Dear Gus,
We are so blessed to have you as a part of our family. Home for less than 3 months and it’s hard to imagine life without you.
Love,
Your mama
Tag Archives: Russia
Home Sweet Home
We are home!
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!
Ready to go home
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.
More Adventures
I took photos of Gus sleeping last night. I just thought he was so cute, with his feet up on the pillows. I may have sat and watched him for a bit, looking so cute and content.
Anyways, this morning, the only thing that I needed to do was to pick up Gus’s passport. Gus stayed back at the apartment with my mom. Alla and I had an interesting conversation on the way. About how Americans are spoiled because so many people in the world speak English, and she told me how the baby house and the judge both said I look Russian. I often have people talk to me in Russian– tonight, I got a rewards card for the local children’s store. I don’t think she had any clue that I had no clue what I was saying, as she went on and on, handing me my new rewards card and the little application to fill out and return.
Anyways, his passport is at the Embassy now. Yay.
After the embassy errand, we napped. Then, we wanted to walk to Gorky Park.
That was a long walk! We only had about a half hour to walk around, as we were meeting up with another adoptive mom and her son. We saw the carousel, space shuttle, a fountain with music, ping pong tables, volleyball courts, among other things. Then, we grabbed a quick bottle of water and made the walk back. It is nearly 3 miles, longer than we realized!
Then, we met up with our new friend. I am not sure how public she is, as she does not blog. But, we had a great time together. Her son was adorable and so well behaved through our souvenir shopping and dinner. We went down to Arbat Street and walked around and eventually stopped for dinner. We went to the Hard Rock Cafe. I objected at the name of it, but when I looked at their menu and realized how well all of the waiters spoke English, I was wooed. We have officially reached the point in the trip when I am wooed by English speakers and American food.
Meet Niko, our waiter.
Anyways, we had a nice dinner. Gus had what was very likely his first, real vegetables, not pureed. I had some grilled zucchini on my veggie burger, which he got to try. And he loved.
After dinner, we headed back, parted ways with our new friends and headed down to the grocery store. I had to stop and check out the toy store, which was really quite interesting. One thing that I really wanted for my kids was blocks with the Cyrillic alphabet. We have 2 Cyrillic alphabet books, including one that talks, so I thought some blocks would be a fun addition. I found some very cheap. Then our grocery shopping. Wow. We needed water and some smaller things, and my sister requested a bottle of vodka. So, we had one baby, one stroller, lots of souvenirs, some small toys, water, vodka, and some other groceries to lug up and across the street. It would have been pretty simple, if we didn’t have to navigate the underground tunnel to cross the street. But, we made it home. Phew.
This sweet boy was a rock star. He sat in that stroller for 7 hours, and didn’t seem to mind at all. He had a pretty cute moment, as he figured out how to get food out of his snack trap cup by himself. But, then the problem is that he thought he is not allowed to feed himself, so he held it up to me to feed him. I guided his hand to his mouth… and he was off. He woofed down every last bite that was in his cup.
Changing Direction
As I laid down with Gus for a nap, I thought about how his future has changed in the past few months. As an orphan, at 16, he would have been turned out onto the streets of Moscow. Many orphans commit suicide, because they see no other option for their future. Others turn to crime to get by. Life looks pretty bleak for an orphan, like this sweet boy was a few months ago.
People often make the parallel that adopting a child is like being adopted into God’s family. I never quite saw the entirety of it before.
At our church, “repentance” is often defined as “changing direction”. When we said our “yes” to Gus, his life changed direction.
Yes, we will love you forever. Yes, all of your needs will be met. Yes, you will always have enough. One “yes” can mean so much. An orphan no more, loved and treasured.
God used us to change his life forever, and him to change ours.
Isn’t it interesting that when we say “yes” to Jesus, our lives change direction, too? We are no longer wandering the streets of life, alone, trying to figure life out and struggling to get by. Our eternal needs are met.
Unlike Gus and other orphans, we don’t need someone to say “yes” to us… we must willingly change our own direction, to meet the One who already loves us.
Just my tiny glimpse of the bigger picture.
a moose in moscow 