We first met Kaleb 2 months earlier, we walked into the orphanage where they were feeding about 3 kids in high chairs. Our coordinators stopped and just started talking to the workers, we weren't sure which kid was ours. We had been given a video when Kaleb was about 5 months old an none of the children eating looked like him, we were looking at this cute little dirty blond hair boy thinking it was Kaleb but the boy in the video was chunky and dark haired. Pretty soon they looked at me and asked if I wanted to feed him and they pointed to the cute little dirty blond boy, we were right. Silly story I know but we really weren't sure at first. After I tried to feed him we went into a little play room area where they had a bunch of cribs close together and a great big play pen area. We got to hold him for a little bit, then he played in his little walker for a while then it was time for his nap. They let me put in his crib. He never made a sound the hour and a half we got to be with him, but when I laid him down he started to whimper, it broke my heart. We didn't know how long it would take in between visits so it was hard to walk away. We were in Russia 10 days that first trip and got to spend less than 2 hours with Kaleb, but in no time we were on our way back to get him.
We officially adopted him on May 17th but since the orphanage was a 3 hour drive from where the courts were they made us wait a day to go pick him up. That was a sad day, they were like, "Congratulations on your new baby boy" but then we didn't get him, that was just a little cruel.
Anyway, the next morning arrived and we drove to the orphanage and our coordinator told us to wait in the car pretty soon the guy comes out holding a baby and David said "I think that's him" and I said, "No, he's too little" but sure enough it was our little Kaleb. We took him and got his passport pictures and then drove back to the orphanage where they dressed him in his new little clothes and handed him to us and they literally said, "Thank you, come back again." and with that we were gone.
After we got him we were anxious to get back home. Kellie threw us a welcome home party the same night we got home. After all that excitement we took him home for the first time and he slept through the night, from day one. He even took 2 hour naps twice a day for a while till we ruined his schedule.
The amazing thing is he has been very healthy and we haven't had any problems that some adoptive parents go through, we have been truly blessed having Kaleb in our home. He still is a handful at times but what kid isn't?
It's hard to imagine he came into our home at 11 months old and now he is a month away (and counting) till he is 6 years old. He really has brought a whole new personality into our home!
3 comments:
Okay, thanks for making me cry! Happy Gotcha Day! Kaleb is such a love and I can't imagine him not being in our family. I also can't believe he is almost six. Where does the time go?
What a sweet story. Happy Gotcha day!
I remember when you brought him over to Kellie's, he was the cutest baby I had ever seen! He was meant to be in the Gardner family! He always made me want to adopt a Russian baby too, but I'm not sure I could keep up with them!
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