When we went to court on September 8 in support of our petition to adopt Masha and Autumn we knew that the decision had already been made and that this was more of a formality than anything else. But of course we were nervous that we might say something stupid and then the judge could slam down her gravel and throw us out with no babies.
On one side of the room sat the judge at her desk, along with the prosecutor and two jury members. On the other side we sat side-by-side in a row of chairs lined up against the wall, us, our translator, a social worker and the orphanage director. This judge was not the usual judge in this region and she rarely does international adoptions. She actually read our very long petition out loud in the courtroom.
And then came the questions... between my husband and I, we answered ten or so questions posed by the judge, prosecutor, and women of the jury. “How did you find these children?” “Why do you want more children when you already have so many children?” “Where do the children sleep and will your adopted children have the same privileges as your biological children?” “Why did you choose children with Down syndrome?”
Some questions are cut and dried, and easy to answer, like how our house is set up. Other questions are more complicated, like why do you want more children or why did you choose to adopt from Ukraine... And still other questions just can’t be answered fully and honestly if one wishes to remain tactful, like why Down syndrome...
But we got through it and the judge made a short speech, making things official. One of the things she said was that the names of Masha and Autumn’s biological parents would be erased from their birth certificates and that our names would replace them.
Erased. Their flesh and blood, deleted... wiped away forever in the records. From this day on I will be listed as the birth mother of Masha and Autumn. The only remnants of their past are their birth dates, places, and Masha’s first name. The rest has been erased. Their personal histories have been rewritten.
That struck me very hard. Their own mothers... not dead but erased, as if they never existed at all. And I, feeling somewhat like an imposter or perhaps even a thief, have stepped in and assumed them.
One day I will not feel like this. I will look at those certificates and know they are true. Because one day, Masha and Autumn will understand what a Mama is, and they will love me... their mama... with all their hearts, and this will prove to me that you cannot erase what never was.
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Monday, September 20, 2010
Five Fast Days
Romania... a country I have always wanted to visit but never would have... because well... it just isn’t France or England or Italy. After all, what is there to see in Romania other than Count Dracula? Lots.
On Wednesday we landed in Bucharest and picked up a car at the airport. Then we bravely set out with a high-level road map provided by Avis. We missed our first turn and found ourselves well on our way to somewhere other than our destination of Targoviste. Lucky for us there are only a few roads in that area of Romania, so we could readjust a few towns up.
In Targoviste we visited a monastery, had a delicious pizza lunch, and then wandered around the original castle of the Vlads built in the late 1300’s. Vlad Dracul and his son Vlad Tepes (the impaler) used the castle during the mid 1400’s. The castle was abandoned in the late 1600’s and fell into ruin. The tower is still in tact but the rest of the castle is in the process of being restored.
From Targoviste we headed West to Cutea de Arges to visit the monastery it is known for... the drive should have taken about an hour... ha ha. I think we drove the worst roads in that country with not a town in sight, though there were plenty of sheep, cows, shrines, and potholes in the road. In some places the road was missing and we had to inch along wishing we had a big ole 4-wheel drive. One hour turned into about four and the sun started to set...
Finally we got to Cutea de Arges... in the dark... with no detailed map or translator... and no Romanian SIM card. Frustrated, we stopped at a grocery store hoping to find anyone who could speak some English. A very nice couple read the address of our bed and breakfast and told us to follow them, which we did, though not without wondering if we had entered into some bad horror movie... two naive Americans blindly following a couple of Romanians after dark...
We checked in at our b&b and went across the street for dinner, where we found fried brains and offal soup on the menu, and no I did not order them. I know you are thinking that after that hotdog in Vorzel, I would eat most anything but even I have limits. Dinner was ok and after a drink we were ready for bed.
