Sleeps: About 10 hours at night, and 2 hour nap. Will sleep anywhere– stroller, car, crib, mama and papa’s bed or even outside…
Eats: Just about anything– wants whatever everyone else is having. We haven’t found too much he won’t eat yet. His favorite may be bananas, though.
(A particularly yummy dinner of fried rice from our friend Jill)
Loves to: Play in water (until he’s shivering and his lips are purple!), dance, getting kisses and rasberries and giving big open mouth kisses, have the attention of his big brother and sister, do whatever they are doing, pressing on someone’s nose and making them go “honk” or “quornk, quornk” as Lena does
Dislikes: Diaper changes, getting buckled into his car seat, having his face wiped, going to sleep
What did I leave out? What else do you want to know about Gus?
We left our apartment in Moscow at 8am Saturday morning, that’s 11pm CST, for our 11:40am flight. But, our flight was delayed, first an hour and twenty minutes, then it turned it all chaos, and everyone cheered when the plane finally left the ground at 3:30.
We did get to make some new friends at the airport! My friend Jennifer is adopting, too. This girl is so sweet and so much fun. Go show her some love?
That’s our plane, waiting to find out what was going to happen with it.
He really loved watching all of the vehicles on the tarmac.
Gus is an awesome flyer. But, I was so grateful to have my mom to help me wrangle him on the plane. He barely cried at all, and after 9 hours, we made it to JFK. We had a good experience with customs there. We were about 3rd from the last in the line, but knowing we had a baby and an international adoption, we were quickly moved to the front of the line, before we even had the opportunity to ask.
Dancing to the Muppet Movie.
Playing on the floor.
Very excited about becoming a US Citizen.
From JFK, my dad picked us up and drove us to my parents’ house, where we spent the night. Gus got to briefly meet his cousins, aunts, uncle and grandpa. And one of my best friends.
Meeting his cousins.
Yesterday morning, I got up to find my laundry dried and folded, Gus’s bottles, bowls and spoon washed, and a bunch of new food for him to take on the plane. My mom is so thoughtful and made it so easy for me to get ready this morning.
I was so grateful we flew out of a tiny airport… going through security was so easy. Our flight went smoothly. He was awesome. Snack trap cups with yogurt drops or rice puffs worked great. He was busy with his hands and his mouth.
Our layover was in Chicago. They have a little “Children’s Museum”, which is like a play area for kids, which stuff about flying and planes. We hung out in there for awhile, so he could burn off some energy.
Then… home. My friend Danae filmed this for us.
Gus fell asleep in the car on the way home. He was so, so tired, and slept until about 2am last night. Then, he was up for about 2 hours, before I made him go back to sleep. Partly to help him adjust to our timezone, and partly because I was exhausted.
I can’t wait to tell you how Reed and Lena have been with him, but that could be another blog post. I am so proud of them!
I’ll be honest, I do NOT feel like figuring out all of the people I need to send this to, so I just sent it to our family, and I hope our friends will see it on our blog.
We are so excited and ready to come home! We will be in Pennsylvania tomorrow, Saturday, evening and then on Sunday, we will head home to Kansas. If you are interested in meeting us at the Kansas City airport, please email or text me or Aaron for the flight information. Also, friends from our church have set up a meal schedule for our family, so if you are considering bringing us a meal, please email me and I’ll send you the link. Thanks so much!
Like with Reed and Lena, we have a few rules that we are asking our friends and family to stick to, as Gus gets to know what it’s like to be a part of a family. He is used to have lots of adults in his life, who can pick him up or care for him, without any real consistency. We want him to be bonded with our family and know what it is like to be a part of a family. We know that everyone is very eager to meet and get to know Gus, and there will be plenty of time for that once he has settled in.
1. Please do not pick him up, hug him, kiss him or let him sit on your lap. He loves physical affection, but we are asking that this is just for our immediate family, as we bond.
2. Please do not give him food or drinks. This is also reinforces our relationship as a family, and while he is meeting so many new people, it helps teach him that he will only get his needs met by certain people.
3. Please don’t respond to him if he is crying. Again, let me or Aaron meet his needs. This is especially important if he is upset because we are not allowing him something. It doesn’t help our bonding if we are the “mean” parents and other people are treating him differently.
Also, we will probably not be up for visitors, particularly long ones, for awhile. Everything is on the kids’ schedule for awhile and we all need to adjust as a family. We are not sure how that will look– we maybe be ready in a few days, or it may take us weeks. Bringing a new child home and adjusting as a family can be very stressful and exhausting on everyone. Please keep on asking us about visits and play dates, but don’t take it personally if we decline you for awhile.
Thanks so much for supporting us through this process and respecting our requests, as Gus adjusts.
Our big event today was going to the embassy… our driver and facilitator took us. Then, they dropped us at the door, and we headed inside. There, we met the head of the Russian program for our agency, Marina, and the family we hung out with yesterday. It was fun to wait and chat with them… Marina knows our family’s story and she is such a sweet woman. She gave Gus a gift, a huge spinning top, made in Russia. It has been a huge hit!
We got his visa in record time, 45 minutes! None of the nonsense we dealt with at the Ukrainian embassy. In fact, I was not asked any questions at all, just told to sign. It’s always a big relief to be told that your documents are “well-prepared”, but I suppose if there is one skill that I might have developed through his adoption process, it would be paperwork preparation! Now, I’m developing the skill of changing diapers in odd places. I am not sure I recommend learning how to change diapers on a squirmy 17mo old boy, who does not understand your language, in a foreign country, where you often end up changing his diaper on places like window ledges and toilet seats.
So, anyways, after the embassy, I said my goodbyes to our facilitator. She has been so wonderful to work with. She gave me chocolate bars for each of my kids. They’ll love that. I can’t wait to send her photos of Gus at home with our family. She asked me to send them as often as I can, as the baby house loves that so much.
Today was kind of a yucky day, so we hung around. Eventually, we did our afternoon nap. Gus slept snuggled up next to me, with his head on my arm. So sweet.
After our nap, we wanted to walk down to the Ukraina Hotel, like we had planned. We got almost done there, and it started to drizzle. It was definitely raining by the time we made it through the doors!
I have seen this hotel so many times, but never walked in. Now, I would recommend it to anyone visiting Moscow! Because, it has the Moscow diorama. This diorama shows the Kremlin, Red Square, and some other landmarks. You can put on headphones and listen to a brief history of Moscow, in English, all for free.
After the rain let up, we found a restaurant to grab dinner at.
We were both pretty worn out by this point. So, we raced home after dinner. Gus took a long bath, happily playing the whole time. I think he would have stayed in longer, but I pulled him out because it was getting so late. Now, he’s fast asleep and I’m watching the lights on Arbat Street for one last time.
a moose in moscow 