Two Days with Danielle

Today is Sunday and we woke up wanting to praise the Lord. We are in our ten day wait for official papers and can not take Danielle beyond a short walking distance of the hotel property. She is still the responsibility of the Director of the Baby House and it could cause great difficulty if we were asked to show papers and did not have a passport for our daughter. So we had to stay on property and praise the Lord within our family. Then I opened my emails and discovered my brother a missionary in Honduras had prepared a word for us from the Lord about Adoption:

In roman times a natural child and parents could be legally divorced.(Israel/Gent) But an adopted child was permanent and the parents could not separate from them by law.When Paul says we have been adopted…And uses it in this context. These passages will now carry a heavier truth in your lives that will always be with you… amen

Rom 8:15 For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.
16 The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:

Rom 8:23 And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.

Gal 4:5 To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.
6 And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.
7 Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.

Eph 1: 5 Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,
6 To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.

Again God has the answer before we ask the question.

The last two days have been wonderful getting to know our daughter. She has been so happy. I have chosen to have Papa to do most of the bonding right now, before we know it he will be back at work full time and will never have this much time to spend bonding with his daughter. She has instantly become a daddy’s girl. She still loves the mama, but she is really enjoying getting to know papa. The weather is perfect, late summer with cool mornings and evenings and warm afternoons. Danielle loves to go outside. She understands when we ask her, in English, if she wants to go for a walk. Vlad Inn has installed a playground, it is very popular for the neighborhood. On Sundays it is full of children and there is a clown. Today the clown picked up Danielle and we got a picture. She was not afraid. I do not think she has had any fears since she has been with us. At the playground she has tackled all the slides but the big tube slide. I think I counted six slides on the playground. She did go down the tube slide once, but got all turned around and came down on her back head first. She did not seem scared but for now she did not want to go in it again. She did create a game, she climbs us the stairs, goes over a bridge and goes to a landing about three feet above the ground, she then leaps into papa’s or my arms. She must really trust us and that feels good, it keeps us on our toes, we do not know if she will leap even if we are not there waiting for her. For now we just want to be there to continue building the trust. I am sure we will have opportunities to make what if discoveries at home where the playgrounds have protective ground cover. She has been eating well, and goes to bed and sleeps through the night and at nap time. What a blessing. When we put her shoes on, she loves to hear the shoe stomp on the floor or sidewalk, she sounds like such a big person when she walks. We have been enjoying every moment of this special bonding time.

I think there are seven adoptive families here at this time, three have babies, close to one year old, four of us have toddlers to 5 year olds. The older group has been getting together after dinner in the White Rabbit room to let the little ones play with play dough or coloring books. It has been a great release and social time for the kids and the chairs in the White Rabbit are much more comfortable than sitting on the edge of a bed. Last night some of us ordered dinner in the White Rabbit, tonight we just met after dinner. The families with babies are welcome too, the social interaction with other adoptive parents helps with the ten day wait.

There has been a change at the Vlad Inn. On our first visit, they took dollars and did the exchange for us. The new policy is to accept rubles or credit cards only.

We do miss our son and can not wait to reunite our family soon. Little David, we love you.

Thank you all for your prayers,

Court Date and Gotcha Day Too

Today we went to court in Vladivostok. We were scheduled at 11:00. We arrived about 10:20 because traffic was in our favor. Irina had us leave extra early because sometimes Vladivostok traffic can cause major delays. When we arrived, we saw Jeff and Jennifer’s Rep in the lobby waiting; they had a 10:00 appointment. They came out at about 10:30 to wait for their Judges decision. A few minutes later, they had a positive conclusion and it was our turn. Since we were early, our judge went ahead and started the proceedings at about 10:45, I was impressed. I am used to having to wait at official proceedings.

Irina and Lana had spent time describing to us the court proceedings and had told us how to act in court. When addressing the court you should stand to state your answer. Remember to direct our answers toward the judge and not to Lana who is speaking to us in English. It seems adoption court is a little different than any other court. In other types of court proceedings you answer with simple yes and no’s, to say more may cause confusion or self incrimination. But here in Vladivostok adoption court it is best to answer with emotion and the full embellishment of the story. The judge will stop you when they have heard what they need to hear. Irina and Lana also told us some of the questions the judge may ask to help us prepare for the correct answers. Even with this preparation the questions tend to make you nervous. In our case most of the difficult questions were directed at David. They were concerned with the amount of hours he spends away from home doing his work and the ministry. They asked questions about the stability of our marriage and wanted to know if divorce was a possibility. They asked if he would have enough love for our daughter. There was also a question about his family life when he was a child. Why he knew Danielle was the right child for our family. She asked him to tell her the medical and family background. There were several other difficult questions that are still swimming around in my head. When it was my turn, I was asked several probing questions. I was asked what I could give to Danielle. Why should the judge consider waiving the ten days? Then the most difficult question came to me. The one question I had hoped would not be asked. Some of you may know that about a month ago a West Virginia Real Estate Broker had went to his office with his new son adopted from Russia, as I recall they had the child for only three months. The father forgot to drop the son at daycare and left the baby in the car all day. The little boy died. I was asked what I thought about this. I choked up and started to cry right in the court before the judge. When I had first heard the story, I had cried and prayed for this family for 3 days. My heart still hurts at this tragedy.

