Day 5 with Baby A (our last visit this trip)

Knowing this was going to be the last visit with Baby A this trip was very bitter sweet. I was so excited and so thankful for all the time we got to spend with him but after seeing him everyday for 5 days it was going to be so hard to leave him.

Here is the email I sent out to our family:

I am so blown away by God's faithfulness to us. We had a great visit with Baby A again today. 

I tried to take everything in today and really just focus on Baby A and this was my favorite visit yet! Today was also our last visit with him this trip so that made it extra special! We sat with him and played for a little while but he was getting fussy so his nanny put him on his little car and let Papa push him around for a little while. I tried to take over at one point but Baby A was not having that. He doesn't mind playing with me and I can always get him to smile and laugh but when it comes to pushing his car or stroller he wants Papa to do it. When he was on his car he would look back to make sure I wasn't touching his car ha. 

Then it was time for bandages changes so we got our scrubs on and headed back to his room. They do his bath in his room then his dressing change in the O.R. He did really well during his dressing change and I even taught him how to blow kisses!!! They let me help today which was really neat. I assisted by keeping his arm and leg out of the way while they wrapped his other arm and leg. They are very cautious of germs and infection so they do everything they can to make sure and keep everything as clean as possible. Everyone that has gone to the hospital tells us how nice it is and they are so surprised by how well he is being taken care of. 

Once we were done with that we went back to his room and played with him for a little while. Sandy (DERMAKids Germany) made Baby A a book about his life. There are tons of pictures in there and all of his doctors and nurses have signed it and written letters to Baby A. Today we got to write in his book which is a moment I will never forget. I have known about this book and have seen pictures of it but to be in our sons room signing his book was such a surreal feeling. 

It was getting to the time we needed to leave and I got more and more sad! Our translator asked us if we were ready to leave and I said no not yet. We took a few more pictures and loved on Baby A before we left. 

Before we left we told his Nanny bye and thanked her for everything she has done for Baby A. We told her it was so hard for us to leave him but it was so much easier knowing that he was being cared for by her. She gave me a HUGE hug before we left and she told me Jason and I were a nice couple and she was happy Baby A would be going to us since we cared about him so much. This was a really neat moment! I think she know knows how much we love him now after spending a week with us so I help that helps her a little bit once we take him.

It was time to go say bye to our boy and I couldn't help but cry. I knew he was going to be well cared for but the thought of leaving him for 2 or 3 months until we could return for court broke my heart. I kissed him on the head and told him that we would be coming back for him as soon as we could then Jason told him bye as well. His Nanny carried him out to say bye to us in the hallway and I was comforted knowing he was in the arms of the person he loves the most. She will take good care of him while we are gone and that makes it a lot easier to leave. We told the doctors bye and they all said they are looking forward to our return. As we drove away it all seemed so final but I know it's not we will see our boy again soon and next time we wont have to say bye to him. 

I am so thankful for everything God has allowed us to do this week I have grown to love Eastern Europe and the people here. Honestly we would have LOVED to stay longer and we look forward to going back for court. Everyone was so nice to us, we enjoyed the cold (for the most part) and the food was sooooo good! 

This whole process has given me such a better understanding of our adoption as sons and daughters of God. God has made us co-heirs with Christ through the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. I am so thankful for the free gift of salvation through repentance and faith. God is so so amazing!  

Here I am teaching Baby A to blow kisses. He would smile so big while we were doing this. Then by the end of it he put his hand up to his own mouth and would blow kisses!

Day 4 with Baby A

I don't have any pictures from day 4 that don't have pictures of Baby A in them so there wont be any pictures in this post sorry.

I also wanted to say thank you so much to everyone who left comments telling us that over time Baby A will bond to us. We know it is going to be hard on him at first but we do know over time he will bond to us as his parents. We have taken online classes, read books, talked to our social worker and also talked to other adoptive families about ways to help him bond to us.

