Happy Birthday Dima!

Three years ago a baby boy was born.  6 lbs. 19.5 inches in a Moscow Maternity Home.  His mom was young and had no one to turn to so she left him there.  He was later brought to an orphanage where he remains till this day. 
It makes me sad that his birth has not been celebrated and that he wasn't born into optimum conditions.  I choose to believe however that he has had some love over the years.  He is kind, shares, knows what a hug is and will give them out if asked...knows what a kiss is and will give them to his new mama if asked :)  Someone taught him these things.  He's learned his numbers and animals and how to talk and how to dress himself.  Maybe it was just survival but I think he was treated with kindness and was the object of some caretakers affection. 
They don't celebrate birthdays in orphanages in Russia.  I asked his social worker if they would make an exception today.  I left a birthday bag with goodie bags for everyone in his group and a birthday card from us.  Something for everyone so that on this day they could have a little celebration, a break from the norm and have something extra to smile about.  Dima will hear a card we had written in Russian with a little reminder that we are coming.  Today will be the last time our little boy spends a birthday without his family around him.

My hope and prayer is that Dima is reminded and is excited about what is to come.  I pray he can feel our love across the ocean.  I love you my little boy!  We'll be there soon!

Parents Again!

 Court was at 11:00 am here in Moscow.  We were dressed and ready.  Our facilitator/driver and translator prepped us on how to answer questions.  Court was a relatively small room in an enormous beautiful building in Moscow City.  The judge seemed young (around 30s) and was very serious.  Never smiled never really looked up from his/our paperwork except to get an answer from us for his questions.
Willem had to take the stand and answer questions like "why do you want to adopt from Russia?" "Have you been given all the information about Dima" "do you like him" then I had to take the stand and answer similar questions.  Our translator was standing with us so it wasn't too intimidating.  Then the director of Dima's orphanage went up and said we were good with him.  Dima likes us, etc...  A public defender for Dima was also present who said stuff like we tried to find him a home here in Russia.  This family is suitable and we see no reason not to allow him to live with them.  The judge went away to his chambers for about 10 minutes then came out and said that Dima was now Kasen Dmitry Mast....Ours.
It is absolutely crazy and surreal to me that this is all happening but we are overjoyed.  We walked out and said something along the lines of  "holy smokes we are parents of 4 kids"  and our translator, who i adore, laughed and said yes you guys are crazy!  :)

Willem and I have talked about what it will be like for Kasen to leave the orphanage.  He has never known a mother.  He has only had the walls of that orphanage and the people there and the other children there.  We feel he has had great care.  He is smart, articulate, social and that is not always the  case for kids institutionalized all their lives.  It pains us to know that his trip home with us and adjustment will likely be scary for him.  We know that we are much better for him than staying where he is but still we have questioned in the back of our minds are we what is best for him.  Today we felt like God was telling us YES after we learned the following...
We were told by the orphanage director that the government decided last week that Kasen's orphanage will be closed!  The orphanage houses 40 kids and the government says that an orphanage should hold more like 140 kids and that they are planning to close his orphanage to instead use it as a Hospice facility for children.  The children of his orphanage will be scattered among orphanages in the city.  Everything Dima has known would have come to an end anyways had we not adopted him.  He would be with new caretakers, new kids,  and much more crowded facilities.

Our hearts are broken about the kids there.  We were told that there are no other healthy kids left at that orphanage and that the children moving to new orphanages will likely never be adopted.  On top of that the orphanage has had a reputation of being good with children with intellectual disability specifically Down's Syndrome.  The kids with Down's were not separated from the healthier children but instead kept with them so that they can be stimulated and strive towards new goals.  There was a greater caretaker to child ratio than most and this all benefited those children.  I am sad particularly for these kids and ask you to pray for them...
Kasen Dmitry doesn't know how lucky he is and I suspect we don't know how lucky we are to have him either....but we can't wait to learn!
We see him tomorrow morning and will say goodbye for the last time.  We will return Sept. 16 to bring him home!!  Thank you again for all the prayers!
Below are pics of the day...it was gorgeous!