The next morning our hostess, Ruxi, made us a delicious country breakfast of omelettes, bread with jam, fresh vegies, feta cheese, and tea. Um yum yum. We asked her for directions to our next stop and she advised us to take a less travelled road so that we would be able to visit the ruins of Vlad Tepes’ fortress, 1480 steps up the side of a mountain. From there she said we could continue up through the Carpathian mountains on “the most beautiful” road in Romania that is “only passable two or three months of the year.” I have to admit, after our drive to her place from Targoviste, we were very hesitant to take a mountain road that is only usable a couple months a year. But Ruxi’s father convinced us that it was safer than the road we had come in on, so we went for it.
Going up there...
1480 steps is a lot of steps just in case you were wondering about that. After about the first four hundred or so, I was thinking that the zoom lens on the video camera would have been sufficient for visiting this site... At about 950 steps up, I understood why it was called a fortress and was thinking that nobody in their right minds could ever storm it. At the top I was thankful to God that I was able to make it there and take in the spectacular views, and I was also thankful that I am not afraid of heights.
The view of where we parked our car
The fortress
My very own Vlad
Hubby and I sat up there for a while (catching our breath) and we noticed a bridge across the way, and far above that, a road that disappeared into the mountain. A truck drove out of it and I got that wriggly feeling in my stomach... and then it occurred to me that maybe, just maybe we would be driving up into that mountain.
Oh yeah, that bridge was nothing compared to the rest of the trip up into and over the mountains. Twisting, turning, climbing, twisting, climbing... higher and higher until we were in the clouds. That road is not for the faint of heart but it is one of the most amazing drives I have ever been on. When we finally landed back on Earth, we were still a ways from Bran and of course the sun was on its way down.
Halfway down the other side (the easy side)
With all this to go
Have you seen the movie Dracula? You know the scene where he is racing to get to the castle before the sun sets? That was us. Really, who wants to be stuck on some lonely road in Transylvania at dusk? We stayed at the Hotel Bran and had a direct view of the Bran castle off our balcony.
Just like the night before, we headed across the street for dinner. This time we found “Dracula’s Manhood” on the menu and I said to my husband, “No way are we eating here.” (Really I insisted we leave because the menu had nothing great on it and the salon was empty... a sure sign it is not the best restaurant in town.) A few places up the street we found a wonderful spot called Christi’s that served the most scrumptious peasant potatoes ever.
In the morning we visited the castle. It has a lot of history and it was old, not sumptuous and ornate like a modern palace, but very realistic of an ancient castle with a wolf-skin rug, a secret staircase, and turrets with cross walks in between. Out side the castle there are plenty of street vendors to keep the shop-happy tourists busy. One of the vendors was making and selling funnel cakes... a sort of rotisserie cake. The dough is wrapped around a metal tube and then spun over hot coals. It cooks very quickly and is then covered in melted sugar. I bought one... um yum yum some more.
From Bran we went to Brasov, a 775 year old city first founded by the Saxons. We stayed in the old city center where all the buildings are from the 15th century... though we did venture across to the modern part of the city for a wonderful Italian dinner at Trattoria Del Chianti. In Brasov we visited the Black church, a stunning structure that was built and rebuilt from the 14th century through the present. We also visited the Brasov museum of history... that took a while, lol.
From there we headed back to Bucharest via the town of Sinaia where the castle Peles is located. This is a modern castle, layered in richness and luxurious details. You could spend a whole afternoon wandering its halls in awe... though we stayed only about an hour because we wanted to get to Bucharest before dark.
By now we had purchased a more detailed map of Romania and were fairly confident we would be able to find our hotel that was somewhere in the middle of the capitol city. Nope... there are huge 6-lane traffic circles, streets change names across intersections, lots of one-way streets, and enough crazy drivers to make a New York cabbie nervous.
Finally we pulled over and I managed to get a person to tell me which of the numbers to dial on our cell phone (that by now had a Romanian SIM card in it) to actually get the hotel on the line rather than the annoying “you have dialed a wrong number” message that I kept getting no matter which combination of numbers I dialed. (Think country code, long distance code, area code, and phone number... where did one number set start and another end?)
My knight in shining armor (who drove 730K of crazy roads)
We were right around the block, so within minutes we were in the comfort of our lovely hotel that came equipped with Craftmatic beds, his and hers sundries, and an espresso maker. After dinner and drinks at Sangria’s (the best dinner I have had since leaving home in August) we crashed until it was time to eat brunch and drive back to the airport.