Lisa wanted to know how old Baby A is and I can't share his birthday but I can say he will turn 2 in January. Please feel free to ask us any questions you might have.

Here is our email from day 4 with Baby A!

Someone brought Baby A a little toy car for him to ride on and he LOVES it! Of course "Papa" pushed him around first then Jason got tired (we had to  bend all the way over to push him since there was no handle so it was pretty tiring) and then I got to push him around. Jason was laughing because I was pushing him so slow :) after a few minutes Baby A started looking around then found Jason and pointed at him and cried until Jason started pushing him. I tried to push him on his car several more times but he only wanted Jason to do it! I think it is so neat that he is already bonding so well with Jason. Jason says he didn't want me to push him because I was going too slow ha!

 I continue to play with him and make him laugh and let him bond with me at his own pace and I know over time it will happen. He is confused though because his Nanny is his Mama and now everyone is calling me his Mama so I know he is not really sure what is going on. 

Then we took a walk down to the bottom floor of the hospital where they had a HUGE Christmas tree and took pictures with Baby A, his nanny, our translator and us. Then something amazing happened his Nanny handed him to me standing up! It felt so amazing to hold my boy standing up. I LOVE him so so so much it was a great feeling to have him in my arms again! 

After we were done taking pictures we went back upstairs and Jason pushed his some more while he rode his car. After awhile his nanny sat him at his table and we played with his tractor and farm animals from Momo and Gramps. He loved playing with it and liked the animal sounds. 

Then he got fussy and was overstimulated so our translator decided it was a good time to go because we needed to head to the notary. We said bye and headed out. 

I really love his Nanny and I am so thankful he is surrounded with so much love! 

At the notary we were able to sign paperwork OFFICIALLY COMMITTING TO HIS ADOPTION!!!!!  I have waited for this day for so long it was such a HUGE blessing for it to finally get here! 

Our love for Baby A only continues to grow and we are so excited we are getting to spend so much time with him! 

Day three with Baby A

I am going to post parts of the email I sent out to our family from day 3 and I will add more details at the end of this post :)

We got to the hospital at 11am and Baby A was happily playing in his chair at his little table. His Nanny had us sit in the little chairs beside him so we could play with him there. The whole time we were doing this I was a nervous wreck because I was afraid he was going to fall. Jason kept telling me Baby A was fine and I knew he was but I was still nervous. It was fun playing at the table with him but I was so glad when his nanny decided we should move on to something else. 

Baby A's Nanny loves Jason so everything we do she says "Papa walk Baby A around, Papa push Baby A in stroller." It is so funny and so sweet that she respects him so much. Today she had Jason hold onto Baby A's arms and help him walk around the hospital. I love watching Jason interact with Baby A, Jason loves him so much and he is getting more and more confidant as the days go on of how to handle Baby A. 

After the walk we went into Baby A's room for some hot tea (us not him) and his nanny put him in his bed so we could sit beside him and play (not while drinking tea of course). His nanny had left the room at this point so it was just us, Baby A and our translator. It was at this time I noticed Baby A wasn't interacting with us the same and I could tell he was getting upset. And then he lost it... He was looking everywhere for his Nanny and we could tell he was not going to stop crying until she came back. I wasn't really sure how to comfort him but I found a frog puppet and started playing pick a boo with the frog. Baby A soon calmed down and would try to hit the frog with Jason to make it disappear then I would bring it back out and they would hit it again. It was so cute. Then he lost it again but this time his doctor came in and took him to his Nanny. Which was good because that's who he wanted. 

She calmed him down and went back out to the little table to play with him. They told us to go out there too so we got some more play time in while he was comforted by his Nanny. We are so amazed by how much she loves him and by how well she takes care of him. She really tries to give us some good one on one time with him during our visits but sometimes he just wants her and we totally understand that. We want him to be happy not stressed out during our visits. 

