orphanage and the Institution, indicated the 1.5" stack of apostilled and translated documents on his desk.  "There are a lot of documents here......    is everyone OK with skipping reading all of them aloud?" (They documents have all been read by the proper parties in advance).   He went around the room, everyone stood up, said their name and title, and "yes".  Otherwise we would have been there for another three hours.   And yes, we do know some families that have had the entire stack read in court - all the way down to the medical report (new parents' height, weight, eye color.......)

We can pick up the court decree on Wednesday because Monday is a government holiday.  We hope to get a lot of the paperwork done next Wednesday.  We don't know when Gotcha Day will be yet.    

 

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Well, here are some pictures.  We can now post pictures of Katerina Rose.  She will probably end up as Katy or Katy-Rose.

 

 

Not to be left out in photos with his new name, here is Andrew Justice.

 

We also saw a hedgehog at Andrew's orphanage.  

 

The best presents are those.....

 ...  that you make yourself.    "Bowen" marked his territory with Kelly today.

Here's a flower!

"Bowen" is back in the orphanage.   Yay!

We let him play in the sandbox.  He had great fun scooping the sand out.


We met with his two godmothers.  It is very encouraging to meet with them.  There is an entire network of people who have been helping buy clothes and food for him.  They have been praying for him and helping him when he has been sick.  It has made such a difference in his life.   He can't fight for himself yet.  He can not advocate for himself.  There is a world of difference between him and our daughters when we brought them home; no one advocated for them.  We are very grateful for all the work that people have put into this child long before we were involved in the adoption process.

Bowen and the Tablet

In the hospital, "Bowen" is dressed in fewer layers.  The tablet we have will work if there are not many clothes between it and your skin.  This means we can either let him play on the tablet, or we can get an arm loose and let him use it directly.  He is unable to play with the tablet at the orphanage due to the amount of clothes he normally wears.

He has enjoyed the touch-to-make-a-firework app as well as the piano and drum kit programs.