Before we went to Romania I wasn’t sure we should do it. After all, we are here in Kyiv on important business, but now I am so glad we did it. It made the waiting period fly by and being away from all of our children helped to ease the pain of missing my sweeties back home. Now we are knee deep in paperwork again and moving ahead to our next milestones.
On Wednesday we landed in Bucharest and picked up a car at the airport. Then we bravely set out with a high-level road map provided by Avis. We missed our first turn and found ourselves well on our way to somewhere other than our destination of Targoviste. Lucky for us there are only a few roads in that area of Romania, so we could readjust a few towns up.
In Targoviste we visited a monastery, had a delicious pizza lunch, and then wandered around the original castle of the Vlads built in the late 1300’s. Vlad Dracul and his son Vlad Tepes (the impaler) used the castle during the mid 1400’s. The castle was abandoned in the late 1600’s and fell into ruin. The tower is still in tact but the rest of the castle is in the process of being restored.
From Targoviste we headed West to Cutea de Arges to visit the monastery it is known for... the drive should have taken about an hour... ha ha. I think we drove the worst roads in that country with not a town in sight, though there were plenty of sheep, cows, shrines, and potholes in the road. In some places the road was missing and we had to inch along wishing we had a big ole 4-wheel drive. One hour turned into about four and the sun started to set...
Finally we got to Cutea de Arges... in the dark... with no detailed map or translator... and no Romanian SIM card. Frustrated, we stopped at a grocery store hoping to find anyone who could speak some English. A very nice couple read the address of our bed and breakfast and told us to follow them, which we did, though not without wondering if we had entered into some bad horror movie... two naive Americans blindly following a couple of Romanians after dark...
We checked in at our b&b and went across the street for dinner, where we found fried brains and offal soup on the menu, and no I did not order them. I know you are thinking that after that hotdog in Vorzel, I would eat most anything but even I have limits. Dinner was ok and after a drink we were ready for bed.
The next morning our hostess, Ruxi, made us a delicious country breakfast of omelettes, bread with jam, fresh vegies, feta cheese, and tea. Um yum yum. We asked her for directions to our next stop and she advised us to take a less travelled road so that we would be able to visit the ruins of Vlad Tepes’ fortress, 1480 steps up the side of a mountain. From there she said we could continue up through the Carpathian mountains on “the most beautiful” road in Romania that is “only passable two or three months of the year.” I have to admit, after our drive to her place from Targoviste, we were very hesitant to take a mountain road that is only usable a couple months a year. But Ruxi’s father convinced us that it was safer than the road we had come in on, so we went for it.
Going up there...
1480 steps is a lot of steps just in case you were wondering about that. After about the first four hundred or so, I was thinking that the zoom lens on the video camera would have been sufficient for visiting this site... At about 950 steps up, I understood why it was called a fortress and was thinking that nobody in their right minds could ever storm it. At the top I was thankful to God that I was able to make it there and take in the spectacular views, and I was also thankful that I am not afraid of heights.
The view of where we parked our car
The fortress
My very own Vlad
Hubby and I sat up there for a while (catching our breath) and we noticed a bridge across the way, and far above that, a road that disappeared into the mountain. A truck drove out of it and I got that wriggly feeling in my stomach... and then it occurred to me that maybe, just maybe we would be driving up into that mountain.
Oh yeah, that bridge was nothing compared to the rest of the trip up into and over the mountains. Twisting, turning, climbing, twisting, climbing... higher and higher until we were in the clouds. That road is not for the faint of heart but it is one of the most amazing drives I have ever been on. When we finally landed back on Earth, we were still a ways from Bran and of course the sun was on its way down.
Halfway down the other side (the easy side)
With all this to go
Have you seen the movie Dracula? You know the scene where he is racing to get to the castle before the sun sets? That was us. Really, who wants to be stuck on some lonely road in Transylvania at dusk? We stayed at the Hotel Bran and had a direct view of the Bran castle off our balcony.
