Two weeks down! A mini update.

As of yesterday, we have been home (what a wonderful word!) for two weeks. I can't believe it has already been two weeks.

The flights home were not very fun. Emerald was not happy and cried lots. Emory did very well, what a little trooper he is. He slept on the floor by our feet for a few hours, thankfully. He's not used to sleeping except alone...so holding him does not help him fall asleep. He loves being held though! We finally made it home Friday night to a big crowd. It was awesome! We were beyond sleep deprived, but to see our friends and family after such a long time was heart-warming! We were greeted first by miss Megan Hagan, which was too sweet and too funny. There were lots of children there to greet us and meet Emory. We loved it!

Since being home Emory has been to the zoo, been to Whole Foods a couple times, been to the bathroom a whoolllee bunch, went from his hands at his sides during meal times to picking up Cheerios and eating them (well, swallowing them whole...ouch), having lots of fun with Mommy, enjoying play time on the bed with his new family (he likes to use his skinny little legs to get his sissy), and pretty much thriving!

We've had so much fun with Emory. He's a doll, just so sweet and cuddly, loves attention. It's amazing to me that he can be so lively and fun after a few short weeks of being with us after living his life ignored and in pain. I am so thankful to the Lord for setting the lonely in families! We have also had our challenges. Two babies is more stress and work on us and our marriage, but also lots more love and room to grow. Emory has many orphanage habits which are hard to deal with at times, like crying whenever there is food (makes for sometimes very unpeaceful mealtimes) and staring off into space or stemming (rocking, self stimulating) as well as making interesting noises. He also goes #2 a whole lot...and all day it seems. I have never gone through so many diapers and wipes in my life!

Emory has many specialists to see...a pediatric gastroenterologist, pediatric cardiologist, pediatric urologist, and a pediatric dentist. I am most looking forward to the gastro doctor to see if he can do anything to improve Emory's bathroom area. If I think too much about it, all I see is $$$$$$$$$$$$$, but the obvious truth is God has led us this far, he's not going to leave us hanging now.

Thank you for your support and prayers. I hate that I haven't been able to email back or blog, please forgive me. I'm sure I'll get into a rhythm soon, but I haven't yet. Unfortunately, all the beautiful pictures I have taken the past two weeks are not to be found either, they are not showing up on my memory card. I will work on that. :)

A great friend Sarah was one of the many who greeted us at the airport. Emory was safe in his sling.

The airport group, minus Matthias' parents who had driven all day from Michigan to be there! Love the awesome sign! Thanks Mom!

Me and my sweet boy at chuch on National Orphan Sunday for his dedication.

A proud Papa and his babies.

I'm a mom of two precious gifts! Emory loved the swing for the most part and loved the sand box even more!! He got sand E V E R Y W H E R E ! lol

ORPHAN NO MORE!!! Gotcha Emory!!!!

As of October 27, 2011, Emory Mac Handrich is no longer a forgotten little boy living in an orphanage...he is a son, brother, grandson, great grandson, cousin, and nephew! We are so blessed and excited to have in our family. THANK YOU for supporting us!

NERVOUS

Emerald is napping and Matthias is sitting next to me playing games on his ipod. I'm a ball of nerves! Like my water just broke or wedding day nerves or even first date with Matthias nerves. LOL. Adoptive Mamas...is this normal? I'm sure it is...but, it's no fun.

We pick up Emory in an hour!! NO MORE ORPHANAGE FOR EMORY IN JUST A FEW HOURS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Pictures to follow, but I'm so excited about his and Emerald's matching footy pajamas and bath time.

Stories by Matthias Part 3

Ok, so I know how all of you have been dying to hear another one of my stories, so here goes.

I think it was on the 27th of Sept, we decided that we wanted to see a little of the countryside. Having talked to a lady that we had made friends with at the orphanage, her suggestion was to a place called Balaklava. She said it was about an 30 min bus ride to get there and it was a really cool place by the water. She said they had nice beaches that Emerald would like and it was real pretty. We decided that we would try and make the journey and find our way to Balaklava.

Me being the directional mastermind in the family I decided to look it up on Google maps to find just exactly we were headed. Balaklava is due south of where we are staying here in Sevastopol. How hard could it be to find a bus to take us there? Our friend said that we needed to take bus 20 to a place called 5 Kilometer and from there get on bus 9 and that would take us to Balaklava. Easy, so we thought.
Finding bus 20 was very easy because I always try and pay attention to the vehicles around us when we are going to and from the orphanage. It runs a similar route as the bus we take (109), it just makes a different turn about half way through the route. So I new where it would stop closest to our apartment. We boarded bus 20 headed to 5 KM and we excited about our day ahead.

