First Trip, First Visit

What a day! I don’t even know where to begin except for at the beginning. I’ll get the fast facts out of the way first. We were referred a 14 month old boy, very healthy, with huge eyes and beautiful long eyelashes. He loved to be held and would already gaze into my eyes and cried big crocodile tears when it was time for him to be taken back to his room.

We started the day by going to S’s office and met Sally and Carlos (another couple from our agency) there. S talked to us for a little bit and explained how the process would work and answered a few questions that we had. Both couples drove to the MoE in separate cars and we went in together and waited in a worn hallway for them to call us back. The five of us went back and a representative for the MoE came in with two files and asked us to tell her about us. She spoke only Russian so S had to translate for us. The MoE rep gave us our referrals and they included a picture. She gave us some limited background information and then they asked if we wanted to meet the child. We stated that we did want to meet him and they had us sign more paperwork which gave us a document to carry to the baby home that gave us official permission to see the child, photograph them, video tape them, etc.

Our driver took us about 2 hours northeast of Moscow to a baby home called Fryazino. It is in a town of the same name and looked like a college town. Our driver Pasha told us Fryazino is known for its science institute. The baby home was very quiet and we were told it was nap time when we got there which gave us a lot of time with the doctor/baby home director. She was a very kind woman and gave us extensive information about our son’s background. We asked some questions and then she told us she was going to bring him in to meet us. He was a little apprehensive at first but finally came to me and I held him for a couple minutes. I tried to pass him to Randy and he didn’t want anything to do with him. He cried and cried and cried, so I took him back and he calmed down. The director took us to the playroom and we got about a half an hour with him. We took 126 pictures of him and lots of video. He started to warm up to us and turned out to be quite the ham. He would make silly noises and then wait and look at us waiting to see how we reacted. Of course we laughed and egged him on which got him doing it more. He liked to be held and turned to me and looked at me and stuck his fingers in my mouth and played with my teeth. He can stand with help and stood for a long time cooing and talking to us. He threw a toy and then yelled and talked to the toy he threw. We brought him a Baby Einstein duck that played music and he quickly caught on how to get it to play music. We also brought him a caterpillar that you push on his back and it scoots across the floor. He picked it up to throw it and conked himself on the head. He didn’t like that at all and took his hand and rubbed his head. I squeezed him tight and gave him kisses when he did it and he leaned his head on my shoulder and soaked up that attention. Finally it was time to go and we said our goodbyes and headed back to S’s office in the Moscow rush hour.

S asked us about our son and we showed her some of the pictures we had taken. We told her we didn’t feel it was necessary to meet with the Russian doctor the next day because we felt confident in the extensive medical information the baby home director gave us. We verbally accepted the referral and signed some more paperwork stating we were accepting the referral and gave him his name. Artem Alexander; his mother gave him the name Artem and his father’s name was Alexandervich. The Russian spelling for Artem is Artyom but being a teacher I knew he would forever be correcting teachers and classmates on his name. Not that Artem is that much easier but we like the spelling and feel it will be easier for him. We are really happy that we can keep his Russian name and let him keep a part of his heritage. We also like the fact that it is unique and sounds like a strong name.

Tomorrow Pasha is getting us again at 9:30 in the morning and we are going back to the baby home to visit Artem. We’ll update more later as I am fading fast and Randy is ready to call it a night.