Dear Friends,
I write to you as one tired lady;) This last trip was emotionally and physically exhausting. Kaila and Emma were both severely ill before we headed off to Russia (Kaila had Scarlet Fever about a month ago and Emma came down in some sort of infected tick bite/ impetigo/ who-knows-illness about a week before we left). We know we were leaving our precious girls in capable hands in Kentucky with my parents, but it makes it harder to leave. About two days into the trip, I got sick and was sick most of the trip.
BUT, the most important part: Nikolai is... AWESOME. He is such an incredibly precious, beautiful, fearless, trusting, awesome child. We got to spend about 2 days with him while we prepared for court. Court went surprisingly smooth and we are officially his parents! His name is now officially: Nikolai Thomas Cusick and we will be bringing him home on September 1, 2012.
I don't really know if he remember us per say (one month is a long time for a one year old), but he did bond to us VERY quickly this time. I had written a quick email to some family while we were in Russia and I am going to share it with you all. I must say it is a little bit emotional, but adoption is hard.... and we appreciate all your prayers & support.
"We are sitting in the Moscow airport waiting for our flight. The trainride last night was fairly long and uncomfortable, but overall I am feelinga little better.We are both tired, emotional, and hungry! I feel like we haven't reallyeaten any "food" in days... Russian food is very disagreeable (I sometimes think they like to drink more than they eat;) and you can only eat nuts, dried fruit, andpower bars for so long;) So as soon as we got settled in the airport I went to Burger King and we have NEVER enjoyed a whopper and fries more thantoday!!!!!!! Yum!!! Court went very well. Court consisted of us, our translator, the judge, and 3 other women, one inmilitary uniform representing something military, one from child protectiveservices, and no idea what the other lady represented. All threeq uestioned us about adoption, the judge was mostly nosy about Tom'sgovernment pension plan and questioned us about our pets and what we woulddo if Nikolai has pet allergies... mostly just so he could talk about thefact that he has a lab too. The judge actually made several jokes with us. It felt like they genuinely care about the welfare of the children andwant to make sure we are aware of what a momentous undertaking adoption isand to make sure we are completely informed all of the medical information. After court and lunch then went to orphanage to spend theafternoon with Nikolai. He was SUPER excited when he saw us and waved hislittle arms until we picked him up. He does seem to recognize us and love us. We took him for his first car ride to get his passport picture. The ride was terrifying (the driving here is worse than the D.R.... if that iseven possible)... but he thought it was GREAT fun and spent most of thetime trying to climb over the seats and pull leanne's hair.The child know NO fear and is completely trusting and extremely happy(something we never anticipated in an orphan and something we have not seenin any of the other orphans... most of them are timid, silent, and slow. He smiles and giggles all the time and he is one of the most active children we have ever seen (and I thought we would be getting a quiet, laid back kid...). He pretty much never stops moving. He is not completely walking by him self but crawls at a super fast pace. He is VERY curious about everything and it honestly seems like he is trying to make up for the last year by exploring everything at once. He seems very intelligent and does say several words. He grabbed ahold of my water bottle, tilted to his mouth and said "ba ba ba". He did say some other words/ sounds... but we have no idea what he is saying;) He will learn English quickly. We are just thrilled that he will not be overwhelmed by our family... I honestly think he loves noise and stimulation (the good Lord knew;) Several hours before we knew we were to leave, for the first time duringour visit this time he cried... I had set him down to play and all thes udden big tears and little sobs came. I picked him up and he stopped and was happy again. I set him down again and the tears started coming.... so Tom picked him up and he was all smiles again. We tested it enough torealize that little man has figured out what love is and what it is like tobe held by his mother and father and he has decided he likes it very much. Unfortunately, this made our parting grief-evoking. To be honest, I wasalready teary-eyed from our sweet bonding moments and by feeling soo in love with our little son... that when they told us it was time to take him back to the nursery, the tears came quickly for me. Tom prayed over him one last time and we walked into his nursery. He was clinging to my shirt and I set him down in the little play area with several other babies. Hei mmediately pulled himself up on the gate and began shaking it and waving his arms. He started balling and his little red face with big tears spilling down it will be forever frozen in my memory. We are changed ands haped by the things we experience and I have to say that that memory will never leave me.This trip has been hard. Emotionally exhausting, physically miserable, and we both are ready to just come home and be with our girls."
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