Trip 1 - Day 3 - "Gotcha Day" ~ July 17, 2013

Warrior's Doctor's Office

Wow, what a day!!!  This day was nothing like anything I could have ever imagined nor did it go anything like we were told it would. Matt and I knew we would meet with our Warrior's doctor early this morning. We were advised to not bring our children to this appointment.  Fortunately, we had a wonderful American family from Tennessee who are over here adopting a teenage boy who were kind enough to watch our children for his appointment.  What a blessing!!!!  After the appointment, our plan was to pick up our children and then wait to be picked up at 1:30 to be taken to the orphan court and then to Warrior's orphanage.  You can imagine our complete surprise this morning when a van pulled up with our Warrior in it.  He was all smiles and immediately called me "Mama".  Our driver and orphanage director took us to his doctor where we thought we were just going to talk to her.  She ended up ordering blood work for him.  It was so hard when they took him in the room with three nurses and shut the door.  He screamed and cried.  It seemed like an eternity.  Once it was over he gladly let me hold him and carry him back to the doctor's small office to get a piece of candy.  We found out he has grown 2 centimeters and gained 2 kilograms since we hosted him.  He looks taller to us.  After the appointment, his orphanage director asked if one of us would like to go back to the orphanage and meet his friends.  Matt and I both decided I would go since he has bonded with me and is pretty comfortable around me.  So here I am with my stomach growling wondering how I am going to last the rest of the day without eating (Warrior laughed every time he heard my stomach growl).  Matt and I both rode back with the driver and orphanage director to drop Matt off at our apartment.  Once we got there, Matt ran upstairs and got the camera for me.  I didn't want to miss this opportunity!  So here I am with my new son who speaks ZERO English in the back seat of the van with the driver and orphanage director.  I could understand a few words he was saying which made him excited.  All he kept asking was when was he going to America? The orphanage director would tell him every few minutes that we were going to court and he would have to stay in Riga for a few weeks before he could go to America. He would start all over again asking when he was going to America with mama and daddy.

After what seemed like a very long time, we arrived at the orphanage.  He did not want to get out of the van to go inside.  It was interesting to see his demeanor change so quickly; from going from extremely excited to almost angry in a matter of seconds.  The orphanage director and I had to convince him that he was not staying and I would come in with him.  He finally got out of the van and was proudly telling all his friends (about 7 of them) I was his mama ("mana mamma" in Latvian) and he was going to America.  All of the children surrounded me and a few got in my lap and hugged me. One sweet little boy (younger than our Warrior) told me I was his mama, but our little guy quickly corrected him. After I took a tour of the orphanage (where he plays, sleeps and eats) and played with the children, I was invited to have lunch with our Warrior and his friends.  It was such a special time to eat a meal with him. As our time at the orphanage came to an end, my heart grew sad.  While my little guy was beyond excited, I was sad I had to leave these precious little ones behind who so strongly wanted a mama to call their own.  You could see it in their eyes and in their actions.  If all it would take is a phone call and a few more dollars, we would be coming back with 7 more, but unfortunately it isn't that easy.  As we drove away from the orphanage, all of the children gathered by the window and waved goodbye to their friend.  That was hard to see.  Praying for families for these little ones.

Waiting for the ride to orphan court

The Red Warrior Wagon

Next stop was the orphan court.  Anyone who knows me, knows how extremely anxious and nervous I can get about unfamiliar situations.  All I can say is thanks to everyone's prayers, I was not nervous at all.  I arrived with our Warrior before Matt arrived with our other children. The orphanage director took me into a room with three ladies sitting behind a table.  They immediately started to talk to our Warrior and asking him questions.  You could tell his mood had changed.  He was ready to be done with all of this and go to America.  Being so young, I don't think he understood all that was involved. The head lady of the orphan court jokingly said that our court would not take too long because our Warrior looked just like me in the face and we must be related.  They were amazed and commented a few more times how much we looked alike.  Isn't God amazing like that?  Finally Matt and our bio children arrived and were so excited to see our Warrior for the first time since January.  They had a special time out in the hallway.  The court ladies wanted me to see what was going on so I left the room and was excited to see all of the children enjoying him, except for our bio son.  He was a mess tears and all.  At the time I didn't know why he was so upset.  It wasn't until after court that Matt informed me our Warrior hit our bio son on the head with a toy car.  Many of you know we had problems with hitting, pinching and biting during our hosting.  Needless to say, this was not a good way to start court.  It was time to go back into the room and be questioned by the court.  I carried our bio son back into the room with me to keep him calm.  The ladies questioned us as to why our bio son was upset and not happy about seeing his new brother.  Again, at the time I didn't know he had been hit so I blamed it on jet lag and staying up too late.  I think that was 90% of it and the other part was the actions of his new brother.  The questioning went on for about 30 minutes.  You name it they asked us about it (Was I ok with staying home with 5 children?,How would I teach our Warrior?, How would I teach him and 4 children at the same time?, What does our house look like?, Why we wanted to adopt our Warrior?  How would we communicate with him? Are we involved in church? What is our church like?....you get the point.  Basically the ladies in the court would speak in Latvian and our translator would translate and wait for us to respond and then give the court our answers in Latvian.  At the end of their questioning they asked the orphan director what her thoughts were about us adopting him and if he was too young to come to America.  I had tears in my eyes as I heard our translator translating the words of the orphanage director.  She was amazed at how much he changed in a positive way after being with our family in America.  She noticed how much he had already bonded with us and our children.  Based on her comments and our answers, the court granted us permission to spend time with him in L@tvia.  We will have a social worker visit next week and then one more court appearance at the end of the month.


It was surreal to leave the court as a family of 7.  He is beyond excited to be part of a family and finally belong.  He is having a hard time understanding why we are not leaving for America.  Hopefully the time we have left in his birth country will be a time where we can grow closer together and make many wonderful memories we will all cherish.  We know the days, weeks, months and even years ahead will bring many challenges, but we know we are not walking this journey alone.  Many of you have prayed for us and are continuing to pray for us!  Words can not express how much this means to us and our family.  We have felt the prayers especially today.  Please continue to keep us in your prayers.  Thankful tonight as all of my sweet children sleep, there is one less orphan in this world.  I am so thankful for this blessing God has given our family!

Out of respect for the orphan ministry, we are not going to post pictures of our little guy until the adoption is final.

Beautiful building on the way to dropping the bio kids off