Just like the night before, we headed across the street for dinner. This time we found “Dracula’s Manhood” on the menu and I said to my husband, “No way are we eating here.” (Really I insisted we leave because the menu had nothing great on it and the salon was empty... a sure sign it is not the best restaurant in town.) A few places up the street we found a wonderful spot called Christi’s that served the most scrumptious peasant potatoes ever.
In the morning we visited the castle. It has a lot of history and it was old, not sumptuous and ornate like a modern palace, but very realistic of an ancient castle with a wolf-skin rug, a secret staircase, and turrets with cross walks in between. Out side the castle there are plenty of street vendors to keep the shop-happy tourists busy. One of the vendors was making and selling funnel cakes... a sort of rotisserie cake. The dough is wrapped around a metal tube and then spun over hot coals. It cooks very quickly and is then covered in melted sugar. I bought one... um yum yum some more.
From Bran we went to Brasov, a 775 year old city first founded by the Saxons. We stayed in the old city center where all the buildings are from the 15th century... though we did venture across to the modern part of the city for a wonderful Italian dinner at Trattoria Del Chianti. In Brasov we visited the Black church, a stunning structure that was built and rebuilt from the 14th century through the present. We also visited the Brasov museum of history... that took a while, lol.
From there we headed back to Bucharest via the town of Sinaia where the castle Peles is located. This is a modern castle, layered in richness and luxurious details. You could spend a whole afternoon wandering its halls in awe... though we stayed only about an hour because we wanted to get to Bucharest before dark.
By now we had purchased a more detailed map of Romania and were fairly confident we would be able to find our hotel that was somewhere in the middle of the capitol city. Nope... there are huge 6-lane traffic circles, streets change names across intersections, lots of one-way streets, and enough crazy drivers to make a New York cabbie nervous.
Finally we pulled over and I managed to get a person to tell me which of the numbers to dial on our cell phone (that by now had a Romanian SIM card in it) to actually get the hotel on the line rather than the annoying “you have dialed a wrong number” message that I kept getting no matter which combination of numbers I dialed. (Think country code, long distance code, area code, and phone number... where did one number set start and another end?)
My knight in shining armor (who drove 730K of crazy roads)
We were right around the block, so within minutes we were in the comfort of our lovely hotel that came equipped with Craftmatic beds, his and hers sundries, and an espresso maker. After dinner and drinks at Sangria’s (the best dinner I have had since leaving home in August) we crashed until it was time to eat brunch and drive back to the airport.
Before we went to Romania I wasn’t sure we should do it. After all, we are here in Kyiv on important business, but now I am so glad we did it. It made the waiting period fly by and being away from all of our children helped to ease the pain of missing my sweeties back home. Now we are knee deep in paperwork again and moving ahead to our next milestones.
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Ennui
We were told by those who have been down this road that it will begin to seem like groundhog day. And they were right. Every day we get up, get ready, and head off for the metro/bus that will take us on the hour and twenty minute ride out to Vorzel. We get about an hour with each of our girls and then we head back to the bus/metro. Back in Kyiv we are starving and exhausted.
We have lunch at the Ukrainian cafeteria, cheap and yummy, or we go straight home and eat Ramen noodles. My gourmet chef talents are stifled by having only a microwave and a two-burner gas stove top for cooking.
We load the day’s pictures and videos, Skype with our family back home, and try desperately not to fall asleep on the couch while we wait for evening to come. By 6 p.m. we are wandering around looking for something to distract us from missing our loved ones. We are usually in bed by 10 p.m. in order to get up early and do it all over again.
This will go on for another couple weeks... we have had to reschedule our return to Oct. 2.
No, no, no... we just cannot do it. Too much time on our hands to miss our babies. And so we have planned a detour to Romania for a few days. That’s right, we made a date with Dracula. Years ago I started writing a novel set in the Wallacia region and now we are going there. We will drive from Bucharest to Brasov and back, stopping to visit the castles of Vlad and Dracula on the way.
