Celebrations To Remember

Christmas with Ana was so joyful this year. She was happy, singing, dancing, and really "getting it". Mary had Baby Jesus in the stable and everyone is rejoicing and celebrating! Her favorite new word is "joy" as she keeps singing "Joy To The World" and "Joy, Joy, Joy".....she also likes "We Three Kings". When I got up this morning and thought about our Christmas Day yesterday with her, I remembered our first big celebration, or "party" as we say with her. It was our US Embassy appointment in Moscow last November. Every adoptive family must check out through the US Embassy...it is the final "hoop". The appointment is typically the day before you leave and going into it, we really didn't know what to expect. We were slightly apprehensive that all our papers would be in order and we were mysteriously told that we would be given a very important packet of (more) papers that we COULD NOT OPEN FOR ANY REASON. That MUST be opened by a US Customs Official once we landed in Dulles. It just all seemed so very...oh, I don't know, "spy-like", but I guess it is for some international legal reasons or SOMETHING. Anyhow, by now we had learned; "they say it, we do it!" So off to the US Embassy we went, Ana in the backpack, with a diaper bag, sippy cup, papers, toys books, snacks, etc. We were prepared to be sitting for hours. But when we arrived and went through all the appropriate (over-intensive) security checks, we were sent to a room with about a dozen other couples, each with toddlers, all looking somewhat bleary-eyed and speaking, we soon caught on, english. We realized these were fellow adoptive parents who had all been through the same experience (battle) that we had to get our new children. We quickly began talking to one another, sharing stories, laughing, and comparing notes. There were couples and new Moms from all over the United States....Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Florida, North Carolina, New York. Some were adopting one child, some two. The joke immediately became: "well, it's 1:00...naptime at the orphanage." These poor children were looking as shell-shocked as the parents. Everything was new to these little ones. They had probably never been outside their former orphanage walls, never heard english, they were with total strangers who spoke and smelled and acted differently from anything they had ever known. But it was such a sweet moment....to look around and know these kids had been rescued and these parents were building their families in an unconventional way. One couple from North Carolina had the husband's Dad with them and the proud new grandpa was BEAMING and chatting away about his new granddaughter. He was insistent that she was the brightest and most beautiful little girl in all of Russia- probably the whole world. Aren't all grandparents convinced of such things? Matt and the husband were rolling with laughter as we realized that we had had the same judge in St Petersburg just a week apart! The new Dad (this was their first child) started firing parenting questions at Matt and was particularly interested in our Kelty back pack...he even tried it on. It was hilarious and I wished we had had a camera to capture the moment. Anyway, we all commented that the moment was one big "adoption party"...we were all departing Russia soon and the mood was merry. Just like yesterday on December 25, the joy of a new Baby, ....just like Christmas.