Pictures!

So a quick moment to share some pictures! (Can't imagine why I'm so busy... LEAVE AGAIN IN 6 DAYS!)

First is the darling picture from Alexander's dance. Those two danced as awesome as they looked!

Next here is a shot of Carter this trip.

One of Eli and me.

Aaron playing with Alexander and Carter.



Now back to work for me! Hope to post more later.

Da! Da! Da!

After two hours in a very hot court room the judge pronounced the boys adopted by Aaron and myself! I was calm and collected throughout the proceedings (only worrying about whether or not Aaron was going to manage to stay awake in the heat) until she said those words. My heart immediately added a few beats, tears filled my eyes, and I struggled to keep the lump in my throat in down. Thankfully the judge spoke a few minutes longer while I focused on breathing in order to control my emotions. Then she stated that their names would be changed to 'Alexander Danil Zylstra', 'Carter Ivan Zylstra', and 'Eli Matvey Zylstra' - and the words sounded so sweet that I lost my cool again. The minutes that followed brought congratulations from everyone present, which didn't help with the lump. It was a good day indeed :)

So we fly out tomorrow as far as London, then home the next day. A week later I will be leaving with Beth back to Russia. We need to be here Feb 2nd and will get custody of the boys Feb 4th. If I didn't have three darlings at home that I miss terribly, I would certainly just stay in Russia.

So now that court is over with I can post pictures! Except this internet stick is not letting me! Come back in a few days and I'll post a bunch :)

Prepped For Court

The item on my mind most right now is our court hearing. We were prepped for it today by getting a lot of information about the proceedings as well as a lot of do’s and don’ts. Yup, a little nervous.


Our hearing is to start at 10am tomorrow morning in Ufa (which means we leave our apartment at 7:30am) and it will take about 2 hours. I know, I thought that seemed like a very long time too! Many people will give speeches including each of us (written ahead of time so we are allowed to read it), the director of the orphanage, the social worker, and others I can’t remember. After our speeches the judge may ask us any question she wants. That will probably be the ‘hardest’ part for us since we don’t know what questions she may ask. There will also be a prosecutor whose job it is to make sure that all the Russian laws have been followed – like no Russian family could be found for the children, etc. We were also told stuff like always stand while speaking and don’t cross your arms or your legs. Having short legs that don’t reach the ground well while sitting on most chairs, I almost always have my legs crossed and will really have to concentrate on not doing so.

So, your prayers would be great! Calm and clear heads, and for the judge to understand our hearts. Thanks!

Epiphany and Driving

Today we learned that it is a special day in Russia called Epiphany. From Wikapedia, “The Epiphany, celebrated in Russia on January 19, marks the baptism of Jesus in the (Jordan River). Believing that on this day water becomes holy and is imbued with special powers, Russians all over the country cut holes in the ice of lakes and rivers, often in the shape of the cross, to bathe in the freezing water. Participants in the ritual may dip themselves three times under the water, honoring the Holy Trinity, to symbolically wash away their sins from the past year, and to experience a sense of spiritual rebirth. Orthodox priests are on hand to bless the water, and rescuers are on hand to monitor the safety of the swimmers in the ice-cold water.” The way it was explained to us is that many people are ‘christened’ on this day with the belief that doing so will result in not getting sick. (I understood this as not getting sick ever, but Aaron understood it as not getting sick this day even though they are dipping themselves in freezing water. We’ll ask tomorrow.)


