We boarded a plane last Saturday, Dec 22nd and flew for approximately 20 hours to get to our beloved little town of Chita, Russia. It was not as beautiful as I had pictured...maybe because when our plane touched down at 8:20 am on Dec 24th it was still pitch black outside and the wind was blowing at least 30 mile per hour with a dry, dusty snow blowing across the Siberian Tundra and on top of that it was a blister -28 degrees. The airports in Russian don't have too many terminals so they unload on the tarmac, just like you would in a tropical location....except you can replace the palm trees and sun with the Ice packed ground and blowing snow and crowded shuttle bus full of cold Russians and the Two Americans that were on cloud nine, because we were moments away from meeting our new son Alexey!
We litterly got off the plane at 8:20 our regional coordinator Katya met us at the baggage claim in an airport that would not even be operational in the United States..it was a dive, there was one little rusty baggage claim center in the middle of a room with a tile floor covered in dirt and dust, at first I though they were renovating, but as I was leaving it hit me that we were in a very desolate place with little money and they didn't care what some American thought! Then by 9:20 we were checked into our hotel room that was a major upgrade from the airport. We showered and were out the door by 10 am and on our way to the orphanage to meet Alexey. It was a short drive and I was expecting us to discuss how the meeting would go, but instead we small talked. The car pulled up and we hopped out and headed down a narrow, dark hallway, with a very distinct smell of some sort of Stew Cooking coated our nose. My thoughts instantly went to my future son, and my heart smiled knowing he was getting a decent meal. We stopped at the top of two flights of stairs and someone greeted Katya, she then introduced us to her explaining to us she was the head caregiver of the orphanage. We then walked down another hall and waited outside a room that had several children at the door. The other caregivers gathered them up and they filed out of the room...I didn't know if I should be looking at these children since it is against Russian law to see other children in the orphanage besides the one you were referred to. I couldn't help but look, first of all I didn't know if Alexey was in that room or not and if he was I wanted to pick him out based on the photos I had seen of him. He wasn't there, and the other children all looked around the age of 4 or 5. One little boy liked us, he stared us down and even turned around in the hallway and gave us a big old smile..it was precious.
We were then escorted into the room and asked to take our shoes off so we could play on the carpet. The carpet was two Huge rugs that had probably been there since the 90's, they were in good shape and we respected that and quietly took our shoes off and got a few toys out of our bag. We plopped ourselves on the floor, not knowing what else to do, then from around a corner a young lady was holding a very smile child's hand. He instantly clung to her and she picked him up and entered the room. It was him....he was crying and then in the commotion, Katya said "Tabatha come get him" so I jumped up and went to grab him and of course he buried his head further in the caregivers chest and they literately pried him off and plopped him in my arms crying....this was part of the test, I guess to see if I could mother him! Little did these people know that my child at home has spent hours screaming at me as a young child so crying doesn't bother me in the most!
He calmed within a minute and the head caregiver brought over his favorite truck and he grabbed that toy and was not letting go. He was in clean clothes, had clean skin and hair, he appeared to be well taken care of. He was beautiful. He has the biggest brown eyes that I have ever seen. He was very Russian appearing, I was very unaware of what the Russian culture actually looked like...I guess I thought most were blond hair and blue eyes..that is really a small portion of the people we met. Most had European skin tones, or olive coloring with brown hair and almond shaped brown eyes. This was our little Alexey!
He climbed into Jeremy's lap and clung to his neck, even though he had never even been around a male. Poor baby was shaking and scared but all the same was willing to be loved by anyone. He didn't look into our eyes too much that first visit but he hung onto us and played with some of the toys we brought. We took some pictures of him, but mostly just held him and talked to him in a language he didn't understand, so when we promised we would make him part of our family soon...he had no idea what we were saying, As of today I am not sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing. His visit was overwhelming even though it was only about an hour and half long, but he was spent. He climbed up into my lap and buried his head in my chest and drift off to sleep. I am sure it was a response to being so overwhelmed and scared but it was precious all the same. We let him rest for about 10mins and I just got to cuddle and get familiar with the details of my new son.
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