Seeing Spots

March 19

Yesterday we signed the papers to petition to adopt. We also registered our son's new name. And the name is  . . . (drum roll please) . . . Colin Patrick. After months of deliberation we finally agreed on a name. Even though he will not officially become Colin until our court date, I will refer to him as such from here on out. 

We visited Colin yesterday and again today. He had a few more spots from the chicken pox yesterday. Today is another story. Our poor little guys is covered head to toe with spots. They have put more of that green medicine on him, and it looks like he's been attacked by a three year old with a Crayola marker. I could tell he wasn't feeling well. His eyes were red and he didn't have the energy he had the past few days. He was still in a good mood and smiled frequently. He fell asleep in my arms for a while so we didn't play as much, but I enjoyed just holding him. I cried when it was time to leave, thinking this would be the last time we got to see him on this trip, but we were informed later that we will be able to see him again tomorrow. 

We are able to visit Colin again because our meeting with the judge was moved up to today. We were informed of this on the way to see the judge. I'm not sure we made a good impression as we were saving our good clothes for our meeting tomorrow. We felt rather rushed and the translator was a bit awkward so I'm not sure our answers came across clearly. We are praying for a court date to be assigned quickly.

Meeting Our Boy

March 17 continued

We got to meet our little guy today. Seeing him has laid all my fears to rest. When he was first brought into the room, I thought he was going to cry, but he must have decided that we didn't seem too bad because he settled down quickly and grinned at us. He was quick to smile and laugh. We brought a toy and book with family photos in it. He enjoyed chewing on each of these. I'd love to post some pictures of him but can't until he's officially ours. I will say though that he has thick, dark hair and large brown eyes with long lashes that are going to melt the hearts of the ladies. He's terribly small but we'll bulk him up when he gets home. We have been told that there is an outbreak of chicken pox in his groupa, and he has a spot on his forehead that has been treated with some kind of green medicine that makes it look as if someone took a marker to his head. Despite this, he seems to be in good spirits. He is a sweet little guy and I am throughly in love with him. 

Our boy is in the same orphanage that Riley lived in. We were happy to see many familiar faces there including two doctors, the social worker, and several caregivers. They were all enthusiastic about the photos we brought of Riley and remarked about how much she's grown and how beautiful she is. Speaking of my little munchkin, I am so homesick for her.  My friend Becky is watching her during the day and my parents are taking care of her in the evenings. Jeff and I talked to Riley briefly today while she was at the Lee's. She said something along the lines of, "Hi, I pwaying wiff Effan. Bye." Oh well, at least she's keeping busy. Thanks, Becky!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

These next few posts I wrote while we were in Russia. I didn't have the patience to try to post from the tiny little keyboard on Jeff's Blackberry so I wrote them out the old fashioned way to type later. 

March 17

Happy St. Patrick's Day. It's 2:30 in the morning? Can you guess what I'm doing (besides journaling)? If you said sitting in the bathtub at the Moscow Raddison playing Sodoku, you're right. In the last 36 hours I've had about 5 hours of sleep. I was going to take a Sominex when we got to the hotel, but I thought surely, after 19 hours of travel, I wouldn't need any help falling asleep. Well I was right. I just forgot about the staying asleep part. When I woke up, I started thinking about seeing our son for the first time today, and that was the end of sleep. 

We were blessed with smooth travel. I was nervous about making all the connecting flights, especially our last one as we only had an hour and a half layover in Poland, and our plane left Chicago an hour and a half late. By the grace of God, they were just starting to board the plane for Moscow as we got through the last security check. 

I have decided that transatlantic travel does not hold the same joy for me that it used to. I thought I would go crazy on flight from Chicago to Warsaw. I had the middle seat (Why does that always happen to me?) that seemed to grow smaller as the flight wore on. It didn't help when the large man in the seat next to me fell asleep and started spilling over the arm rest. Now I know it's common for travelers to complain about airplane food, but I'm convinced that no one has earned the right to complain until they have flown Polish Airways. What little food there was, was horrible. We were starving by the time we reached Moscow in the evening. We hadn't eaten a real meal since lunch the day before. We might have perished if not for the candy bars the Lees sent with us. We we too tired to go forage for food so we splurged and ordered room service. It is no exaggeration to call it a splurge. Moscow is considered the most expensive city in the world and the falling value of the dollar does little to help matters. It was $52 for two cheeseburgers and french fries. I wanted a milkshake too but that would have been another $16. I don't know if it was our extreme hunger or the cost of the meal, but that was one of the best burgers I've had in a long time. We are heading out to our region today, so that should bring some relief from cost of staying here. 

We were expecting to see our son on Tuesday, but when we arrived, we were informed that we would see him today. I am so excited and nervous. There are so many uncertainties like how will he react to us, what will his personality be like, and the dreaded question - will there be anything that would prevent us from proceeding? We just need to leave things to God's plan. He has caused so many doors to miraculously open so that we would not miss this opportunity. I suppose the lyrics of a Caedmon's Call song are appropriate now.

"And I know the plans that you have for me

And you can't plan the end and not plan the means

And so I suppose I just need some peace

Just to get me to sleep."

Insomnia

It's now 40 minutes into Thursday morning and I'm still up. We are T minus 2 days before our first trip to Russia. Just when I'm ready to settle down for the night, I start thinking about all the things I don't want to forget to do before we leave. Then when I've exhausted that list, I start to worry about all the things that are completely out of my control like theoretical flight delays that could make us miss our connecting flight in Warsaw or the ever dropping value of the dollar. This reminds me of Riley's adoption a little over two years ago. I don't think I slept more than a few hours each night we were in Russia. I frequently ended up doing Sodoku puzzles in the bathtub of our hotel room at 3:00 am -I didn't want to disturb Jeff. Phillipians 4:6 says to "be anxious for nothing." I'm usually better at that. I know that God has everything planned. I just need to remember that it's not my job to make sure those plans are carried out. He only asks me to trust. 

On a lighter note, I offered Riley a little spoonful of marshmallow cream while we were making a cake. She was a little suspicious of the thick, white substance at first, but after taking a taste she declared, "Mmmmmm, dats a good spoon licker!" 

Flirting with the bag boy

While at the grocery store today, Riley leaned out of the cart, smiled at the bag boy, and said, "You a silly goose." He replied, " No I'm not. You're a silly goose." She came right back at him with a, "Noooooo, you a silly silly goose." This continued on for about a minute before Riley collapsed into giggles. She smiled and waved at him the whole way out the door. I don't know which is worse - that she's trying to flirt with the bag boys at Buehlers already, or that she's better at it at 3 than I was at 17. 

Here's a picture of Riley from last week. She was very proud of her snowman. I thought we had finished him nicely but Riley saw fit to embellish him with a few additional ears on the back of his head.

I finally did it!

OK, I finally started a blog. I've been  been meaning to do this for quite some time but just never got around to it. I enjoy reading my friends blogs a great deal, especially those friends who live far away. It helps me feel more connected to them in an every day sort of way. So here I am. I make no promises about the frequency of my posts, and anyone who knows me should know better than to expect anything beyond random ramblings. My hope is that this blog gives you an enjoyable glimpse into my family's little world.

And now an explanation about the name of my blog . . . A dacha is a Russian summer house. It is a home away from home. Thats how I think of my house. It is temporary dwelling as I await my permanent home in heaven. Dóchas is the Irish word for hope. The Lord fills my days with hope for myself and my family- hope for my children's futures, hope that present adversity will pass, hope that He will make me into someone greater than I am now, and hope for the life to come.