3.04.2005
Adoption Day!
We are thrilled to announce that today we became the proud parents of Justin Nazimzhan Treiland and Paige Bibigul Treiland!!!
Sorry we haven’t posted for the past couple of days, but we’re caught up now, so if you want go back and read Day 16 and 17, you’ll understand why.
First, we must thank our family, our friends, and the other adoptive families who have been following along with us and sending us notes and words of encouragement throughout the weeks of being so far from home. We don’t always find the time to answer every note, but you should know that hearing from you means the world to us. These past weeks have not been easy. We didn’t think they would be, but we probably weren’t prepared for how difficult it could be at times. Receiving your messages helped to keep our spirits up, and we’re really not sure how we would have come this far without your sincere support. Thank you so very, very much.
So the day we’ve been waiting for had finally arrived. We were up at 6:00 am (after finally going to bed at 1:00 am the night before) and started by giving Paige her bottle. She was great, took her bottle, gave us a nice hearty burp, and settled down to entertain herself with toys. We prepared the day’s instructions for the nanny that was coming to care for the children, and managed to get ourselves ready by 8:00 am when the nanny arrived. Justin, on the other hand, was not interested in his breakfast, and decided to fuss and cry before we left. We put Paige down for her morning nap, and left the nanny holding Justin, who looked content to be on the nanny’s lap. We wondered if he cared if he ever saw us again!
We drove out to Ecik, and Emil, Gulnara, and our translator Aida, were all in great spirits, laughing and joking with each other, and telling Rob how handsome he looked and how he would charm the Judge and the court participants. We, on the other hand, were completely stressed out, nervous about saying the right things in court, and Rob still not feeling confident about his speech.
Court was to be held at the baby house, and a room was set up with three chairs facing a table with about 4 or 5 seats behind it. All the court participants were women…the judge, the prosecutor, the baby house director, a representative from the local department of education, and a secretary all filed in and sat behind the table. Gulnara set them all up with glasses of apple juice and gave them piles of paperwork. They flipped through the photo albums that we prepared containing pictures of our home and families, and the album with all the date-stamped photos proving we had visited with the children during the official mandatory bonding period. They pulled out various photos and attached them to paperwork, all while Rob, Christine and the translator looked on. The department of education woman left the room to answer a call, and when the others were finished reviewing all our materials and were ready to begin, she still hadn’t returned. The judge appeared to be getting annoyed, and we were thinking, “oh great, the judge is going to be angry and now we have to appeal our case.” We eventually began without her and she stepped in a few minutes later.
They asked us who would speak first. Fortunately for Christine, that was Rob, and he slowly went through all we had prepared about why were there, why we chose Kazakhstan, where we lived, why we chose Justin and Paige, did we understand the responsibility of raising two children, and ended by asking the court to grant the adoption. Gulnara prepared us well because he covered everything they needed to hear so they just wanted to ask Christine a few questions. They asked how she felt about the children, and that’s when her eyes welled up with tears as she expressed how she had waited her whole life to be a mother, how much she loved the children, and how she promised to take the very best care of them. The prosecutor asked her not to cry because then she would start to cry. A couple more questions and they asked us to sit down while they took a break. They came back in about 10 minutes later, read us statements about the laws of Kazakhstan, and then we heard the words we waited so many months to hear…they granted the adoption!
Everyone congratulated us, and while we expected to then have lunch with everyone, instead they all had to go back to their office. Emil and Gulnara took half the food to the judge’s office, and we shared the other half with Aida, the baby house director, the baby house doctor, and the music teacher. That was fine with us because we had a nice, relaxed lunch with them and talked about the children and how we would keep them posted on their progress. They are all such kind women and we thanked them profusely for taking such good care of the children.
We then stopped in the town of Ecik to sign their new birth certificates stating we are their parents, then raced back to Almaty so that Gulnara could get their passports processed before the offices closed. Next Tuesday Kazakhstan celebrates Women’s Day, so all business will be closed next Monday and Tuesday. Thankfully, we arrived at the office building at 5:55 pm…only 5 minutes before closing!
But the best part of the day was when we arrived home to OUR children. Justin gave us a big smile and reached up for us to pick him up...we couldn’t believe it...he was so miserable when we left. Rob put his hand up and Justin gave him a “high five”! Even Paige gave us her gummy smile though she’s still not feeling well. It was such a thrill, like they knew we were now their parents and they were glad to have us home. It was a long day (there was a lot of waiting between court and lunch, as well as between lunch and heading home), but we had to take a least one photo of the new Treiland family!
For the next two weeks we have only a couple more official things to do, but for now the pressure is off and we plan to just enjoy our children and the country where they were born. We promise to post many more photos in the days to come.
