Day Eleven: New Sights
Today was a packed day of new events, some good some not so good. We started the day with our visit to Maxim and had so much fun with him. It's more and more a delight and it's "comfortable." Artyom joined us and "Beautiful" came in to greet us and to put a necklace on me that she had been working on all weekend. I love that girl.
We pulled out our treats and juices and what a surprise to see Maxim try so hard to slow down his drinking. Dear boy held on for the first bit but then dove in and began looking for more from me. How could I say no? :o) Towards the end of our visit, I broke away to give knitted booties that Heather made to the little one's in the bedridden room. I will share just one so you can share in their excitement. The hardest part was that we didn't have enough for everyone in the room so I am going to go looking this weekend on the open market and see if I can find some for the others.
Our facilitator met up with us for lunch to give some news about our adoption. When the judge looked over the papers today she found some problems. One is that their are two different dates given for Maxim and another is that since we are only the third to adopt from here, they are not used to the US papers and needs the Embassy to send a document before tomorrow. So George, is getting up very early in the morning to drive 3 hours one way to Maxim's birth city to try and fix the problem with the birthdates and get back before court at 2pm. We also need the Embassy to send this form to the judge before court tomorrow. So if you might pray for us on this that would be great.
With this last minute work we rearranged our schedule for tomorrow and went to get Maxim at the institution this afternoon to go get his passport photo taken. While George called the director for permission, in the buzz of everything going on George forgot to tell any of the staff. We had gone in and changed him, taken him out to the vehicle and left before anyone noticed. When we returned there was all kind of excitement but not knowing a word we just stood and smiled. George explained it all to us later...and we had a good chuckle.
Anyway, it was a gift for all of us to see Maxim on his first ride in a "machine" and seeing the city. He's come so far that little guy. He was talking a mile a minute and we wished we knew all he was saying. George conveyed that he was asking lots of questions and wondering all of the details about tomorrow and when would he be leaving, who was going, who was staying, would he be to his new home before the new year? He was kissing our hands and smiling from ear to ear.
One other thing that just makes me SO happy is that he will let Randy carry him. Usually he is very scared of being picked up. None of the kids are carried or held so this was very scary for him but today when Randy carried him on the stairs he trusted him!! When we returned to the vehicle we noticed a small park behind the photo place so we snuck over there for him to have a taste of what a park is like. You would have thought we took him to Disneyland! It was priceless. Soon we had to leave and he was good about it, but for that moment it was so nice to imagine life with him outside of the mental institution. Soon!
Thank you for your prayers through tomorrow for court. We pray that all of these issues are resolved quickly and that Randy and Holden's plans to return to the US can happen as soon as possible. They really need to get home to the kids in the US. This is definitely a marathon.
Love from Eastern Europe,
Tina, Randy and Holden
We pulled out our treats and juices and what a surprise to see Maxim try so hard to slow down his drinking. Dear boy held on for the first bit but then dove in and began looking for more from me. How could I say no? :o) Towards the end of our visit, I broke away to give knitted booties that Heather made to the little one's in the bedridden room. I will share just one so you can share in their excitement. The hardest part was that we didn't have enough for everyone in the room so I am going to go looking this weekend on the open market and see if I can find some for the others.
Our facilitator met up with us for lunch to give some news about our adoption. When the judge looked over the papers today she found some problems. One is that their are two different dates given for Maxim and another is that since we are only the third to adopt from here, they are not used to the US papers and needs the Embassy to send a document before tomorrow. So George, is getting up very early in the morning to drive 3 hours one way to Maxim's birth city to try and fix the problem with the birthdates and get back before court at 2pm. We also need the Embassy to send this form to the judge before court tomorrow. So if you might pray for us on this that would be great.
With this last minute work we rearranged our schedule for tomorrow and went to get Maxim at the institution this afternoon to go get his passport photo taken. While George called the director for permission, in the buzz of everything going on George forgot to tell any of the staff. We had gone in and changed him, taken him out to the vehicle and left before anyone noticed. When we returned there was all kind of excitement but not knowing a word we just stood and smiled. George explained it all to us later...and we had a good chuckle.
Anyway, it was a gift for all of us to see Maxim on his first ride in a "machine" and seeing the city. He's come so far that little guy. He was talking a mile a minute and we wished we knew all he was saying. George conveyed that he was asking lots of questions and wondering all of the details about tomorrow and when would he be leaving, who was going, who was staying, would he be to his new home before the new year? He was kissing our hands and smiling from ear to ear.
One other thing that just makes me SO happy is that he will let Randy carry him. Usually he is very scared of being picked up. None of the kids are carried or held so this was very scary for him but today when Randy carried him on the stairs he trusted him!! When we returned to the vehicle we noticed a small park behind the photo place so we snuck over there for him to have a taste of what a park is like. You would have thought we took him to Disneyland! It was priceless. Soon we had to leave and he was good about it, but for that moment it was so nice to imagine life with him outside of the mental institution. Soon!
Thank you for your prayers through tomorrow for court. We pray that all of these issues are resolved quickly and that Randy and Holden's plans to return to the US can happen as soon as possible. They really need to get home to the kids in the US. This is definitely a marathon.
Love from Eastern Europe,
Tina, Randy and Holden
Comments
Praying for your family and Maxim-he is so beautiful, he looks so determined and brave-what a wonderful son he is and will be.
Still praying for Beautiful and all the residents in that place, to feel God's love.