His nanny then put him in his stroller and let "Papa" push him around the hospital which Baby A LOVED. Then Jason let me have a turn but Baby A was not having that he turned around saw me and started to cry until he found Jason. He pointed to Jason and cried until Jason started pushing him then he stopped crying and enjoyed the rest of his ride. It is so cute how much he loves Jason. He is already a "Daddy's" boy. I loved watching them walk around and around. 

Once he was done with his stroller ride it was time for his nap. Today we got to stay and watch her get him to sleep. She put him in the stroller and pushed it back and forth while singing a beautiful song to him. It made me cry watching her with him. She loves him so much and once we adopt him I know that she will mourn the "loss" of him as her child. I know that might sound strange but she has cared for him 24/7 for over a year. As far as he knows that is his Mama and he for all practical purposes he is her son. Today we (through our translator) spent some time telling her that we know that she is and will always be his first Mama and we know it is going to be so hard on her once we take him but we will always tell him about her and show him her pictures. She will always be a very special part of our family and we can see how much she loves him. We told her how thankful we were for everything she has done for him and we hoped to keep in touch with her once he is adopted so she can "watch" him grow up. She smiled really big and said "we just want you to love him as much as we do." And we reassured her that we did indeed love him just as much as everyone at the hospital does. 

I gave her a big hug before we left and she at first wasn't hugging me but then she gave me a big squeeze and hugged me some more. Then she decided we would all get dressed up tomorrow and take family pictures in front of the Christmas tree in the hospital. Us, Baby A and her :). I was so excited about this!

Once we got back to our host families house we decided to go to a little coffee shop/cafe and enjoyed some lunch and coffee. After that we came home and watched our host family's kids so they could go on a date. They have 2 boys that are Kenya and Judah's ages so playing with them really makes us miss our kids. We had a blast though building towers and knocking them down. 

There are coffee shops everywhere in Eastern Europe. We loved going to get a quick bite to eat and getting to enjoy some fancy coffee was also really fun!

My amazingly tasty chocolate "pancakes" and Jason's chocolate cake with prunes in it.

Jason and C enjoyed building a tower. 

Then Jason was left on his own to keep building...

while C watched ha

Not for long though because then it was time for C to destroy the tower haha


M joined in on the destroying the tower action.

And here is Baby M such a cutie!

I hope you are enjoying the updates. If y'all have any questions please feel free to ask and I will try to answer them as best as I can.

Day 2 with Baby A

I am just going to copy the email I sent out to family on here about our second day with Baby A.

We didn't get to hold him today but we did get to watch them do his dressing change. They are taking such great care of him! I saw pictures of him a few months ago and the wounds I remember looking really bad in the pictures are totally healed now. 

Everyone LOVES him there. The whole time we are there people are coming in and out of the room just to talk to him and play with him for a minute. He loves his nanny so much and as far as he knows that is his Mama. This is a huge blessing because it shows he can attach to someone and he is also being loved on all day everyday!  

Our visit lasted for 4 hours today which we were not expecting at all. Baby A's nanny took a lot of time to explain to us  how she feed him, what he liked to eat, how she got him to sleep and details from his day to day life. Then at the end she left us alone with him and we were able to get to spend some quality time playing with him while he chilled in his stroller. He loved the turtle we brought him. It lights up and plays music and he had a blast pushing the buttons and watching it go. He also LOVES to try to take my glasses off. Of course I let him and sometimes I would hand them to him then I put them back on and we do this over and over again. I might regret this later when I have to teach him not to do it but for now it has helped him to bond with me a little and we make great eye contact during our little game. 

Baby A LOVES Jason and anytime the doctors come in the room they will say "where's Papa?" and he will look all over until he finds Jason then he looks right at him till we all cheer. It is super cute! 

Baby A is such a ham! He performs on command and it is so cute. Today we got to see him growl like a bear, make a tractor noise, find his ears, blink his eyes, pretend to sneeze and cough and find his tummy. We also got to see him moving all over his bed by pushing his feet against the bed to take him where he wanted to go and he can push himself into a sitting position from laying down which we didn't know he could do and we were so excited to see him do it! 

