We had to get a little creative in the crib department...

Sam and Beth hanging out with Lenin.  This statue used to be in the town square but was moved to a remote part of this park after Kazakhstan gained it's independence from the Soviet Union.  It looks a little out of place next to the go-kart track and Ferris wheel.

Photos?  You'll need to speak with my publicist.

OK, Dad...you put all our stuff in the big box and I'll throw it all over the floor again...I love this game!

We were too wiped out to write more about the adoption yesterday.  It was the most emotional day of our lives.   The excitement and anticipation compared to our wedding day, where the worst thing that could happen is tripping up the aisle, but at least with the wedding ceremony we didn't have to worry about the priest saying "no" , or that we'd have to wait another three weeks...

The court proceedings took  30 minutes.  We were so nervous going in, mainly about being told we'd have to wait three more weeks, but our wonderful travel partners, the Poelsterls, gave us the thumbs up sign as we walked into the court room.  Their hearing was just prior to ours and they are the proud parents of 14 month-old Tommy and 8 month-old Natalie!  We had to answer the same questions that were asked at pre-court and then each of us had to make a speech.  Really, the husband has to do most of the work and Darrick was magnificent.   On the other hand, I started crying the minute I opened my mouth and I think I scared the prosecutor.  Startled, he looked at me and flashed just a hint of a smile, but maybe I just imagined it. He didn't ask us one question. All of a sudden everyone in the room stood up and walked out.  Our interpreter told us that the judge had announced a favorable verdict.  Maybe we've seen too many movies, but it seemed like the judge should have banged a gavel or something.  Nonetheless, the three week waiting period was waived and we could pick up our son later that afternoon!  None of this would have ever happened without the amazing people at World Partners Adoption.  We were so well prepared to go into that courtroom and knew every possible question that may be asked of us.   Olga and her team were the best!

That afternoon we took a cake, gifts, and all the wonderful donations from our family and friends to the Baby House. They valued and needed each item that we brought and inventoried all of them, to be distributed to appropriate groups.  What a great feeling it was to know that we were walking down those halls for the last time, after 28 visits there.  Sam was all dressed up in his going away outfit and was playing with two of his caregivers when we arrived.  It was naptime for the rest of his group.  Good thing, because we'd grown so attached to those six precious babies that we might have tried to take them home, too.   We had a small party with his caregivers and Dr. Ludmilla and presented them with our gifts and the cake.  His doctor told us that Sergei is beloved at the Baby House and that although they will miss him, all babies deserve to have a mother and a father.  We had a heck of a time trying to express our gratitude to them.  First of all, how can you put it into words, and secondly, we both had the biggest lumps in our throats from just trying to hold back our tears.  We handed Sergei to his caregivers for one last hug and they lingered so long with him, also fighting back the tears.  There wasn't a dry eye between the three Christophers, walking through the doors for the last time.

We thought we were finished with the day's excitement, but we still had a wild car ride to  our apartment.  Sam didn't care for the car at first, but was able to ride on my lap, as no one uses car seats (or seat belts for that matter) in Kazakhstan.  He was a trooper and soon was looking wide eyed at the city passing by. At a stop light, we heard the screech of tires behind us, breaking glass, and our driver was getting ready to run the red light to avoid being part of the rear end collision that had just happened to the car behind us.  Not 30 seconds after that debacle, we nearly hit a dog.  Then the car died.  At first Phillipich thought we were out of gas, but he had a relatively full tank.   Finally he determined it was "bad gas", and that it wasn't just coming from Sam's last lunch at the baby house.  The car stalled about ten times on the way home, and we almost ran over a woman at a cross walk, as Phillipich didn't want to hit the brakes in fear that the car would stall again.   But we arrived home safely and had a wonderful evening with our new son who took pity on us and promptly went to sleep on the make shift crib Darrick made out of kitchen chairs.

We had a wonderful "day off" after the adoption.  It really took most of the day just to get things packed.  Mr. Sam seemed to delight in "helping" us and what would normally have taken us an hour or two took about twelve!  What can I say, we're new at this...it's pretty crazy (but wonderful) to go from nada to being instant parents of a ten-month old!