Sam and Daddy

Please do not post this video anywhere!

Night and Day

The last two days with Sam were like night and day. We went to the orphanage on Thursday and Friday for about an hour and a half each time. We'd like to stay longer but the orphanage is actually in the process of closing and I think we're really just in the way.

Thursday was pretty much a nightmare. Poor Sam had wound himself up pretty well and he didn't get to go outside that morning. Needless to say we spent the whole time trying to keep him calm, keep him from yelling, and saying "nyet" about a thousand times. By the time we were ready to leave we were all exhausted. Tim was convinced this was a symptom of a larger problem but Mom knew better. We hadn't been there for several days and he still doesn't fully understand why he can't just come with us. It doesn't help that his whole world at the orphanage is in chaos as well.

For yesterday we were better prepared. We took fewer toys since he was definately overstimulated and I put his snack away instead of putting it out first thing. Right off the bat it was much better. I think it helped that we came back. If Thursday was a nightmare, Friday was a dream. My Russian is getting better which also probably helps. We got him to say several words in English (as you can see below). We're not quite sure he understands what they all mean, but it's a work in progress. We also spent almost the entire hour playing with bubbles. The best part of the day in my opinion had to be Tim and Sam looking at this big book that had several activities in it. One of the pages was like a "Where's Waldo?" book and as they were looking at it Tim would do something like say "hmmm" or tap his mouth with his finger. As soon as he did Sam would do the same thing, wanting to be just like his daddy. I got it on video and we'll post it next week.

Other than that not much is going on. Doing anything in Russia is like 1000 times harder than doing it at home so we don't do much. The washing maching holds about 4 pieces of clothing, takes 2 and a half hours, and the clothes are still wet when they come out. Never thought I would miss my washing machine. The funniest thing that's happened to us is we went to the store on Wednesday and I was determined to make something for dinner that wasn't ham and cheese sandwiches. I bought pasta and what I thought was spaghetti sauce. It wasn't. Let me tell you, ketchup, salami, and spaghetti noodles is not good. It's really not. The container had garlic and spices on it. Who does that to ketchup? Oh well, spaghetti take 2 last night went much better.

Today we were planning on taking the metro to Nevsky Prospect but the weather's not looking so good, so we'll see.

Thank you all for your sweet emails and comments on facebook and here. They are very much appreciated when we're so far from home.

Sam says Hi!

Approved!!!

Our petition to get Sam was upheld and we were given a positive ruling. That is a fancy Russian way of saying we are now Sam's parents. The judge asked about 20 times if we were sure we wanted to adopted, and we are still are sure that we want him. We are very excited, so we celebrated the safest way we could think of by eating at McDonald's. And yes, somehow we ended up with 3 Big Mac's and 3 Fantas even though Carrie held up her finger and said 2. There was something strange in my Fanta too. We probably won't go back there. But Carrie says, "Desperate times...."

I spoke most of the time during court. We had already decided that well before they gave us the option of either of us speaking. I really only was tripped up twice. Once during our prepared speech, and during a question I really didn't understand. And a got a few laughs which is good.

Thank you for all your prayers. They made a poor public speaker a better one.

We will get to see Sam on Thursday and Friday and three times next week. I am really looking forward to those visits, but I am also looking forward to our break times in between our visits.

God is a powerful God. He soften the heart of a judge that thought we had no logical reason to adopt. All praises be to God! I am thankful everyday that He adopts into His family!

Time to rest!

The Power Struggle Begins

We saw Sam this afternoon at about 3 pm (6am CST for the folks reading at home). He was very excited to met us, and we were excited to see him. He ran in and gave us hugs, and was wearing the sweatshirt that we had given him 6 months ago. We had to wait until later in the afternoon to see him, because they had just picked him up from the hospital today, and he needed to take a nap. He didn't sleep. He was too excited to see us. We played a couple of games with him and he was really hyper. We had to calm him down a little, and had to say нет (no) a bunch. He is a curious boy, and since we did not have a translator today I think he was trying to get away with as much as he could. He shutdown for a second when I had to take him away from a fancy tea set that was in the room for some reason. That was really our first experience with him shutting down, but I think we handled it just fine. Children who live in orphanages sometime just shutdown completely. This is known as "fight or flight." We have to be careful to unprogram this behavior from Sam, and it will probably be one of the bigger challenges that we face when we get him home.

Tomorrow is our court date, and we have court at 11am (or 2am CST). Hopefully, all goes as planned and our request for Sam is approved. Carrie says she is very calm, but I think that is because I have been volunteered to do all the speaking in court (yes, I did just throw her under the bus, but we are married and I will probably get in trouble for it later so stop giving the computer screen such a dirty look). I had to write a speech today for our court date tomorrow, so at least something is prepared for court. I do feel like we are prepared. I remember my brother, Dennis, always use to say that if you have to cram the night before a test you are prepared. We am not cramming so we guess we are either prepared or in complete denial.

Please pray that we both have the words to say and that we can effective communicate tomorrow.

P.S. I used the micowave in our apartment today which is in all Russian, and somehow I ended up defosting my 5 minutes and 50 seconds. I did manage to figure out how to use it later. I also just tried to spell check this blog and every since word was put in red, because somewhere blogger thinks I am typing this in Russian.

Jetlag is Fun

We went to bed at 9 pm St. Petersburg time last night, and got up at 3:30am. I love the jetlag. We have some appointment today at 12 and then we will get to see Sam at 3pm. I am really excited about that. Apparently, Sam is more excited. The orphanage director went on vacation for a while and the first thing Sam asked her when she came back is when are they coming to pick me up. Also, he very active now which is a good thing. We were told that after his surgery a couple weeks ago he was running around the hospital the next day.

We talked to our contact here in Russia about our court date and she seems pretty positive about our court date. She said that we shouldn't worry and that we need to be very strong when speaking to the judge. Good thing that at my last job my boss called me a bulldog when it came to issues that I want to resolve. (I just had a little deva ju about writting this blog post. Either I am tried or had a dream about writing it.) From what our contact here tells us it sounds like God has already worked and moved to get us here. She said that the judge give her a second chance to work on the dossier documents instead of us resubmitting everything, and that she was very forgiving and she has not always been that way in the past. She also said that the judge has been very friendly to her.

So please just pray that God gives us strength to be tenacious, and not back down in front of the judge. Also, pray that if we have a chance we can share Christ with her. I really felt like God has been calling me to do that for some time now.

We are alive

We made it here alive. We didn't die. This is not ghost posting this blog. I haven't sleep in 36 hours.