He didn't really cry at all during our visit just a couple time during his dressing change. Yesterday he was very unsure of who we were and was pretty fussy at times but today I think he decided he likes us. We both got him to laugh and smile a lot. Our love for him continues to grow by the second and we are so blown away and so blessed that God has allowed us to find him and has given us the desire to adopt him. I can't imagine our lives without Baby A and I am so thankful that in a few short months he will "officially" be our son!

Love you all and thank you guys so much for praying for us!

Jason and I before Baby A's dressing change.

In Eastern Europe there were these HUGE Christmas trees everywhere. We use to say everything is bigger in Texas but now we say everything is bigger in Eastern Europe. The Christmas directions by far show up anything I have ever seen in America. 

Tomorrow I will post about day 3.

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.

EXCITING ADOPTION NEWS!!!!

I am praising God and rejoicing more than words could ever express... OUR ADOPTION IS FULLY FUNDED! God is so amazingly faithful! Thank you to everyone who has supported us by praying for us and by donating to our adoption fund.

More exciting news WE GOT TO MEET BABY A!!!!!

We left our house at about 6am on November 26th to drive 4 hours away so we could fly out of Houston Airport. We have heard amazing things about Singapore Airlines and they were a lot cheaper then all the other airlines so we decided to drive there and back so that we could get a better price and a direct flight to Eastern Europe.

 We were so excited to start our long journey to get to meet our boy (I am wearing my seat belt even though for some strange reason it doesn't look like it).

Here we are getting ready for take off.

I loved getting to watch where our plane was at and see were we were headed. Singapore Airlines is AMAZING. They brought us a hot towel before every meal so we could wash up, they gave us a travel bag with socks, a tooth brush and tooth paste, earphones and we had TVs in front of our seats where we could watch movies, watch TV shows, learn other languages or play games! 

The food on the plane was really good too! 

We left on a Saturday at 2pm and got there on Sunday at 4pm. We went straight to our host families apartment and hung out with them for a few hours before bed. Our host family was so super sweet and we are so blessed they asked us to stay with them! I'm not sure if they want us to put their names on here so we will call them Mr. and Mrs. D. Mrs D cooked amazingly tasty meals every night in fact I was so inspired that once we got home I started cooking a lot more :) Mr. D had us cracking up the whole time and their boys are Kenya and Judah's ages so we had a lot of fun playing with them! 

I hope to do a post a day for everyday we were there. Tomorrow's post will be about our very first visit with Baby A!!! 

Super Exciting News... (Adoption Update)

I have some very exciting news.... WE RECEIVED OUR TRAVEL DATES for our first trip!!!!! Now before you get too excited let me explain what this trip is. When we go to Eastern Europe this time it will be to meet Baby A and officially commit to his adoption in Eastern Europe. We will not have court this trip and we will not be bringing him home this trip. But I can't even begin to tell you how excited I am to know we are going to finally get to meet our BOY!!!!  I have thought  about this day non-stop for almost 9 months I can't wait to love on Baby A! We are not going to be sharing our travel dates but I will say we will be going before the end of the year!

After this trip we will come home then we will have to wait two or three months for a court date. Once we get a court date we will go back to Eastern Europe to adopt Baby A. Once we are approved in court there is a ten day waiting period before we can take Baby A home. We still have a long way to go but we are getting so much closer!!!

Please be praying for a safe trip for us and that Baby A will not be freaked out by us being there. I am so hoping to get some amazing cuddle time with our boy but I know the reality is he might not want a whole lot to do with us. Either way I just can't wait to be in the same room with him!!! Please also be praying for some paperwork that we are trying to get for court. The wording has to be done a certain way but so far it hasn't been done exactly right so please be praying we could get this taken care of quickly.

On a side note Oqurechka in the comment you left you used Baby A's name so I didn't publish it on the post but if you email me we can talk more about what you asked vkdelgado@hotmail.com. Thanks!