Our friend who is in Irkutsk was able to pick up her son from the orphanage today. I think for the rest of my life, when I hear of someone bringing their child home from the orphanage - I will be flooded with memories.
3-2-1-0 (or March 2, 2010)...it was a big day.
Like so much with the final stages of the adoption process, I didn't know what to expect - and what actually happened wasn't what I expected. I blogged about that day
HERE. Anya was so ready to leave the orphanage, we were expecting her to be a little hesitant; to be sad or hug her friends and caregivers goodbye. I remember walking to the top of the stairs where her room was, and seeing her waiting at the door. When she saw us, she got a huge smile on her face, and ran into her room to start to put her coat on. We showed her that we brought a new coat for her to put on, well she just thought that was the greatest thing ever.
She sat in the car clutching Daddy's hand, very interested in everything outside, very quiet. Wow, has THAT changed!
Those first few days I remember being in a fog. So much of it felt like a dream...if I am honest, sometimes it was a good dream, and other times it felt like a bad dream.
I remember one first walk to the grocery store together. Anya was proclaiming "MAGAZINE" at every turn. We could not understand why she was looking for magazines...there are news stands on corners, but when we would pass one, she would not be that interested in those kiosks. We soon realized that the word 'magazine' in Russian means 'store'!
Another funny language thing was the word 'spot'. In Russian, that means sleep...well, don't say to your 7 year old at noon "sit on this spot please". What your Russian speaking child will hear is "go to sleep"...and you will quickly see a very sad faced 7 year old!
I'm sure over the next few days I will be flooded with memories as our friend Lisa goes through her set of "firsts" with her son SV.