There were some paperwork formalities and then the prosecutor had the opportunity to ask questions. She argued against waiving the 10 days by stating that according to Russian law the 10 days may only be waived for severe health issues. She chose not to ask us any questions. We were then asked to leave the room. A few minutes later we were asked back in to hear that we had been granted the parental rights for Danielle and would have our official papers in 10 days. Yea God!!!! Two years, six months into Danielle’s Journey, we have adopted our daughter.

Now the surprise. Jeff and Jennifer’s rep from another agency and Irina were able to double team the social worker and had her overrule the director of our baby home to give us custody of our children during the 10 day wait. Yea God it is also GOTCHA DAY!!!!! Future adoptive parents from the Usserysk baby home please understand this is very rare. We thank God for this decision and we were fine with custody or no custody during the 10 day wait and did not press this issue. There are pros and cons about early custody, so we came to Russia prepared to handle the wait either with our without the custody of Danielle. It is normal for Irina to try to request early custody, but most of the time she is turned down. The biggest reason I am currently looking at the beautiful face of a precious little girl sleeping in her crib is because the weather is very very nice right now. The two girls released today have not been prone to severe or repetitive colds. And both couples have one child at home already, so we have some experience with children and illnesses. When I heard it was a strong possibility that we could have Danielle during our 10 day wait I prayed and asked Jesus to allow the decision to be the best situation for Danielle.

I was actually very concerned about taking Danielle from the baby home today. Yesterday she was more upset than comfortable with our return visit. Today they woke her up just a little bit early from her nap to bring her out to us. She cried when she saw us. I picked her up and she buried her face in my shoulder and cried. I took her over to the window to see outside and she calmed down. We played for a while and then papa wanted me to hand her to him. When I did she buried her head in his shoulder and cried, he also took her to the window to look outside which calmed her down. Then she realized papa was holding her and she likes being held. She began warming up to him quickly. Our paper work was now done and we signed for the custody of Danielle during the 10 day wait. We had already stopped to buy the orphanage gift of diapers and a cake. Then we changed Danielle. The moment we began to change her clothes, she changed too. It was like she was ready to put off the old and put on the new. Her attitude changed and she was ready to go on her new big adventure with mama and papa. We put her between us and put the lap seatbelt on her. Filled her lap with dolls and drove two hundred feet away to the grocery store. Papa and Danielle stayed in the van and Irina and I went in to get about a weeks worth of food for Danielle. She rode the whole hour and a half back to our hotel between us in her seat belt. I wanted to start the pattern out properly because it will be a car seat when we get home. Unfortunately, we gave her some snacks and she got car sick twice on the way back to the baby home. We got back to our room, changed her and papa took her outside for a walk. I put away groceries, unpacked the toys we took with us and prepared Danielle’s dinner. Papa left the room for a minute and when he knocked on the hotel door I said papa, and she said papa three times. Her first word we understand is papa. David is flying high as a kite. After dinner, we went for another walk outside, then inside for a bath. She really liked the bath and liked the toothbrush cleaning I did on her toe nails and finger nails. We wrapped her up in a towel and then treated all of her little scratches, scrapes and bug bites, as well as a rash on her rear. We put her PJ’s on and papa sat with her and went through the 1000 first words in Russian book. We were surprised when she started pointing at animals as either making a sound the animal makes, or calling it by name in Russian. She was one happy little girl all snuggled into papa’s lap looking at her book and communicating. It was definitely the right decision to have custody of her for the 10 day wait. Thank you Jesus for orchestrating (again).

Get Ready, Set Go………to Court

We were able to spend one day in Seoul, South Korea on the way to Vladivostok. We flew Delta from Ft. Lauderdale to Atlanta, and Korean Airlines from Atlanta to Seoul. The Atlanta to Seoul flight was 15 hours. The seats were as comfortable and roomy as any economy seats we have been in, better than Vlad Air or Aeroflot. The attendants were excellent and the service was superior. The entertainment center had about 20 on demand movies, several video games, some TV shows and a music venue. Each seat had its own entertainment center. Even though I got up often to stretch, by the end of 15 hours we were miserable. That is a long flight I hope to not repeat any time soon. Seoul airport was fairly easy to navigate thru immigration and customs and many people in Seoul speak English. Most signs are in Korean and English. We found our bus to the hotel. We were able to stay at the Hilton Millennium using David’s American Express points. We had dinner at the hotel and went to bed. We got up early to tour the city. We took a city tour bus. It circles the main sites in the city every two hours with busses running every 30 minutes. You get on and off the bus at any of the sites you want to visit, then get on the bus, visit another site to two and circle around to your point of entry. We were able to visit two sites, the Changdeokgung (Palace from the Chosun Dynasty) and the Seoul Tower in Namsan Park. We would have loved to visit more sites, but time did not allow, we were very happy with our day and two nights in Seoul.

