We left at 12:30 to walk to the courthouse which is about a 20 minute walk from our hotel. The official court decision was supposed to be ready at 1:00 when the courthouse reopened from its lunch hour. We waited in line until about 1:20 to go into the office to find out that they did not have it ready for us. They sent us to another office. We walked around the corner and into the second office to find out they didn't have it either. They sent us to the office next door.
You can imagine our relief when they said they had made 15 copies (as requested by our translator) of the court decision and given them to the judge. So then we headed upstairs and Yulia, our translator asked about the court decision. I guess the secretaries had better things to do than prepare our copies of the court decision as I don't think they had even started on them when we came to pick them up. Major frustration.
So we waited, for almost an hour for the two secretaries to "work" on putting together our official copies of the court decision. The decision is two pages, which were signed by the judge, sewn (kind of like bound) together on one side, then stamped with the official seal. One of the secretaries kept coming in and out of the office, twice with a mug to go get more tea/coffee. Then after about 20 minutes she came out with her coat on and just left. I was like, seriously??
We finally got to the orphanage to pick Rance up at 3:30. We gave his new clothes to a caregiver to get him changed while we signed papers to "check him out" of the orphanage. Rance came downstairs dressed in his new clothes with a huge smile on his face. We finished up signing papers then put on his hat, coat and gloves and then he practically ran out of the orphanage. I did manage to stop him to get a picture of him outside of the orphanage!
We went straight back to the hotel where Rance began exploring every little thing. We finally tore him away to eat at the cafe connected to the hotel. He didn't understand why we had to wait on the food to come to us, as he is used to being called to eat when the food was ready and on the table. We had to keep reminding him to slow down!
**Firsts for Rance:
-First time to eat a hot dog! Ukrainian version at least.
-First time eating with a fork! They used only spoons at the orphanage.
During dinner Yulia somehow found out that the caregivers woke all of the kids at the orphanage up twice during the night to take them to the bathroom. Understandable for sure considering all but a few of the kids were special needs and doing laundry with no dryer with that many kids for potty accidents just isn't realistic. Still.
After dinner we went back to the hotel room where Rance continued to bounce of the walls exploring both his new freedom and a new enviornment. Cavin continued to try and keep up, but at times would just stare in awe of all the cool things (and trouble!) his big brother could do (find)!
**Firsts for Rance!
-Talking to Grandma Tuley and Grandma Clapham on Skype!
We finally wrangled both of the boys into the bathtub. This was the first time we had seen Rance without clothes on. We knew he was skinny, but this was the first time we really saw how skinny he is. He is literally skin and bones. He was a little unsure of the bath but having Cavin in there with him seemed to help him relax as soon it was crazy in the tiny bathtub!
**Another First for Rance:
-Took his first bath!
Rance told us at the orphanage that a caregiver helped him bathe and that water was poured over his head. I asked him if it was with a shower hose and he said no. I asked him if they used a bucket to dump the water over his head and he laughed. So who knows.
After baths and getting them dressed we finally got Rance into bed (cot) and Cavin to sleep. It took Rance a while to fall asleep, but he slept through the night! Matt and I didn't sleep well at all however, just couldn't get comfortable and get to sleep. Matt got up twice to ask Rance to go potty. The first time Rance just said no, the second time he said no, covered his head with the pillow and rolled away from Matt!
**Firsts for Rance:
-Getting tucked into bed by a mommy and daddy, complete with prayers, kisses and I love you's!
We had been warned that bedtime was the hardest on orphans with their new families and that we could face lots of tears throughout the night. Matt and I were both relieved and thankful there were no melt downs with Rance and that Cavin wasn't acting jealous at all with having Rance in his space and him being with us all the time. Instead we had lots of hugs, smiles and "love you's!"
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