I had every intention of blogging about our time in country but things became busy before I knew it. I will try to bring you all up to date on our adoption journey in a few posts. As you may imagine, our lives have been beyond busy for the last several months. I'll begin where I left off... in Armenia.
Jason and I traveled to Armenia (I can say that now) to meet our soon-to-be new children in late July. From my previous post, you learned that on Tuesday, July 21st Milena became our daughter. I'll back track from there just a bit. We got to Armenia in the wee hours of Monday morning, July 20th. Jason and I got a few hours of sleep before meeting with our adoption team and heading over to the orphanage that our son Aleks (Chance) was in. You see, as previously mentioned, Milena and Aleks were in two separate regions of Armenia and were about 2 hours apart so we were not able to see her before court on Tuesday. We spent Monday with Aleks before going to court on Tuesday for Milena. That was the first time Jason got to meet Aleks and see orphanage life up close and personal.
On Tuesday we had and passed court for Milena and picked her up after some paper chasing. She was so sweet and greeted us with big hugs. We enjoyed some time at her orphanage before heading back to the capitol which is where Aleks was and where we were staying. Milena did very well with the adjustment.
On Wednesday morning we were able to all go to Aleks' orphanage, Milena included and spend some time there before we had court for his adoption. Milena spent the first 10-11 years of her life in Aleks' orphanage before aging out and moving to the other one. Therefore she was well known and welcomed with open arms by the staff. While Jason and I went to court, the orphanage was kind enough to allow Milena to stay there.
For some reason I was more nervous for Aleks' court than for Milena's. It was not a long hearing nor was it particularly stressful. The only downside to our court experience for Aleks was that the Judge did not sign the adoption decree that day (they have up to 5 days to sign.) Aleks did not legally become our son until Friday, July 24th. That meant that he had to stay in the orphanage until Friday.
Jason had to leave early Thursday morning to get back home. I stayed for the duration of the adoption process. Starting July 24th, it was Aleks, Milena and myself in our little apartment; learning to live together, bond together and just getting to know each other.
I will write more about our stay in Armenia later. For now I am going to post some pictures and video from my first trip to Armenia in March when I first met Aleks and Milena!
 |
| This is the first day I met Milena, after being shy for a while, she opened up after Aleks went down for a nap. |
Below Aleks got a hold of my phone and was having fun:
Below Milena was showing her silliness:
Below: Milena showing off her English skills (some caregivers speak English so the children are exposed to it although they are fluent in Armenian)
Aleks has an adorable laugh:
The above pictures and videos were taken on March 16th, the first day I met Aleks and Milena.
I will post more later and will try to continue updating the blog as I am able.
No comments:
Post a Comment