Gotcha Day!!! (day8)

We got up early this morning… At least it seemed early for us!!! Goodness… we left the apartment at 7:45. We went straight to the babyhouse. Olga took our clothes in for them to put on him for the last time! Then she brought him to us for the last time… We waited a few minutes in the Music room, August the inspector came in, she was there because another couple was coming in today to choose a child! They were getting there when we got there… I wonder which child they were getting! Maybe I can find out later. I think they were one of the German families! They had the guy coordinator or interpreter with them that I recognized from last time.

August, the inspector, wished us that Anthony will make us happy and hopes that we will come back for a girl… we would like to… we will see how the next year goes…

We brought 14 gifts for the caregivers… one for his Doctor, one for the Director and one for the Inspector. We went to the Director’s office, she said some words to us about how happy she is that we came back and they know they can trust us with their babies now… Then we took some pictures all together, we signed the book saying we were taking Anthony out of the babyhouse! Then we left… that was about it! As we left, the Doctor was there to congratulate us as well… so we stopped to take a few pictures with her. Some of the caregivers came out and said goodbye to Anthony… they are funny… they doesn’t kiss the babies (unless they are a favorite baby) they sniff them… put their nose up to the baby’s cheek like they will kiss it and then sniff, sniff. Very Weird… But maybe it is so they are not attached… Who knows! We then walked out of there! We drove home… we will go to the record’s office at noon.

We drove to the maternity hospital that Anthony was born in… while we were walking around, Anthony fell asleep… Jerry transferred him to me in the car and I held him on the way home…

I carried him in and tried to put him in the bed to sleep… oh no! he woke up wide awake! So we played a while… then we put him in bed… jerry stayed with him while he threw his fit before he fell asleep… he slept about an hour and then we had to wake him to go to the records office… We were in and out of there very quickly just a couple minutes! Olga and Misha stayed outside with the babies! Anthony’s Birth certificate is so pretty… Kazakhstan blue with gold! Olga took those so they can be copied and translated and stuff… After there we went to the “Amusement Park” by the river… it is the one with the soccer stadium! There is a Ferris wheel and some little kid rides and a bounce house and the river… We walked around with Olga… Just after we parked and were heading into the park the police came and were giving Misha a hard time… something about a stop sign? They took his license again!!!!!! By the time we came back they worked it out and they just gave him a “warning”! Give me a break!!!! Good grief!

So the park is lovely! It was a beautiful day too! There was a nice breeze and the sun was shining… we are going there again tomorrow! I carried Anthony… he just snuggled up on my shoulder and hung out there… By the time we got back to the car he had fallen asleep again! He slept for the ride home and then I went in to get him a bottle before our meeting with Damir… he woke up of course.

At 2pm we met with the Judge’s son Damir again… we bought him lunch at MacJohn’s. He is so cute! He brought us a gift… well a lot of gifts! He brought us two mugs that he had someone put his design on for us… He is also a cartoonist apparently… so he drew a picture of our family and the main buildings of Uralsk and had it put on these cups and a t-shirt! He had printed on them… “Uralsk - Our Second Homeland!” Because when we met him, he asked us how it was to be back in Uralsk, we told him it was like being at our second home! Truthfully, half of our family IS from Kazakhstan! :) Then he brought out some food that he asked his Mom to make for us… Traditional Kazakh food… My mind was racing… oh no… I am sure it is meat… is he going to want us to try it right here!? He told us he had his mom make some horse meat sausage true Kazakh style and the fried dough bread. He said it was for later and that we can eat it later… I was relieved… just after he told us what HIS MOM made for us, he said I hope you aren’t vegetarians!!! I almost died!!! There was NO way in the world that I was going to tell him that we indeed ARE!!!! Oh my word… then we proceeded to order food with no meat! :) I hope that he didn’t really notice… oh dear!

Anyways he and Jerry talked finance and gave him some serious information on finance… It was funny trying to eat and hold a little rascal that kept dropping his toy and if he noticed that I was putting food in my mouth he was trying to grab it! Anyways we made it through… jerry held him for a while and then me… and then I took the boys for a walk while Jerry and Damir finished their finance talk! Jerry gave him a list of books and a big list of ideas… basically a serious lesson on finance!

Damir drove us home and we put Anthony down for the rest of his nap… it took hi about a half hour of screaming on and off to finally fall asleep… It was horrible… He gets very mad when we lay him down and walk away… We will see how bedtime goes… oh boy… so he had about 40 minutes of sleep and then we woke him up for dinner and play time… we have to try to tire him out so he falls asleep faster tonight… about half way through the 40 minutes… he woke up screaming again… I figured he was scared and didn’t know where he was so I went in to comfort him for a minute… He was screaming so much that he didn’t hear me or see me coming… so when I touched his tummy… I scared him half to death! He screamed so hard I thought his lungs were going to come out… so I felt so bad… I picked him up and held him tight for a minute until he calmed down, then I laid him back down… he of course screamed when I left the room… but it only took maybe 4-5 minutes for him to fall back to sleep… Then he was fine until we woke him up… and he was sort of happy… kind of weirded out though I think that WE woke him… After a few minutes he was happy and smiling at us… then we went in and woke Alex from his nap… he was sleeping in our bed, as Anthony was screaming his head off in the other bedroom! I changed his diaper… I laid him down on the bed and then Alex talked to him as I went around the corner to grab a diaper… he started screaming as soon as I left his sight…. Hummm… interesting… maybe a little attached… So far he is pleasant… I walked out of the kitchen to grab his spoon form the bag and he started screaming while jerry was holding him… it’s funny… we fed him some apple sauce… he doesn’t really know how to eat from a spoon… if it goes in just right he basically sucks it off, which means that if it doesn’t go in just right, then he squirts it back out with his tongue! Sucking action I guess… Now he is just playing on the floor… Still seems to freak out if he can’t see Jerry or I… I will update about the bedtime… later.

Well… I put his cute pjs on him and read the story of Jesus to him and we prayed and we all smooched on him and I put him in the bed and left the room… I heard him start to cry… but by the time I put something away and came back to listen he had stopped… It took me probably 10 minutes before I was brave enough to open the door and check on him… he didn’t even have his thumb in his mouth… He was one tired puppy!!! He was flat on his back but he was right next to the edge of the crib… Out like a light! He should be! Jerry moved his bed in by us… partly for him and partly for Alex… we want Alex to be able to sleep good too!

Luba and Helen came about 7:30 so we went outside to do a photoshoot! We put Anthony in the Bjorn on jerry… he did perfect… he just hung out! Jerry decided that he loves the Bjorn!!! He says he can hardly tell he is carrying Anthony around, plus your arms are free! We didn’t have one with Alex, so we had never used one before!

We chatted with Helen and Luba for a while and then they left… so I am free to journal…

I must say… it was a good day… a very LONG day, as in we thought it would never end… but a VERY good day!!! I will never forget it!

I hope this makes sense… I am so tired, I can hardly see straight!