When we return to Kyiv, the waiting period will be over and we will start the next round of paperwork that is needed to get our girls out of this country and into our own.
We will be staying in guest houses and small inns while in Romania, so we likely will not have internet access . So don’t worry if we aren’t blogging for a few days... (it is doubtful we will have been bitten by a vampire.)
I will leave you with some pictures to hold you over for a few days.
Kissing her babydoll
Wearing Daddy’s sunglasses
Playing her new harmonica
Pretty Autumn wants her binky back
For my friend, RissaRoo... is this it?
For Sandie who dared me to eat this hotdog
For Gecko and Jade (Don’t worry boys, we survived.)
We have lunch at the Ukrainian cafeteria, cheap and yummy, or we go straight home and eat Ramen noodles. My gourmet chef talents are stifled by having only a microwave and a two-burner gas stove top for cooking.
We load the day’s pictures and videos, Skype with our family back home, and try desperately not to fall asleep on the couch while we wait for evening to come. By 6 p.m. we are wandering around looking for something to distract us from missing our loved ones. We are usually in bed by 10 p.m. in order to get up early and do it all over again.
This will go on for another couple weeks... we have had to reschedule our return to Oct. 2.
No, no, no... we just cannot do it. Too much time on our hands to miss our babies. And so we have planned a detour to Romania for a few days. That’s right, we made a date with Dracula. Years ago I started writing a novel set in the Wallacia region and now we are going there. We will drive from Bucharest to Brasov and back, stopping to visit the castles of Vlad and Dracula on the way.
When we return to Kyiv, the waiting period will be over and we will start the next round of paperwork that is needed to get our girls out of this country and into our own.
We will be staying in guest houses and small inns while in Romania, so we likely will not have internet access . So don’t worry if we aren’t blogging for a few days... (it is doubtful we will have been bitten by a vampire.)
I will leave you with some pictures to hold you over for a few days.
Kissing her babydoll
Wearing Daddy’s sunglasses
Playing her new harmonica
Pretty Autumn wants her binky back
For my friend, RissaRoo... is this it?
For Sandie who dared me to eat this hotdog
For Gecko and Jade (Don’t worry boys, we survived.)
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Not Doing It
I am a planner by nature... okay maybe not a planner, but more of a fantasizer. I daydream a good portion of my future actions, playing it out this way or that way, and our time at the orphanage was no exception.
I was dressing the girls in fancy outfits I brought from home. Changing their very wet diapers, feeding them yogurts and applesauce, fixing their hair, doing EI therapy with them... All the while my husband was dutifully photographing these adventures so that I could share it all with you on this blog.
But I’m not doing it. None of it. Partially because they come to us well- (and over-) dressed, with diapers that don’t stink, and hair that is impossibly soft and short... and it is always either lunchtime or dinner time right before or after we visit, and we dare not ruin a child’s well trained appetite. So it just doesn’t seem necessary.
But I know that it is more than that. These are last days, and for that reason they are special days. The women who watch over and care for our children know this. They present our girls to us with pride... in clean clothes and with clean faces. They tell our children encouraging words, though we can only pick out a cheerful “mama” and “papa”. Then they wait just that extra second to enjoy (and maybe evaluate) our reactions before shuffling off to do more work in another room.
I realized that out of respect and thankfulness I cannot redress these children, change their diapers or shoes, fix their hair a different way, or feed them anything other than a little drink of water or a bite of apple from a tree on the grounds. This “doing nothing” is one of the only ways I know of to show my appreciation for all that they have done for my children while they were motherless.
And besides, if I was changing things up, you would be missing out on some very hilarious fashion-statements... which will be fun for me to look back on when perusing the scrapbook pages I am dreaming up for them. Really, would you rather see Peach in some adorable little Carter’s outfit, or dressed up as...
Peach the Blue-Headed Polar Bear
I was dressing the girls in fancy outfits I brought from home. Changing their very wet diapers, feeding them yogurts and applesauce, fixing their hair, doing EI therapy with them... All the while my husband was dutifully photographing these adventures so that I could share it all with you on this blog.