We really miss our son David, we try to call him every day. We called him Tuesday morning before we went sightseeing in Seoul and it was just about bed time Monday evening. He was really missing us. That is the hardest thing we have had to bear in this whole adoption journey.

Wednesday morning we boarded a flight on Vlad Air from Seoul to Vladivostok. All I need to say about that flight is, we made it here safely. After flying Korean Airlines, it will be difficult for any other airline to impress us. We got to Vlad about an hour late. Irina and Lana were there to meet us. It was good to see them again. They really do work hard to get us all here as soon as possible. I know some things may get lost in translation somewhere between Vladivostok and Moscow, then from Moscow to St. Louis and finally from St. Louis to each of us at home. Be assured they are continuously working on our behalf.

Today we were able to visit with Danielle for the first time in 4 months, 3 weeks and 4 days. It also may have been a while since Danielle has been in the large gathering/music room where we first met her. The music room has been under renovation as well as almost every room at the baby house. There was another court family from another agency doing their pre-court visit with their little girl in the room. Danielle came into the room and was very frightened, too many people, a room she visits rarely and all dressed up in a stiff unfamiliar dress. She was in a very pretty taffeta dress, soft cream with tan/yellow circles. Her hair was French braided in a circle around the back of her head ending in a pony tail at one side of her head. She was very cute. She did not remember us and cried when she saw us. It took her a little longer than last time to allow me to hold her and she cried for a while. In hopes of sparking her memory we tried all the same activities we did on our first visit but she did not want to participate as quickly. She did like the treats from the Easter Eggs and she did eventually play with the lighted gears an eventually seemed to remember them. Danielle was very distracted, one of her classmates was in the room being visited and Danielle seemed to want to go play with her friend rather than be with us. She liked it when I tried on the shoes we had brought for her. All the shoes I had brought were too big. The other couple meeting with their daughter had brought a duffle bag of shoes to donate to the baby house. We were able to trade two pairs of shoes we brought with two pairs they had for donation. Thank you Jeff and Jennifer. We had two hours to visit with Danielle today. She did not want to go to papa. She cried each time I tried to hand her over to him. If we had had just another 30 minutes he may have won her over. She did let me sit her in papa’s lap to change her shoes just before it was time to go back to her room for lunch. We were also able to get her to hug papa by doing a big group hug. I am sure she will warm up to us on the next visit. We go to Court tomorrow and have been briefed by Irina and Lana about what to expect. Lana said “it is a just a formality, but a serious one. Get some rest and do not worry.” We will see tomorrow if we can have custody during our ten day wait. It is very unusual but it could happen. We just pray that the best thing for Danielle is what happens regarding custody during the wait.

Thank you all for your prayers.

Debbie and David, Danielle’s Mama and Papa

Ready to Leave for Court

We are almost packed and ready to go. We leave tomorrow morning at 8:00, we go thru Atlanta to Seoul, we will stay two nights and one day in Seoul for our last mini honeymoon for a while. Then we will arrive in Vladivostok on Wednesday, visit our daughter on Thursday and go to court on Friday. That's the plan, lets hope and pray all goes well with plans and weather.

The week has been very busy. We were visited by Tropical Storm Fay for two days. We fared very well, but I know she has flooded many communities in her path and is continuing to flood new areas, my prayers go to those affected byFay. We live on the hurricane dart board so part of our preparations was to make our home hurricane ready. So a good portion of our go to court plan has been bringing in lawn furniture and putting up shutters.

Little David is taking his nap right now. When he wakes up we will finish his packing and take him over to where he will be staying for the next 25 nights. Although he is excited about getting a new little sister and getting to stay with his best friends, he has been melting down several times a day since he found out we were leaving and just told me he does not want me to leave him. It is very hard for an almost 4 year old to understand the complications of international adoption, but he has been a real trooper. He will be very well cared for by our friends Vicki and Greg and their three children (all from Kemerovo thru CHI) aged from 3 to 6. We met and discovered the bond of International Adoption and God has put our two families together and allowed us to become friends. God is in every detail of this adoption. I hate to leave our son, and I am very excited to be bringing Danielle home soon, it is bittersweet.

We plan to be in Moscow from September 11th through the 16th at the Marriott Tverskaya if any other CHI families will be in Moscow let us know.

I will try to post as often as possible and will post pictures around September 9th, GOTCHA DAY. Thank you all for your prayers. Please also pray for Cindy (Cindy's Adoption Journal), Mama Sarah (Miracle in Russia) and one other family that has waited longer than we have for their court date. We hope to see these families arrive in Vladivostok before we leave.

Thank you all for your prayers.

Debbie and David

Court Date

We just got word that we will be going to court on August 29th. Yea God!!!!!