GOTCHA DAY - April 20th, 2009

Monday, 20 Apr – 9pm (St Petersburg time)

Our day started out with a phone call at 10am from our coordinator saying we would be leaving to pick up Maddox at 2:30pm. So, we headed out with our friends to grab a late breakfast and kill some time. Here we are in the courtyard of the Winter Palace before picking up Maddox.

Now, for the info you all really want to know about...
Right now Maddox and Britt are lying on our bed. Britt is doing more sleeping than Maddox. We have had him to ourselves for just over 4 hours now and so far, so good. We went to pick him up and got to the orphanage just after 4pm. After waiting for what seemed like forever (it was really just about 10 min), the social worker came in with a ledger. She had us sign our name in the book and then they brought him into us. Just like every time before, he was crying. It took him a few minutes, but he did stop. Then we changed his clothes and diaper, put on his snowsuit and walked out of the building with him. There was no party or goodbyes, just us walking out the door and down the stairs to the car.
He was a little scared at first in the car…he had never ridden in one before. After a minute or two, he was fascinated with everything going on around him. He sat very still on my lap for the 30 min ride to our hotel (car seats aren’t required and are not usually used). He whined when we got out of the car because he wanted to look some more, but that didn’t last long because there was new things to see in the hotel lobby. We took him to our room, took the snowsuit off (way to hot, but they pack the layers on their kids…when in Rome…), and got out the toys. I reached into the bag of toys and took something out, and then he reached in the bag. From that moment on, he took out a toy, laid it on the floor and reached into the bag to take out another one until the bag was empty. He transformed into a very different little boy. He was laughing (a first for us), giggling, smiling, running around and wanting me to chase him.

We played for over an hour on the floor. Then, it was his dinner time so I left to get some hot water and while I was gone (less than 2 minutes) he cried and ran to the door. Britt said Maddox was very concerned. When I came back (without the hot water), we decided to all go to the restaurant to get the water. He walked holding my hand down the hall and back. When we got back to the room, he whined again…he didn’t want to stop. As we walked, he touched everything…all new experiences. For dinner we gave him a packet of plain oatmeal, a cup of yogurt, a bunch of banana-flavored stars and some milk from a cup. He probably would have kept eating and eating, but we thought he shouldn’t overdo it tonight. After dinner we played some more and then I gave him a sponge bath while Britt ran and got us dinner. FYI, Russian McDonalds tastes better than American McDonalds (they must use oil with trans fats in it). I set him on the vanity with his feet in the sink. He loved splashing his feet in the water and didn’t seem to mind the washing at all. Maybe tomorrow we’ll try a real bath. After I dried him off and put his PJs on him, I brushed his hair. Then I gave him the brush to look at and he started brushing his hair with it (smart kid). After that, I made up a bottle and we cuddled as he drank it. It took him a few minutes to remember what to do, but it was excellent bonding time. Before we laid him down, we did a family hug (something we do a lot at home) and he had the biggest smile on his face…so we did another one. Then we tried to lay him down in the crib, but he started to cry, so we laid him on our bed. I stayed with him for a few minutes and then Britt laid with him. While Britt was there, he and Maddox took turns pointing at their ears, nose, eyes, etc. Britt would name them for Maddox and Maddox would say something in return. Sometimes it sounded right and sometimes it didn’t, but it was a really cool moment. One thing we found out was that Maddox sucks on his wrist. I never noticed the marks before, but I noticed them today and when he went to sleep we found out what they came from. He has a vacuum lock on his wrist. Now he is sleeping peacefully on our bed.

We are going to move him to the crib and put the crib next to the bed. They told us that he goes to bed at 8pm and gets up at 7:30am…we’ll see what the morning brings. He didn’t fall asleep tonight until 9pm. Tomorrow we are going to get out. We plan on wandering the hotel, going to a park, trying a restaurant for lunch. We’ll see how it goes. We were told his nap is from 12:30-3pm…if that holds true, he will be the best nap taker we’ve ever had :)

It is hard to believe that 18+ months of praying, paperwork, phone calls, more paperwork, and 3 trips to Russia was the easy part. God has blessed us this entire journey and we know He deserves all the glory. We go to sleep tonight knowing that the next part of our journey is just beginning and trust in God the entire way.