I also thought that I’d attempt to adequately describe what the driving we endure daily is like :). Aaron figures that this will be a hard task because in so many ways it is indescribable. Our daily trips have really went from scary to amusing though (once you get over the nauseousness of it all). It is like we are in a constant race – accelerate hard, break hard, accelerate hard, break hard – on a road with little or no marked lanes (not that people would follow the markers), and you get extra points for clipping other car mirrors or pedestrians! All cars start to accelerate (hard) at a red light moments before it turns green. The common car of choice is a Lada, which are adequate for medium-sized women, and quite narrow (needed in order to squeeze in a third lane to a two-laned street). So, picture Aaron squished in there every day. I have also learnt to keep my head pressed firmly against the back of my seat after having it hit the side window a couple times due to the bumps in the road excentuated by ice rutts on all the side streets. We also go through a high speed traffic circle every day, again with no lane markers-lights-or signage, that I think defies all logic in that we have yet to see an accident scene there (I seriously can not figure out how many lanes it is suppose to be). And to top it all off we get to listen to dirty dance music! I am not sure if Russian’s actually like that radio station or if our drivers have graciously choosen it because many of the songs are in English. But really, it is better that they don’t speak English because the words are very crude and embarrassing… althought it has been many years since I have had the ‘pleasure’ of listening to secular music so maybe that is what it is all like these days? Anyways, the whole driving ‘adventure’ is so absurd that it is quite entertaining!

Back to Russia

Well someone has been praying and I thank you very much! Would you believe that are bodies are on Russia time!? We arrived in Ufa yesterday at noon local time (again with all our luggage, hurray!) quite tired from all our travels. I slept a little on the drive to Sterlitamak, ate and showered at our hosts (wasn’t nauseous this time either) and then went for a ‘nap’. My plan was to only sleep a little since it was 4pm and I didn’t want to sleep too long and then not be able to at night. Well a short nap didn’t happen – I basically slept until supper, woke up more tired than I was originally, and then pretty much went straight to bed after eating. I woke up at 12:30am to go to the bathroom and thought ‘oh no, now I’ll be up all night’. Nope, went back to sleep quite easy and then did it again at 4am. I slept until 7:30am! So here I am just before supper and feeling fine! Last trip I was exhausted for at least the first two days and never did get on ‘Russia time’. Aaron did better than me with all the time changes last trip, but is doing even better this time too. Soooo great!
Today we did the usual two visits at the orphanage. The boys remembered us and we basically were back to where we left off after about 5 minutes. They are also consistently calling us ‘mama’ and ‘papa’. We were first treated by Alexander doing a dance for us with a little girl from his group. They did awesome – seriously, I was so amazed and am certain he dances better than I. They were also in costume and looked absolutely adorable – I can’t wait to post pictures! (I think I can after court?) Both Alexander and Carter also sang a Christmassy song for us too. All very cute!
The rest of the first visit had its ups and downs. Again the boys were often more interested in playing with the ‘new’ toys than with us at all. Also, telling them ‘no’ when they are misbehaving doesn’t bring any response from them because at this point there are basically no consequences to not listening to us. I did take a toy away from Carter since he insisted that it was for hitting Eli in the head. He responded by saying ‘Give! Give!’ over and over and having a mad fit on the floor for a few minutes, and then was back to his giggly self. The second visit though we were in that Sensory room, so brought no toys and had a blast with them. At the end of the time we were left for a couple minutes with Eli (usually they take him away first but Alexander and Carter left first this time) and he immediately seemed more comfortable. Aaron was ‘allowed’ to sit closer and talk a little to him (usually this would have him crying) and I had him almost laughing! He then walked with me holding his hand (absolutely refused to last trip). Although I knew Eli doesn’t know his older brothers, I hadn’t realized that he was actually so frightened by them too. It makes sense though since no one in his baby group would be so loud, active, and fast. So that too was great!

   

There have been a few changes since last time. Carter is talking sooooo much more and Eli is walking on his own! Great to see them developing more to where they should be for their age (although seeing Eli walk on his own for the first time would have been special too). They cut Eli’s hair short – not so crazy about that… We also have a new driver, which is too bad because I was looking forward to introducing the young handsome single one to Beth :)

I almost forgot about London! We had approximately 10hrs of time to spare between flights so we hopped on the ‘tube’ (‘mind the gap’) and walked around catching a bunch of sites in the city. We saw Buckingham Palace, the London Eye (closed for maintenance), Big Ben, and a few others. It was a balmy +12’C…about 35’ warmer than home. Russia however is exactly like home weather-wise, lots of snow and –20’C.

So, 4 more visits, court, and then home (I think). Then back to Russia…