We arrived at 5 KM about 20 minutes later and proceeded to look for bus 9 that we would need to get on to take us to Balaklava. We walked across the road to the spot where we saw all of the busses picking up people and waited for bus 9 to come. We waited for about 30 minutes and decided that we should probably look elsewhere to find the bus 9 route. We decided that trying to ask someone where bus 9 picked up people. We asked a younger guy that spoke a little English and he told us to wait where we had been waiting so we headed back there to wait some more. We waited another 30 minutes and tried asking some more people not really finding anyone who spoke English this time. We headed back over to where our bus 20 had initially dropped us off to try and find someone over there to help us. We finally found a younger lady who spoke English and she showed us where it was. The funny thing was if we would have just looked behind us when we would have gotten off bus 20 we would have seen a whole row of bus 9s waiting to take people. We got on to one of the buses and were finally ready to head to the beach.

In all it took us about 2½ hours to get to Balaklava but now we were finally there and ready to head to the beach. We were a little hungry when we got there so we decided to get a little bite to eat before we headed to the beach. We found a pizza place and tried our luck there, after about 15 minutes of trying to communicate we figured out what we wanted and ordered it. We also each got an Americana coffee to sip on while we waited for our pizza.

It was a pretty little restaurant right on the port where all the boats come in. There was a bird cage with two birds in the restaurant that Emerald loved to watch. It was kind of nice because they kept Emerald occupied while we waited for the food. This is a picture of her watching the birds.

 After we ate our delicious pizza we headed out to find a boat to take us to the beach. We found one without much effort because people are always trying give people rides to the beach. The fun part was when we started off in the boat to the beach. We were probably about half way to the beach when we got pulled over by the boat police. I am not sure what all happened but we were all freaked out because we had forgotten our passports. We were sure they were going to ask everyone on the boat for ID but thankfully they didn’t. I think they gave the boat driver a ticket or something because he didn’t have the proper paperwork. That took about 20 minutes of just bobbing up and down in the water waiting for them to get all the paper work done. Then we were off again to the beach for a relaxing time.

There was no kind of dock or anything at the beach so they just pull up as close as they can to the beach and you have to jump off into the water and walk to the shore. We were finally to the beach of Balaklava called Silver Beach. We proceeded to set out our blanket and get all of our stuff situated. There were not a whole lot of people there so we found a nice spot to lay. We lounged around for a little while and then I decided to take Emerald out for a swim. The water was pretty cold and Emerald didn’t like it at first but she got used to it in no time and floated out into the water with daddy holding her tight. She loved the water so much and I even got Lindsay to come out for a swim with us too. We had a great time in the water and stayed in for about 15-20 minutes. We were all starting to get cold so we decided to head back to our blanket and dry off. We laid out in the sun for a while and played in the sand a little with Emerald and the it was time to head back. We got some good photos of Emerald sunbathing and playing in the water.

We got back on a boat and headed back to the port to head for home. It was a fun day and we were so glad that we got to see Balaklava and all that it had to offer. We took some good photos of the scenery too.

This is what you see when you look out while on the beach.

These are the cliffs all around the beach… so pretty. 

We landed and headed back to the bus stop to head home for the day. We stopped at a little grocery store and got some ice cream for the ride home. We boarded our number 9 bus to head back to 5 KM where we would connect to number 20 that would take us home. We had a great time in Balaklava.

Wrapping Things Up Here

Today we are starting the process of wrapping things up here in Sevastopol. Vanya, our facilitator, has the official court decree declaring us Emory's parents! It goes in effect tomorrow. We will spend the next few days running around to notaries and passport people doing what needs to be done to get him home. We are hoping to get to Kiev Saturday morning. We have been blessed to be able to stay with a lady who houses adopting families for free. Very thankful for that.

We will probably get Emory from the orphanage on Wednesday. I am really looking forward to that! I know it is going to be so strange for him as the orphanage is all he has ever known. Please pray for him and us. It will be like having a baby because he can not feed himself. He cannot chew (yet), so I will be making soups with shredded vegetables and things that go down easily. At any rate, whatever the challenge before us, we are ready. Anything we can give him has got to be better than a bunch of nannies who switch out daily who don't have enough time to give him the love and attention he needs. I can't wait until he is in my arms for good! I'm looking forward to his "firsts". They may not be his first ever, but they'll be our first evers... first bath, first meal with his family, first Christmas, first time meeting his grandparents and uncles and aunts and cousins... so exciting!

Below are some of the pictures we took of his groupa. This is where he has spent his life.

The playroom. He is usually placed in a walker which usually winds up in front of the TV.

Across from the playroom, the meal room, with tables and chairs.

