I know this is what you have all been waiting for!

Daddy and Sasha

Mommy and Ana

"YAY!!!!!!!" (she's clapping)

"Hello!"

We paid a driver (a hilarious Ukrainian named Roman) to drive us to our friends' apartment in the city to use the Internet. We are preparing our ammo for the courtroom :) I have some extra time, and thought I would quickly post what we found out about our kids on the day we met them.

3/30/11…The day we officially decided to become a family of 6!

Part 1: Ana

Shortly after our long, overnight train ride through the countryside of Ukraine, our facilitator, Marina, took us to meet with the Social Worker. We were asked a few simple questions, like “tell me about your family,” “why are you interested in adopting children with Down syndrome when you have your own beautiful, biological children?” …things like that. After answering these questions and showing off our photo album, we piled into the car: Gary and myself, Marina, the Social Worker, and our driver. We were taken to the orphanage to meet with the Director. She began by giving us all of the information they have about Ana.

Hanna Alexandria (pronounced like Ana with an H) was born in Jan of 2008, and she weighed about 6lbs 9oz. She was born to a “young, beautiful and intelligent” single mother. Hanna’s grandmother forced her mother to abandon her at the hospital. Hanna’s mother did, but I believe she always regretted the decision. She came to visit Hanna frequently at the orphanage at first. When she was informed that Hanna would be made available for adoption, she begged and pleaded for this not to be so. She said she would come back for Hanna one day. However, time passed, and a new man entered the picture. Hanna’s mother signed off on her rights allowing for Hanna to be adopted. Her mother was married last year and has not been back to see Hanna since. Her new husband is unaware that Hanna exists, and as we are told, it must remain that way. Really makes you want to cry, doesn’t it?

Hanna is the name on the birth certificate, but the staff calls her Anya. We cannot call her Anya because amazingly enough, we have a niece named Anya Victoria! So, she will be Ana Victoria. Ana had heart surgery late last year to correct a heart murmur. She did fantastic, and follow-ups with the cardiologist have concluded that the problem has been fixed. We came here believing that she had strabismus (crossed-eyes), but we were told that she has been checked and found to have good vision. It is common in children w/ DS for their eyes to appear crossed sometimes due to the creases near their eyes. For Ana this is a mild problem and she only appears to have crossed-eyes occasionally. Other than that, she is a basically healthy child, although the staff referred to her as a “puffy” child J This seems to be due to a few things, low muscle tone and the fact that she is not a real steady walker yet.

Now for the fun stuff, we were informed, “the child is here”. The door opened and in walked Ana with one of her nannies. She had a giant bow in her hair; she had clearly been “dolled up”. She came in with a toy in one hand, and she had a death grip on that toy! She walked around the room, and tried to climb up onto a chair. Gary helped her up. We tried to get her attention to take pictures, but she seemed less than interested. She got on and off the chair with a bit of help a few times, spun in circles a few times in the middle of the room, and then walked back to her nanny, with whom she was familiar. They took her out and began giving us Sasha’s information. Before we left the orphanage we went to see where each of the children’s rooms were so that when we came back for visiting hours we would know where to go. We opened the door to Ana’s room to find her standing next to another child’s crib. Her little arm was pushed through the bars, hand placed on his belly in an effort to calm him down as he cried. The staff told us this is common for her, she is a very compassionate child. She is always trying to help the other children.

Part 2: Sasha

Next we were given Sasha’s history. He was abandoned at the hospital at birth. He does have an older sister, but she knows nothing about him. It seems as though she is a “normal” child and is still living with her parents. Sasha’s birth certificate states his name as Alexander Igor. But he is called Sasha. We will name him Alexander Isaiah, and call him Sasha. We were not given info on his birth weight. He had open-heart surgery before coming to the orphanage to correct a major heart murmur. They corrected what they could, but he still has minor problems. He will be seen by a cardiologist once home. We don’t have as much info on Sasha, because he was not placed in the orphanage until he was almost 1. Marina will have access to the legal documents that will give us more information on his life prior to that. We should be receiving that information soon.

We were told that Sasha is an orphanage favorite. EVERYONE told us that, and they were not kidding! This boy is a ham!!!! He LOVES attention.

Before we could complete the rundown of the medical history, we were told, “the child is here”. The door opened and Sasha walked in, looked straight at me and said, “mama!” He ran over and hugged me, and then walked to Gary and hugged him. He sat and played peek-a-boo with a book we brought for awhile. He made lots of silly faces (especially whenever we tried to take a picture). He blew some kisses, laughed at everything, and stuck his tongue out a lot!

After Sasha was escorted out of the room, we were asked if we wanted to proceed with the adoption of both children. Of course, we said yes! We were slightly concerned at the beginning that Ana did not seem as easy to bond with. But, we were able to go back in the evening for visiting hours, and within 1 hour of visitation with her she was trying to walk out the door with us. She loves her Daddy! She hugs him a lot, and turns to him to be picked up. He can make her laugh probably more than she has laughed in her life. Sasha is an attention seeker. He loves to be silly. If you tell him not to do something, he will try to find another way. He tires us out to be honest J We cannot wait to get him home and see what kind of trouble he gets into with his brothers!