 

Dima the piano player

Our visit with little guy went great!  Oh how I wish I could show pictures!  He has grown in the last 3 1/2 months.. He is taller seemed to have lost some of his baby fat and his hair is longer.  It's board straight too and super blonde.
He seemed to remember us but is still a little confused about what is going on.  I asked him to hug me and he did.  I asked him "where is Papa?" and he pointed to Willem.  He hugged Willem as well and I asked him "where is Mama?" and he pointed to me!  YAY! He is getting it.
We played with toys and we had the same car he had the last time so he recognized that right away and was happy to play with that for a bit.  He kept saying that he liked to push the button in Russian.  He counted cars...not correctly every time but it is obvious he has been working on his numbers.  He seemed to have a bigger vocabulary and our interpretor confirmed that and said he was saying things better (less toddler esque).  
He was more relaxed with us this time and his personality showed through more.  We were in the music room and he wanted to play with the piano.  The social worker came in and said he wasn't allowed to touch it but he desperately wanted to play it.  It took a good 10 minute session of us telling him no and taking him away and our translator said she didn't think it would be bad if we just let him play it a few minutes.  We reluctantly gave in and he sat on Willem's lap while Willem played it and he banged along.  I was so greatful we did however because he began to sing a song for us while he played.  We caught some on video before we had to make him stop as we didn't want him to get into trouble for it if the social worker came back in.  We have a piano at home and I suspect we will be hearing lots of it in the future.  :)
We also tried some clothes on him that I had brought so we can get a good idea of his size.  He was so excited about them.  He said "new pants" and eagerly put them on.  Once he was all dressed he stood up looked at himself and then us and said "I'm so handsome" in Russian.  He ran over to the full length mirror to check himself out.  It was adorable.  Later when the social worker came back in to take him away he kept saying to her "Look at me i'm handsome"
We had a great visit and can't wait to get him all to ourselves.  Our court time got pushed back a bit to  11am which will cause us to not be able to see him tomorrow.  We will be able to visit him on our way to the airport Friday however.
Tonight we did some souvenir shopping, had some dinner and are preparing for court tomorrow.
Please pray for us tomorrow or tonight as you are going to sleep.  We have a new judge that our facillitator has only worked with once so we are hoping we don't get any surprises and things go smoothly.
Next time we post hopefully we will be parents of four!

Moscow trip #2

We made it!  A view from our apartment window of Tverskaya St.  We are very close to Red Square. (That Red Tower in the distance is part of the Kremlin)

Our travel was fairly uneventful.  We almost missed our Washington DC to Moscow flight however.  When we landed in Washington the plane didn't pull up close enough for the Tarmac or passenger tube thing to extend.  They had to make everyone sit down again and pull the plane up closer which caused about a 30 minute delay.  Then they switched the gates on us and we ended up having to full out sprint to our gate. They were about to close the doors!!  It took me about an hour to chill out and catch my breath.

I took a walk down to the bathroom during our 10 hour flight and had to laugh at peoples positions while trying to sleep on a plane.  This is how we ended up...

My leg is across Willem...we were like a giant X in our seats.  Slept for about 4 hours... not too bad for me.
We are leaving this morning for the orphanage in about an hour!  We are so excited to see our little man.  We have been practicing our Russian phrases since we woke up.  We will post as soon as we can about how it all went!
Love from Moscow!!




 

Court Date and Trip #2

I should have posted sooner about this...We got our court date!  Sometime on Aug. 9 in Moscow we should be declared Dima's parents!  Isn't that crazy?!  We are over the moon excited.
We applied for visas, had a little bit of trouble with Willem's but after God pulled through there we now have our visas in hand...