Emory's crib, just one of the many. They said he likes to walk around his crib and sing in the morning. :)

Emerald has never used a crib, so this will be an adjustment!

Funny face...trying to get to the water.

The room with all the cubbies where the children's belongings and outside clothes go. Emory had none except for what the orphanage put on him.

Emory with Mommy watching his Sissy. Don't mind my face or sweater, lol.

Today we stayed home all day.

Today was a grand day. First, Matthias woke up at 3am to watch Terra Nova, a silly, but good, Jurassic Park-ish TV show. I was supposed to get up and watch it with him, but...no, it didn't happen. Not at 3am.

Then I tried to get Emerald to sleep in with us, but she wouldn't have it. That's okay, she went to bed at 8:30! Her and I got up at 8 and made some fruity tea and ate oatmeal. It was sweet. Daddy got up and I got back in the bed for another hour, which was glorious. I drifted in and out of sleep and wrapped myself up in blankets and loved it. It was raining hard, that always makes naps better.

We spent the entire day inside. It was pouring rain and very cold and an orphanage visit would have been very difficult. As much as we wanted to see our boy, we know we are going to get to have him forever in one week. I made fried potatoes and onions for lunch and vegetable soup for dinner. We colored with crayons, snuggled in the bed lots, napped, watched some videos, drank hot drinks, made big messes, took hot baths, thought about going out but didn't.

Don't want to forget today. It was special.

Emory's name!

Artyom will no longer be Artyom...or "Puzi" (a nick name from his last name?) or #9. He has a new name. Given to him by his mother and his father who will love him forever!

Emory Mac Handrich

Emory is the name we picked out for Emerald, if she had been a boy. We decided to wait until she was born to find out and we really thought we were having a boy. Somehow Emory turned into Emerald. :) So, Emory has been in our hearts for a long time. It means, "home ruler", "industrious leader", "work and ruler". I'm still figuring out the significance of that. Any thoughts?

Mac is a family name. It comes from my maiden name, but more importantly is the nickname my beloved grandfather went by. He went to be with Jesus when I was 8, but I have only the fondest memories of him and I think he would be happy to have Emory named after him. It means "son of". Appropriate.

So, there you have it! We are mostly calling him Bubba though...which is very close to "brother" and easy for Emerald to say. We're silly!

Court Day

Here in Sevastopol, they handle all of the adoption cases once a month. The morning of court it was cold and rainy. We all took a taxi to the court house which was across town near the orphanage. Our cab was a few minutes late so we were the last family to arrive. There were 4 other Ukrainian families there adopting. Most we recognized from our visits with Emory. One family was adopting a little 2 year old they named Roma. Another adopting two 3 year old sisters (not twins) named Angelica and Anna Stacia. Another adopting a four month old baby boy. Very exciting!

We all waited in the hallway while they called each family in one by one. I was sure we'd be first. We were last. :) Each family hoping to adopt would walk in and out in about 10 minutes with a smile on their face. I was so happy for them! Emerald was pretty content walking around with me and nursing once (oh the places I have nursed!). When it was finally our turn they decided we needed to move into a larger room, instead of just the judge's office. So we moved to one room and then another. A real court room with a caged area with a bench for criminals. It was Matthias, Emerald, and I, our facilitator Vanya, the lady from social services, the prosecuting attorney, the secretary, one or two jury and the judge. The judge was an attractive lady in her early thirties I'd guess. She was very relaxed and friendly and told us we could let Emerald run around the court room. LOL. Her and Emerald played peek-a-boo with the judge in her seat and Emerald hiding behind the podium. The judge let us sit for the rest of the hearing after we stated our names, address, and professions. It went really well!

They asked us a few questions. Were we able to support Emory? (Yes, Matthias has a great job with a growing company.) Do we plan to have more children? (Yes, "some day"...lol.) Will I be able to handle two children? (Yes, you should see my childcare resume!) Will they (Emerald and Emory) be the same to us? (Yes.) I remember sharing how I have always wanted to adopt, even specifically a child with Down syndrome and that Matthias and I discussed this even before we were married. She looked very surprised. Then the social services lady read up a summary of us since we had spent some time in her office being interviewed by her and her people a couple of times. She read that we did not know that Emory's anal atresia had corrected and were planning on adopting him anyway. She looked surprised again at that.

She asked if anyone had any objections to us adopting and there were none...so she wished us well and off we went!

In the taxi with my Amish husband on the way to the court house. It was pouring! No seat belts or car seats here as you can see.

Walking around to the back of the building...just following Vanya.

 

Mommy breaking the news to Emory. ;) LOL

After court...we were so happy. Emerald was ready to get out of there.

Daddy and Emmy jammin'.

Course we had to go see Bubba and tell him the good news!

He was happy!

Plop!