Russia Trip 1 Overview

Wow.  What a whirlwind.  I can NOT believe it has almost been a month since my last post.... life has certainly been exciting;)

We scrambled to get all the documents and other "pieces" in place for our trip 1.  We paid a small fortune for last minute airfare (which we are thankful we already have our trip 2 dates and have booked airfare already and paid less than half!).  Everything DID indeed fall in place and we journeyed over to Russia on June 17th (Father's Day).  We had a long layover in Amsterdam which we thoroughly enjoyed.  Amsterdam is actually a beautiful city full of canals an over 1,215 bridges  We caught the overnight train to Kirov and met up with two other families and the adoption team.  We traveled with a wonderful Christian lady, LeAnne, from Athens, GA (who has previously adopted a Russian boy through FAC 2.5 years ago.  Her Russian son is 5 years old now and a wonderfully adjusted genius of a child!) and a super fun couple from Germany: Kai and Melanie.  Our adoption team consisted of our coordinator: Andrei, Translator: Leanne and Olga, and driver: Sacha.  The train was absolutely, positively one of my favorites parts of our travels!   We had our own private sleep car with two bunks over two couches, a TV, a radio, a small table, and the best part: a large window where we watched the Siberian lowland fly by. Because we were soo far north and in June, the sun started to set around 9:30 and we enjoyed 1.5 hr sunset  over the green landscape dotted with bright purple alpine flowers and quaint wooden villages.  The sun rose again around 2:00am.... great for sightseeing, not so great for sleeping (thank goodness for Tylenol PM- we did get some sleep).  We arrived in Kirov, dragged our heavy suitcases through the train station and up several flights of stair to the waiting van.  We then traveled to the Hotel in Kirov to freshen up before heading to the orphanage.  The hotel was surprisingly VERY nice!  All three of us families had trouble with the brand new hot water heaters... but thanks to Andrei... we did get one "hot" shower in;)  After a nervous hour waiting at the hotel, we reloaded into the van and drove to the orphanage.  In my mind I was picturing the very poor and destitute orphanages I have been in before.  What a surprise when we drive up to a wooded gate, an adorable young boy ran to the gate to open up into a long driveway completely surrounded by beautiful gardens.  Apparently the doctor/ director that runs the orphanage loves flowers and gardening and has done a lot of the landscaping with the help of some of the older orphans.  There were the largest peonies I have ever seen!  The entire orphanage smelled of flowers. The inside was spick and span clean and very organized.  We were shown into a room where we waited for the children to be brought in.  LeAnne's little guy was brought in first.  "Elijah" is about 2.5 years old and a beautifully healthy, shy child.  I can't help but go off on a sidetrail for a moment here.  Kai and Melanie (the German couple) had gone to a different orphanage in May to meet with 2 other children.  Both of the children that they met with were developmentally and physically unwell.  Kai loves soccer and kept commenting (while almost in tears telling their heartbreaking story of having to decline those two referrals) how the children would not interact or be active at all.  They are unable to have children and were obviously very apprehensive about meeting another child.  The staff brought in their 3 year old little man.  What struck me first was that he looks exactly like Kai.  They then were trying to interact with him and gave him a soccer ball.  The little guy, "Yoshon" took one look at the ball and kicked it straight back into surprised Kai.  Kai immediately threw his arms up in the arm and exclaimed: "You are mine!!!".  Love at first sight.  Little "Yoshon" immediately bonded to Kai and Melanie and they to him.  Thankfully we were distracted with the other children while waiting for our little guy to be brought in.  We heard approaching footsteps to which Tom took the camera and urged me to go and meet our 10 month old little man while he filmed it (also because we had been warned that the orphans are very scared of men... to which Elijah had earlier balled at the sigh of Tom).  His caretaker carried in 10 month old "Gleb Aleksandervik Krylov" in with the silliest little hat I have ever seen.  As anxiety and emotions were about to produce a flood of tears in me, I reached my arms out wondering what he would do.  He looked at me (admittedly a little crossed eyed;), in that silly green hat, and gave me that biggest smile and waved his little arms for me to pick him up.  No words can decide that moment- much like holding Kaila or Emma for the first time.  A beautiful, God-given, sacred moment. 

He immediately took to Tom (maybe even moreso to Tom than me!).  He looks as if he could be our biological child.  Dark hazel-green eyes with light brown hair.  He is incredibly healthy and SUPER ACTIVE (he is a fast crawler and can even walk with assistance).  He chatters and the caretakers document that he already has 2 words.  An overview of our time:  We played with him, took him down and met with the director/doctor, played with him some more, went to lunch, played some more, and then went to the hotel.  Day 2 was a repeat of day 1... except that we had officially filed the paperwork to adopt him as "Nikolai Thomas Cusick".  The flood of tears really came then.  The adoption paperwork with his new name definitely had some tear stains;)  The second day he truly felt like "ours" and leaving him was heartbreaking.  HOWEVER,  I felt some peace knowing that he is being SOO SOO SOO well cared for at this beautiful orphanage.  The adoption team and several of the other families all talk about how this is the best orphanage in Russia.
I have soo much more to write about leaving the little man and his silent sobbing... but I will leave that for another day.  I also meant to insert a lot more pictures, but the formatting is messing up... so please see the "Russia" slideshow on the homepage for all the pics!!  And I will try to add in some links to some PRECIOUS videos (including me meeting him for the first time!)
Video links (you should be able to just click on them and a new window will open with Youtube)
fav smiles: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6v48edNb7Ho&feature=youtu.be
laughing, smiling: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tho6cXznF50&feature=related
first meet: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKQNUigCZ6Y&feature=related
We left Kirov, took the awesome train back to Moscow.  Ate a traditional Russian dinner in the diner car and watched the 1.5 hr sunset over the landscape while we celebrated with LeAnne.  We left Moscow that next afternoon and had another long layover- this time in Vienna.  Again, a blessed wonderful time of rest.  Vienna is a beautiful city of music and really good food!
So in all: WE ARE BLESSED.  We were actually rested and strong when we arrived back to our girls, which was good as Kaila became seriously ill with strep throat which led to the most severe case of Scarlet Fever we have ever seen with impetigo and a diaper rash.  Very, very sick.  We are 9 days out  now and she is just now feeling better.