Sorry we haven’t posted for the past couple of days, but we’re caught up now, so if you want go back and read Day 16 and 17, you’ll understand why.
First, we must thank our family, our friends, and the other adoptive families who have been following along with us and sending us notes and words of encouragement throughout the weeks of being so far from home. We don’t always find the time to answer every note, but you should know that hearing from you means the world to us. These past weeks have not been easy. We didn’t think they would be, but we probably weren’t prepared for how difficult it could be at times. Receiving your messages helped to keep our spirits up, and we’re really not sure how we would have come this far without your sincere support. Thank you so very, very much.
So the day we’ve been waiting for had finally arrived. We were up at 6:00 am (after finally going to bed at 1:00 am the night before) and started by giving Paige her bottle. She was great, took her bottle, gave us a nice hearty burp, and settled down to entertain herself with toys. We prepared the day’s instructions for the nanny that was coming to care for the children, and managed to get ourselves ready by 8:00 am when the nanny arrived. Justin, on the other hand, was not interested in his breakfast, and decided to fuss and cry before we left. We put Paige down for her morning nap, and left the nanny holding Justin, who looked content to be on the nanny’s lap. We wondered if he cared if he ever saw us again!
We drove out to Ecik, and Emil, Gulnara, and our translator Aida, were all in great spirits, laughing and joking with each other, and telling Rob how handsome he looked and how he would charm the Judge and the court participants. We, on the other hand, were completely stressed out, nervous about saying the right things in court, and Rob still not feeling confident about his speech.
Court was to be held at the baby house, and a room was set up with three chairs facing a table with about 4 or 5 seats behind it. All the court participants were women…the judge, the prosecutor, the baby house director, a representative from the local department of education, and a secretary all filed in and sat behind the table. Gulnara set them all up with glasses of apple juice and gave them piles of paperwork. They flipped through the photo albums that we prepared containing pictures of our home and families, and the album with all the date-stamped photos proving we had visited with the children during the official mandatory bonding period. They pulled out various photos and attached them to paperwork, all while Rob, Christine and the translator looked on. The department of education woman left the room to answer a call, and when the others were finished reviewing all our materials and were ready to begin, she still hadn’t returned. The judge appeared to be getting annoyed, and we were thinking, “oh great, the judge is going to be angry and now we have to appeal our case.” We eventually began without her and she stepped in a few minutes later.
They asked us who would speak first. Fortunately for Christine, that was Rob, and he slowly went through all we had prepared about why were there, why we chose Kazakhstan, where we lived, why we chose Justin and Paige, did we understand the responsibility of raising two children, and ended by asking the court to grant the adoption. Gulnara prepared us well because he covered everything they needed to hear so they just wanted to ask Christine a few questions. They asked how she felt about the children, and that’s when her eyes welled up with tears as she expressed how she had waited her whole life to be a mother, how much she loved the children, and how she promised to take the very best care of them. The prosecutor asked her not to cry because then she would start to cry. A couple more questions and they asked us to sit down while they took a break. They came back in about 10 minutes later, read us statements about the laws of Kazakhstan, and then we heard the words we waited so many months to hear…they granted the adoption!
Everyone congratulated us, and while we expected to then have lunch with everyone, instead they all had to go back to their office. Emil and Gulnara took half the food to the judge’s office, and we shared the other half with Aida, the baby house director, the baby house doctor, and the music teacher. That was fine with us because we had a nice, relaxed lunch with them and talked about the children and how we would keep them posted on their progress. They are all such kind women and we thanked them profusely for taking such good care of the children.
We then stopped in the town of Ecik to sign their new birth certificates stating we are their parents, then raced back to Almaty so that Gulnara could get their passports processed before the offices closed. Next Tuesday Kazakhstan celebrates Women’s Day, so all business will be closed next Monday and Tuesday. Thankfully, we arrived at the office building at 5:55 pm…only 5 minutes before closing!
But the best part of the day was when we arrived home to OUR children. Justin gave us a big smile and reached up for us to pick him up...we couldn’t believe it...he was so miserable when we left. Rob put his hand up and Justin gave him a “high five”! Even Paige gave us her gummy smile though she’s still not feeling well. It was such a thrill, like they knew we were now their parents and they were glad to have us home. It was a long day (there was a lot of waiting between court and lunch, as well as between lunch and heading home), but we had to take a least one photo of the new Treiland family!
For the next two weeks we have only a couple more official things to do, but for now the pressure is off and we plan to just enjoy our children and the country where they were born. We promise to post many more photos in the days to come.
# posted by kaztree @ 3:26 PM 