But I’m not doing it. None of it. Partially because they come to us well- (and over-) dressed, with diapers that don’t stink, and hair that is impossibly soft and short... and it is always either lunchtime or dinner time right before or after we visit, and we dare not ruin a child’s well trained appetite. So it just doesn’t seem necessary.
But I know that it is more than that. These are last days, and for that reason they are special days. The women who watch over and care for our children know this. They present our girls to us with pride... in clean clothes and with clean faces. They tell our children encouraging words, though we can only pick out a cheerful “mama” and “papa”. Then they wait just that extra second to enjoy (and maybe evaluate) our reactions before shuffling off to do more work in another room.
I realized that out of respect and thankfulness I cannot redress these children, change their diapers or shoes, fix their hair a different way, or feed them anything other than a little drink of water or a bite of apple from a tree on the grounds. This “doing nothing” is one of the only ways I know of to show my appreciation for all that they have done for my children while they were motherless.
And besides, if I was changing things up, you would be missing out on some very hilarious fashion-statements... which will be fun for me to look back on when perusing the scrapbook pages I am dreaming up for them. Really, would you rather see Peach in some adorable little Carter’s outfit, or dressed up as...
Peach the Blue-Headed Polar Bear
Sunday, September 5, 2010
Just Pictures Today
I know I have been slacking on eye candy, so here you go...
A Masha smile...
A Peach smile (or rather toothless grin)
Loved this hat so much I bought one for each of my girls
Peach and Auntie Belinda
Soon Masha, soon...
A Masha smile...
A Peach smile (or rather toothless grin)
Loved this hat so much I bought one for each of my girls
Peach and Auntie Belinda
Soon Masha, soon...
Friday, September 3, 2010
The Week in Review
Monday - you can read about that in my last post.
Tuesday - We went to see the girls in the morning. Masha has decided that a daddy is a very cool toy that can toss her high up in the air. Now she seeks him out... for entertainment purposes only but hey it is a start, a great start. Peach, dear sweet Peach threw up all down mama’s back and leg. Then she sat on daddy’s lap looking all innocent while I cleaned it up. Later in the day we met “Jeannie” at the SDA offices and picked up the referral paperwork for Masha. The issue with her incorrect adoption paperwork has been resolved.
Wednesday - We had our sit down visits with the doctors. I’ll start with Masha because we went to her baby house first. Masha comes from a good family. She weighed 7 lbs 2 oz at birth. When she was two months old, she came to groupa house 5 and has been there ever since. She is dearly loved by her paternal grandmother who has visited her every week. The first year of Masha’s life she was given a course of amino acids and vitamins on a complex schedule to boost her cognitive and physical development. Her grandparents paid more than two thousand dollars for this special treatment and the doctors say that Masha has truly benefitted from it.
Masha is in good health. Her ASD has closed up on its own and she has no other physical ailments. Except it seems she is “allergic” to crying... and we were told not to let her cry. Lol, can you say spoiled? No, seriously, when she cries hard for a long time she gets laryngitis, so every effort is made to keep this from happening.
It is obvious that Masha is loved by the staff, particularly by the doctor there. She has been so well cared for. Her grandparents have always wanted to take her home but have been unable to get permission from her mother to do so. We are looking forward to meeting them.
Peach... Well first off, we were mistaken about Peach having grandparents... I mean I am sure she does but no one has ever visited Peach. Her doctor told us that she is Peach’s family and when we showed her the book we made, she asked to keep it. Peach’s doctor is a very strong woman, pretty and strict, and she runs a tight ship. It was so clear that she loves Peach very much. She has made sure that Peach has received everything possible to help with her development, including Omega 3 oil, vitamins, physical therapy and massages.
Peach weighed 7 lbs 7 oz at birth and scored an 8.8 on her apgar. At two months old she was transferred from the maternity house to baby house #2 and has lived there ever since. At three days old, Peach was diagnosed with a complete AV Canal heart defect. On July 16, 2010, she had OHS at the best children’s hospital in Ukraine. Her cardiologist says her fix was great and that she has recovered very well. She weighs just under 11 lbs and has been declared healthy by every specialist that has examined her.