For those of you interested our trip schedule will go like this...
Aug. 6 - Depart
Aug. 7 - Arrive in Moscow
Aug. 8 - See our baby boy!!!! DIMA DAY!!
Aug. 9 - Court in the morning then back to the orphanage to share the good news with Dima
Aug. 10 - Hopefully another visit with Dima (will have to negotiate with orphanage) in the morning then afternoon flight to Brussels
Aug. 11 - Another night in Brussels to celebrate our 13th Anniversary and our successful court hearing!
Aug. 12 - Fly Home!
To answer the questions...by Russian law we have to wait until we receive the court decree in writing (30 days processing time) before we can pick up Super Boy and bring him home for good.  So we will be making a third trip to Moscow by mid September at the latest.   On that trip he will officially become an American citizen when he lands on American soil...YAY!
We are hoping he will remember us.  We brought the same toys we brought last time to jog his memory as well as a couple more to play with him that we will bring on the last trip.  We also have a picture book (seen above) that we have translated in Russian so we can sit with him and read to him all about our family.  Oh and a blanket that we will bring on the third trip too so it is something familiar.  Gifts for his caretakers, our facilitators, the orphanage director, the orphanage, etc....Basically tons of stuff!  Lots of room for souvenirs on the way home!
We're busy packing this week and next and getting the kids ready for us to leave. 
Pray we don't forget anything!

WAITING

The waiting...the waiting...the waiting.

It makes for terrible blogging and is starting to contribute to me being in a bad mood.  None the less I thought it was time for a little update.  Our agency called us last week and said they still don't have a court date but expect to receive one mid July.  Therefore they asked us to get a visa in place for July 12 as they believe they'll get a court date somewhat close to then.  They are expecting only about 10 days notice so I'm happy for the heads up. 

In the meantime I've been collecting things to take to Dima on our next trip as well as gifts for the facillitators and orphanage workers.  We're also gathering donations for his orphanage.  Anyone wanting to contribute please comment or email me!

My Russian is coming along but i have realized I will not master this language by any means before I get him home.  I've decided to start focusing on phrases that will be useful when Dima gets home.  Wish me luck! Even a toddler vocabulary is rough!

With the usual chaos of the end of the school year and the recent girls trip I went on my mind was diverted.  Now that summer has set in I'm going a little mad.  I miss him.  I have watched videos of him over and over and i'm ready for new material! Hopefully we'll get word soon!

Day 7, Saturday, April 27, 2012

After saying goodbye to one of my children I was ready to get back to the others!  Willem was happy to chill in Moscow a little while longer but I could tell my kids were getting ready for their mom and dad to be home.  Willem spent most of his Friday afternoon and evening on the phone with United via Skype trying to find us a sooner flight home.  It took a lot of work because we flew over on points so we had to fly home on points.  Luckily Willem got er done and we ended up with a flight scheduled to leave Moscow around 4 pm with a layover for the night in Brussels, Belgium.
Our driver Eugene picked us up and took us to the airport.  I was sad to say goodbye to him but so excited to be on our way.  It wasn't until we were in the air and watching Moscow leave us in the distance that I got really choked up.  I was leaving Dima behind in the care of someone else... It broke my heart and we vowed to push as hard as we could to get the quickest return time possible so that we can get this over with.
The flight was 3 hours and we arrived in Belgium around 6 pm.  We had been fed on the plane so we checked into our airport hotel and asked the desk guy about what Belgium had to offer.  Guess people don't just happen in there randomly very often.  He grabbed a map and told us to hop on the airport train that led to downtown Brussels.  He said there is lots of stuff to see there. 

We had no idea!  Brussels is beautiful!!  Full of shops selling chocolate, belgian french fries, belgian waffles, artwork, souvenirs....  It was great to just stroll around.  We ate fries and waffles for dessert then headed back to the hotel for the night.  We slept like the dead till the morning and then departed for home.
We are now starting to gather more paperwork.  Updated medical reports, updated criminal reports.  Once this is all in, notarized, apostilled and translated and sitting in the Moscow Ministry of Education we will be assigned a court date.