Hello Everybody!
Thank you for coming to visit my blog. I’m so glad that you’re here.
Usually I write about home projects that me and the LOML (Love of My Life) are doing, arts and crafts, home decor, recipes, travel and family stuff.
Today, I thought I’d change it up a bit.
A few days ago, I was reminiscing about how fast Daughter #2 has grown. She just got her driving permit and it set me back a little bit. I wanted to change up what I write about so I can share with y’all our adoption story. If you want to read Part 1 of our story where God planted adoption on my heart, visit here then come back and read how we met our daughters.
OUR ADOPTION STORY
After we both decided that God was directing us to adopt, we began all the research.
We attended an adoption seminar in Charleston, South Carolina over a weekend so we got to do the touristy things along with going to the seminar and praying a lot! We were still very anxious about our decision. The unknown, the cost, the change in our family dynamic and so many other things that scared us a little bit.
When we came home from that seminar, I can honestly say, we were at peace. We didn’t doubt that this is what we were supposed to do. This was God’s plan.
Over the next fifteen months, we were busy getting all our paperwork together, doing home studies, getting passports, fingerprints, background checks and so much more.
After all the paperwork was done and sent in, we waited excitedly to hear when we would travel to Kazakhstan to meet our daughters.
You can check out the whole timeline on our adoption blog.
In June of 2005, we packed our bags, kissed our four boys goodbye and headed to the airport. Mama was crying big tears during our travel. I missed my boys the minute they were out of my sight!!
God knew exactly how I was feeling and let me know he was with me.
Our flight was 17 hours long with two airplane changes and some layovers. And, for the longest leg of the flight, the LOML and I weren’t even sitting together. Just a little bit about me, I don’t like traveling alone. The anxiety was high!!
When we arrived at the ticket counter, we asked if there was any way we could sit together (because of wimpy ME!) and the answer was no. I checked in with the ticket lady when they called my number and boarded the plane. I sat beside a very nice man who I think could feel my anxiety as I kept looking at the door to see where the LOML was going to sit. It seemed like forever when I finally saw him walking toward me. He mouthed to come with him. I was so confused. When I caught up to him, he said after I boarded the plane, the nice ticket lady (I call her God’s angel) asked the LOML when he started to board if he was the one who asked about sitting with his wife. He said yes. She said that there were two seats IN BUSINESS CLASS together!!!! No one can deny that was a God thing!!!!
It was great! I’ve never sat in business class nor will I ever again but I felt like God was hugging me for 6½ hours on that flight. It was amazing!!
We landed in Almaty, which was the capital of Kazakhstan at the time. We met an interpreter and driver that helped us check into our hotel for the night. It was a beautiful place and the people were very accommodating to us foreigners who didn’t understand anything that was being said. Our room was small but cozy and we were so exhausted from the long day of travel and the anxiety of meeting our daughters, I don’t remember my head hitting the pillow. I slept like a baby!
The next day, we had breakfast on the 26th floor of our hotel and the view of the mountains was breath taking.
Our driver and translator picked us up at the hotel and drove us around the city trying to find a place to get a cash advance from our credit card. The city was bustling with people and cars. Because Kazakhstan is situated between Russian and China, the people of the city are mostly Eurasian, very exotic and beautiful. The city was very cosmopolitan which we weren’t expecting. It resembled any Western city that you would visit in the United States with billboards and tall buildings. People were dressed in very fancy business attire.
At 6:30 pm our translator and driver brought us to the Almaty Airport where we hopped on a tiny (frightening!) airplane that would take us to the orphanage’s city of Karaganda.
The flight was about 2 hours on a Russian built twin prop plane.
At the other end, we met our sweet translator, driver, tour-guide, and soon-to-be friend, Galina. She brought us to our apartment where we would spend the next 5 weeks bonding with our girls. It was in a sketchy part of town but the building itself was very modern. When Galina rushed us into our room and said not to talk to anyone, I was a little frightened! The apartment itself was a one bedroom with a small kitchen and one bath and a living room. It was comfortable, but the electrical wiring taped onto the walls haphazardly was pretty questionable. And before Galina left us for the night, her instructions were not to answer the door if someone knocked and always keep the door locked. Oh boy!!
The next day we would meet our daughters. Needless to say, neither me nor the LOML got much sleep!
The next morning, you could have cut the anxiety in our apartment with a knife. We woke early, got ready, and waited for Galina (translator) and Zulfiya (adoption coordinator) to pick us up.
When they arrived, Galina introduced us to Zulfiya who spoke very little English. She asked if we had any questions before we went to the orphanage. There was one thing that I was anxious about that I had been praying for since I heard about the process of picking out my daughters from a room full of kids. The idea horrified me. I knew I would want to pick ALL. OF. THEM!
Zulfiya told us that she had already picked our daughters for us. She read our file and picked two girls that she thought would best fit us. Another answer to prayer.
The orphanage was about a twenty minute drive from our apartment. The city was very crowded and very brown and dry. We were there in June so it was very warm. Our apartment had no air conditioning so there were days it hit over 100°. It was not pretty!!
We arrived at the orphanage which was a large brick building with playgrounds all around and a wire fence that surrounded the whole campus.
A big green sign was on the front of the building and I asked Galina what it meant. She told us it was the name of the orphanage.
It reads “Nebutka.” She told us it meant “Please Forget-Me-Not” (the name of the flower).
Next, we were taken to the principal’s office where we met the doctor and nurses that take care of the 100 children between the ages of one and four. We waited while one of the nurses went to get the two girls. While we waited, Galina asked us if we were nervous. I quickly said yes. She said everyone in the room was nervous for us.
When the nurse returned, she brought in the first girl, a beautiful Asian two year old with jet black hair and black eyes wearing a bright yellow dress with black polka dots. Her name was Jazira.
She came right to me so I picked her up and put her on my lap. Both she and I were mesmerized by each other! She was very leery of me and she refused to look at the LOML.
Then came the next little girl…and I mean LITTLE! She was a one year but she looked much younger. She was as light as a feather. She had wisps of curly light brown hair and dark brown eyes. We were told she would turn one year old in two days. Her name was Jenya.
When the nurse handed her to the LOML, she went without hesitation. She looked very comfortable in his lap. When we tried to trade girls, Jazira was not having it! So the LOML bribed her with Teddy Grahams and she was on board with sitting on the strange man’s lap after that!!
After the meeting, we took the girls out to a restaurant on the way back to our apartment where we spent the whole day entertaining the girls.
Galina brought us to a nice restaurant that was practically empty. We had the whole back room to ourselves so the girls could roam around.
The food was great! Trying to entertain two little ones was tough. We were so out of practice! Galina was a big help.
When we got back to our apartment, we had to figure out how to entertain these girls for the next six hours. Luckily, the previous residents of the apartment, who were also adoptive parents, left a bunch of baby and child necessities ~ a crib, bottles, instant formula and a stroller.
The first day with our two daughters was exciting and exhausting. The reality of adoption was setting in quick and we were in a panic. We prayed a lot and felt the prayers of our family and friends back home while we stepped out in faith trusting that God had a perfect plan, not only for us and our family, but for these two beautiful little girls.
Come back again as I will share the rest of our trip and how the girls got to meet their four big brothers!!
Love y’all,
Linda