Thursday - we went with “Jeannie” to the notary’s office to wrap up our paperwork needed for court. After that we took the metro to Babi Yar and walked all through the memorial grounds. It was a powerful experience for me and I will likely post about it at some point on my other blog.
Friday - We had sooo much fun with Masha this morning. We brought her a monkey that rolls over and laughs when its sensor is tripped. At first Masha was a little afraid of it but her caregivers encouraged her to play with it and she was talking to it and chasing it around. When we got to Peach’s house we had to wait a few minutes for her to finish up eating. We could hear her coming, crying very loudly... She came in all red faced with tears still on her cheeks. I took her and she started to cry again. I patted her and got a big burp, and then she calmed right down and snuggled in. It was wonderful to be able to comfort her.
Oh, mama, I’m sorry I puked on you...
Tuesday - We went to see the girls in the morning. Masha has decided that a daddy is a very cool toy that can toss her high up in the air. Now she seeks him out... for entertainment purposes only but hey it is a start, a great start. Peach, dear sweet Peach threw up all down mama’s back and leg. Then she sat on daddy’s lap looking all innocent while I cleaned it up. Later in the day we met “Jeannie” at the SDA offices and picked up the referral paperwork for Masha. The issue with her incorrect adoption paperwork has been resolved.
Wednesday - We had our sit down visits with the doctors. I’ll start with Masha because we went to her baby house first. Masha comes from a good family. She weighed 7 lbs 2 oz at birth. When she was two months old, she came to groupa house 5 and has been there ever since. She is dearly loved by her paternal grandmother who has visited her every week. The first year of Masha’s life she was given a course of amino acids and vitamins on a complex schedule to boost her cognitive and physical development. Her grandparents paid more than two thousand dollars for this special treatment and the doctors say that Masha has truly benefitted from it.
Masha is in good health. Her ASD has closed up on its own and she has no other physical ailments. Except it seems she is “allergic” to crying... and we were told not to let her cry. Lol, can you say spoiled? No, seriously, when she cries hard for a long time she gets laryngitis, so every effort is made to keep this from happening.
It is obvious that Masha is loved by the staff, particularly by the doctor there. She has been so well cared for. Her grandparents have always wanted to take her home but have been unable to get permission from her mother to do so. We are looking forward to meeting them.
Peach... Well first off, we were mistaken about Peach having grandparents... I mean I am sure she does but no one has ever visited Peach. Her doctor told us that she is Peach’s family and when we showed her the book we made, she asked to keep it. Peach’s doctor is a very strong woman, pretty and strict, and she runs a tight ship. It was so clear that she loves Peach very much. She has made sure that Peach has received everything possible to help with her development, including Omega 3 oil, vitamins, physical therapy and massages.
Peach weighed 7 lbs 7 oz at birth and scored an 8.8 on her apgar. At two months old she was transferred from the maternity house to baby house #2 and has lived there ever since. At three days old, Peach was diagnosed with a complete AV Canal heart defect. On July 16, 2010, she had OHS at the best children’s hospital in Ukraine. Her cardiologist says her fix was great and that she has recovered very well. She weighs just under 11 lbs and has been declared healthy by every specialist that has examined her.
Thursday - we went with “Jeannie” to the notary’s office to wrap up our paperwork needed for court. After that we took the metro to Babi Yar and walked all through the memorial grounds. It was a powerful experience for me and I will likely post about it at some point on my other blog.
Friday - We had sooo much fun with Masha this morning. We brought her a monkey that rolls over and laughs when its sensor is tripped. At first Masha was a little afraid of it but her caregivers encouraged her to play with it and she was talking to it and chasing it around. When we got to Peach’s house we had to wait a few minutes for her to finish up eating. We could hear her coming, crying very loudly... She came in all red faced with tears still on her cheeks. I took her and she started to cry again. I patted her and got a big burp, and then she calmed right down and snuggled in. It was wonderful to be able to comfort her.
Oh, mama, I’m sorry I puked on you...
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