Nine Years with Julia

November 26, 2004 was a day like no other.  We were in a courtroom in Kurgan, Russia begging the judge to allow Julia to become our daughter.  This region was known to be a difficult region.  I don't know what we would have done if the judge had said no.  We would have been completely devastated.

We had been married 14 years, had 3 boys and decided that if we were going to adopt a little girl it was now or never.  Who knew that 9 years later we would have adopted 4 more children.  Our first trip was in August, 2004.  We fell in love with Julia immediately in the few days we spent with her.  It was heartbreaking to leave her not knowing when we would return.

The Friday before Thanksgiving we would finally get to go back to get our girl.  Kristopher made the trip with us this time.  Due to a delayed flight and missing our connecting flight in New York we were rerouted through Paris, France.  Once arriving in Paris we found out our flight was canceled to Moscow.  We were to stay one night in Paris.  After a brief rest we ate our free duck lunch and decided to catch the train to see the Eiffel Tower.  So glad we did.

The next morning we flew to Moscow and spent one night before flying to Kurgan, Russia.  We were so concerned we were going to lose Julia because we were late.  Our facilitator gave us a difficult time about it once we arrived in Kurgan.

Thanksgiving Day we were allowed to spend the whole day with Julia in our hotel room.  We ate at the small restaurant inside the hotel.  Not really a hotel but an apartment building with a room rented to us.

Dallas prepared a speech to read to the judge on Friday.  The facilitator instructed us on what needed to be said.  As he read that speech to the judge I fell in love once again.  The very stern judge asked many questions of us both and argued with the social worker a bit.  After an hour deliberation we went back to the courtroom and were told by the judge that she was granting our request.  It would not be official until 10 days later but she would allow Julia to come and stay with us at the hotel.

Dallas and Kristopher left that Sunday morning.  It was an extremely sad day for me.  I was stuck in a room in Kurgan, Russia for what I thought would be 10 days.  Fortunately I was able to leave a little sooner.  It was one of the hardest things I have ever done.  The guide left on vacation so I was completely by myself.  I was scared to leave the building without the guide.  It was below zero outside and constantly snowing.  Several feet of snow on the ground at all times.

I was so thankful when we were finally able to return to Moscow.  We were there about a week because we couldn't get a flight out.  Landing in  JAX that Sunday night in December was absolutely wonderful.  Home never looked so good.

These nine years with Julia have had many ups and downs.  Julia has lots of developmental delays which most likely are from a duplicated chromosome.  We have never regretted our decision to bring her home.  She loves to help and aims to please.  We love her so much!

Here is a photo of Julia a couple of weeks ago.  When I can locate it I will post a photo of her I took on our first visit to Kurgan.  Julia was a very sad child who we rarely saw smile.

Progress

School System Evaluation

Today the boys were evaluated again by our county school system to see if we should proceed with testing for services.  It is kind of silly.  This is the second time we have done this.  While we talked with the case manager and SLP teacher, a classroom teacher played with the boys.  I think she was a bit overwhelmed with them.  She made the comment she didn't know how we managed it every day. They aren't bad they are just very very busy and flint from one activity to another. Of course at the end of the meeting it was determined that the boys need to be tested for services.

Six Months

It has been six months that the boys have officially been Braxtons.  In some ways it feels like they have always been here and in other ways it doesn't seem long at all.  We have mostly good days now with a few hard days thrown in there.

On May 13 the boys whole world changed.  People say they are so lucky to be here.  That isn't true at all.  Our boys have experienced more loss in 3 years than we will probably experience in our whole lives.  My heart aches for all that they have lost.  To have accomplished all they have in the last 6 months is beyond amazing.  They are my little "rock stars."

That being said the boys still don't like change or new situations.  In most cases Jacob is more uptight than Caleb.  We have come to accept it is going to take the boys a long time to fully trust us. We don't know what they went through those first 3 years.  We, also, don't know if their anxiety is caused from the partial absence/complete absence of the corpus callosum.  It has improved greatly but they still can get very agitated rather quickly.  If you want to witness it yourself just put a blanket on them.

Today the boys had their first eye appointment.  Surprisingly they both did great.  A sign that the trust is building.  Fortunately both of their eyes look great at this point.  We had to get this appointment done in order to proceed with our county's early intervention services.

No matter how hard some days can be with two 3 years and a 4 year old there is no doubt in our minds that these boys were meant to be in our family.   We are so thankful that God chose us to be their parents.  Even when the road is difficult we know we are not alone.  God is with us every step of the way.

Welcome to My New Blog and Jacob's Surgery

Hi! Welcome to my new blog.  Zachary is still working on the design but I wanted to start posting here.   I really wanted to make it more of a family blog but also have each child's blog here too. 

Today Jacob had dental surgery under general anesthesia.  Half of his teeth needed work. When all was said and done he had three crowns and 7 fillings.  He did great!  Once home he was a little whiny and clingy but didn't seem to be in any pain.  

Lots of appointments coming up for both boys.  I am really going to try and post more now that this will be a family blog.