First Day Meeting Baby A

Monday morning (11/28/11) we woke up and started our long journey to The Ministry of Education. In Eastern Europe The Ministry of Education oversees all the orphans and they have to give you an invitation to meet the child you are adopting.

One thing Jason and I were surprised by was all the traffic. It doesn't matter what time you leave you will be sitting in traffic for at least an hour but most likely closer to 2 hours. There are no shoulders on the roads because if there were people would just drive on it. In fact if you are turning left at a light four cars will pull in front of you make their own lanes then merge into one lane once the light turns green. They also NEVER pull over for police cars or ambulances either.

We arrived at the Ministry of Education a few hours late but no one seemed to mind. We were met there by our amazing adoption coordinator Alyona. We went in and got in the tiniest elevator ever. Jason and I were facing each other and Alyona was right up against us too trying to not get hit by the elevator closing ha. 

We took our coats to drop them off at the coat room (who knew places had coat rooms?). Then we headed into the office for our meeting. There were about 6 women in there working at their desks. We sat down and the lady we were working with was so sweet! She greeted us and then started telling us all about Baby A. She told us about his medical history, his family, his birthday and where he was born. Then she asked us how we planned on taking care of him. I told her about my stay with the Williams Family (where I learned how to do bathing, dressing changes and day to day life with EB) and we talked about our insurance covering his bandages. Then she asked if we wanted to meet him. I about came out of my chair and yelled YES!!!! But I had a little more self control than that so Jason and I both said yes calmly. She then said "he will get better in America right?" I said "no he will always have wounds like he does now." I told her they are starting to do bone marrow transplants and trying to find a cure but they haven't been able to yet. Then she said "thank you so much for coming for our Baby A (she used his real name) and thank you for knowing how to care for him." I gave her a big hug (which I don't think we were supposed to do ha) and we left the office.

We needed to wait for our translator to meet us before we headed to the hospital so we went to a little Cafe and had "pancakes". They are little thin pancakes (we would call them crepes) that are filled with all kinds of different things.  We had the meat ones and they were soooo good! 

Once we were done we headed to the hospital to meet our BABY!!!! It took us over an hour to get there but once we pulled up I got so excited! This was really it we were going to get to meet our boy! We walked into the hospital and as we were walking down the hall I looked through an open door and saw Baby A being pushed in his stroller. I asked Jason if he saw him but he didn't. I was overwhelmed with joy that I got to see him! We went into an office and met with his doctors. They GRILLED us. They asked if there were no children in America with EB that we could adopt, they asked why we didn't just have more biological kids because we were so young, they asked us a few more questions and I guess were satisfied with our answers because they all started smiling and asked if we wanted to meet him. We of course said YES! 

They took us down the hall and then we saw his nanny walking out of his room helping Baby A walk out to see us. He is not walking yet but enjoys "walking" around while someone holds his arms. I wasn't sure what we were supposed to do so I just squatted down and started talking to him. I couldn't help but cry a little getting to see our baby boy in real life.  I stayed back a little bit at first but got closer after a minute.  I just kept talking to him and smiling from ear to ear! 

He nanny would walk around with him and we would follow and talk to him. After a few minutes they took us in his room and we kept talking to him. We were just blown away by the fact we were really there. It was very surreal sitting in the room I had been seeing pictures of for the last 9 months. 

Baby A's nanny handed him to Jason and I can't even begin to tell you how exciting I was to see my husband holding our son. I went and sat by them and talked to Baby A. After a few minutes I asked Jason if I could take Baby A from him and he said yes. I went to take him but his nanny stopped me because she thought I was going to hurt him. That was kinda awkward for me but it really wasn't that big of a deal. She handed him to me and actually being able to hold him for the first time was just like holding Kenya, Melody, Madison and Judah for the first time after they were born. He is my son and I LOVE him more then words could ever express!

We got to spend a lot of time with him and his nanny started telling us all about his day to day life. She really spent a lot of time letting us know about him which will help a ton once we bring him home. It was time for his nap which meant it was time for us to leave. We got to stay for two and a half hours that day! 

After we were done we went back into the doctors office and talked with them a little bit more. They were so nice and so excited we were there. 

We had a great first visit and we were really excited to get to hold him a few times which we were not expecting!

This is us with a few of Baby A's doctors.

Tomorrow I will post about our second visit.

 I am not going to post any pictures of Baby A because we are not allowed to until after the adoption is finalized.