6 years Home!!!

Anyone who has adopted is familiar with the term 'Gotcha Day'...... For those who aren't it marks the day that their newly adopted child becomes part of their family.... for some people it is the day they have court, for some it is the day they pick their baby/child up from the Baby House/Children's Home and for some it is the day that their child arrives home... for us we had court on the 16th September 2003, we brought Elena out of the Baby House on the 17th September 2003 and she arrived in Ireland on 24th September 2003....

We have chosen the 24th September to celebrate Elena becoming part of our family..... because this is the day that Darrelle got to meet her much longed for baby sister for the first time.....She had waited for almost a full month for us to return from Kazakhstan... she was only 7 years old and was so excited in the airport as she waited for us to get off the plane..... and waited... and waited.... and when everyone had exited into arrivals she was still waiting and despondently thinking we hadn't arrived on that plane.... What had happened in reality was that our little Elena, traumatized with all that had rocked her world in the previous 3.5 weeks needed an entire change (you get the picture!!) when she got off the plane so we were last to clear immigration.....A very kind man who worked there and whose daughter used to babysit for us peered into arrivals and saw this little forlorn girl who had slid down to sit on the floor and said to her that 'he had her little baby sister inside and would she like to come in to see her?' and so we were greeted by our little 7 yr old rushing in to welcome us and meet her baby sister for the first time.....followed by our beloved Grandma Eileen and Grandad Albie who had so lovingly looked after Darrelle in our absence......

Eileen, without fail remembers this day every year and recounts this story so I thought I'd better get it down in print!!!!!

As usual we remember fondly our time in Kazakhstan....we thankfully had a very smooth process in-country, beautiful weather and met with people who may live far away from us but will always be part of our adoption story and special to us...

When we travelled for Elena... 3 baby girls came home to their families... when we travelled for Alex in 2006/2007 it was three little boys that came home....

3 small girls, Elena, Gracie and Jaci with their new Mommies in Umit, Taraz ~September 2003!!!

Elena's cake

We were delighted that Grandma Eileen and Albie both joined us last night for Elena's special dinner..... She was excited at the planning but did not want to mention the reason we were celebrating and did not want anyone else to mention it either.....She did like her cake tho'.....
Wasn't she a beauty!! This was Elena after she woke up her first morning with us.... We had spent the night on the soviet train from Taraz - a full 10 hours... and this was just before we pulled in to the station in Almaty ......am sure she was trying to make sense of her new surroundings and although she had seen us twice a day every day for the previous two weeks we probably still were 'strange' to her.....although the only familiar sights to her that morning....The newness and strangeness of everything, the motion of the train had meant that Elena's little body had reacted to everything by refusing to eat and by entering a phase of persistent diarrhoea which would continue unabated for the following 3 - 4 weeks until her world started to feel normal again.... or a new kind of normal anyway... it makes one think of how their little world's are turned upside down and how Kazakh authorities are doing something right when they insist on a two week (which is always longer when one has to wait for a court date!) bonding period with your child..... I know some little guys just seem to go with the flow (our Alex for one!) but I dread to think of how traumatized little Elena would have been if we had just been handed her and she had not been allowed a gradual bonding process with us.....
What a tiny little thing she was!

Here she is in the large bonding room we shared with Diane and Gracie..... Elena when we met her at almost 11 months was just after learning how to sit up unaided but was still unable to crawl.... Instead she tended to move 'commando style'.... pulling herself along on her stomach..... she weighed 6kg 600g (about 14 lbs) and funnily Alex was that exact weight to the gram when we met him also!!!! The director was anxious that we know how strong she was and how fast she could move, even if she was so tiny so she sent to her room for the walker so we could see her 'move'!!! Just lookiing at these photos makes me wish I was back there again!!!! Don't worry the next time we go to Kazakhstan will be to show Elena and Alex their birth country in a few years time...
Elena in 'Mad Murphy's' Irish pub in Almaty...

During the week we spent in Almaty waiting for the babies' passports and paperwork we of course were directed to 'Mad Murphy's' pub - Yes, of course the Irish have a pub everywhere even in Kazakhstan..... Declan even got a pint of 'Arthur Guinness'... Actually I think we all did and persuaded Diane to try it.... !!! Elena slept a lot of the time we were there and the girl who worked there picked her up and you can see by the look on her face that she was not liking it very much.... She had seen enough of 'strange, new people'.... Knowing her as well as I do now I can see that this was not a good idea....

When she was not long home I brought her to a lady who does 'cranial-sacral' therapy. She said that everything about her was perfectly aligned but.... that she did not like anybody in her space... That is so true - she chooses carefully who she lets in to her personal space and that is not too many people.....
Elena meets her cousin ......

When we were home just about a week we made the journey to meet extended family and in the first house we visited Elena met her cousin Eoin....When I look at this I see how far Elena has come... Here she is wearing clothes for a 3 month old and sitting beside her cousin who was your average 8 month old and she is tiny beside him despite being over 3 months older than him....
Here is Elena with Galina, our coordinator...

Galina worked tirelessly behind the scenes for us while we were in Taraz and Almaty and because of her we had a trouble-free smooth time in-country ~ having a good coordinator is vital while one is in-country ~ believe me we have experienced the other side of the coin and it was not pleasant..... When we had Elena for the week in Almaty she would cry everytime she was in the car... mind you sitting in the back of the car ~ 3 adults, no seatbelts and 2 babies sitting on our laps made me feel like cryiing also, especially when you see how they drive in Kazakhstan... The only time she would not cry was when we stopped at the traffic lights... Galina in the front of the car would turn and speak to her in Russian or Kazakh and she would stop immediately and look at her.... It was so amazing because Elena did spend a lot of those days whimpering or crying and so much so that I would say to Galina 'Talk to her please'....

Fast forward 3 years and we were once again spending our days in another baby house in Kazakhstan, this time in the north-eastern part of the country ~ Elena comes from the south of this large country ~ Taraz is the oldest city in Kazakhstan..... One day someone tells me that Galina in in the Baby House in Ust-Kamenogorsk as she is now working for another agency and would be visiting adoptive parents that day... I immediately left to see could I find her and did meet with her coming out of the director's office... she was so delighted to meet with us and wanted to know all about Elena.... I had photos to show her and gave her one.... she could not believe that this 4 year old was the same pale little baby she remembered from Taraz..... I know without a shadow of a doubt if we had been lucky enough to have her as our cordinator when we adopted Alex we would have made it home for Christmas and long before .....But then that's another story......!!!

3 children... 3 very different birth journeys... all equally precious.....what memories......