Introducing our beautiful little "Anna", as we have been calling her.
Friday, December 25, 2009
ANNABELLE ANASTASIA ROSE a.k.a. Mlle O!!!
Introducing our beautiful little "Anna", as we have been calling her.
VERDICT IS IN.....
AND THE JUDGE SAID....YES!!!!!
(These are actually Sven's feet!!! The baby house provides slippers for visitors and Sven has faithfully put these on everyday for our visits. Today, we went to visit Mlle O. after court and I looked down at his feet and just started to laugh!!! How fitting.
Thursday, December 24, 2009
6 AM Christmas morning - A VERY SPECIAL THANK YOU.
First of all, the Oborn family would like to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas. Thank you for all your love, support and prayers. It has meant the world to us. You don't know how much we value every little e-mail or comment....especially on this VERY special day for us. We realize how everyone is so busy with Christmas celebrations, yet take time to say, hey, we're thinking of you. FROM THE BOTTOM OF OUR HEARTS - we LOVE you and THANK YOU so much!
As we are now preparing to head to court in a few hours, we think it's that much more important to take a moment and say THANK YOU. We are so thankful on this Christmas morning, for all that it means to us. A little child promising love to all who embraced him entered the world today....We are hoping that this love will prevail. He has carried us through all the way here and we can't think of a better way to celebrate Christmas than a promise of love to one his children.
Twas the Night before....Court!!
How does that story go again? Twas the night before our court date and all through the apartment, Sven and Jocelyne were running around finding their Sunday best and preparing to answer questions while nervously grinning ear to ear!!!
I'm not sure how we will sleep tonight. Hear that there is also a jolly fellow coming to town as well. We're a little overwhelmed. Besides Christmas presents, we are trying to gather the presents to give to the numerous local officials who have helped us get here in the first place... So much wrapping paper, different events...Don't really know whether we are coming or going at this point..but I'm just that we will get it all done by tomorrow morning.
We had a great visit with Mlle O. I drew a heart, used a bit of sign language and told her that Mamma and Pappa loved her in Russian. She "got it". She just looked at both of us and began babbling away. Irina "interpreted": She loves you back ;0)) Whatever she said, she sounded happy....or perhaps it was just the new apple sauce we had just given her. Her face was all dirty, so were her hands and she was beaming ;0)) Lovely way of sending us off to court!!! We promise to love you whether clean or dirty ;0)))
Please think of us tomorrow morning. Sven is nervous right now while I'm strangely calm....perhaps because Irina told us our respective roles: Sven gets to talk about the finances, our houses, our jobs, etc. I get to explain how much we have come to love this little person ;0)).
I'm not sure how we will sleep tonight. Hear that there is also a jolly fellow coming to town as well. We're a little overwhelmed. Besides Christmas presents, we are trying to gather the presents to give to the numerous local officials who have helped us get here in the first place... So much wrapping paper, different events...Don't really know whether we are coming or going at this point..but I'm just that we will get it all done by tomorrow morning.
We had a great visit with Mlle O. I drew a heart, used a bit of sign language and told her that Mamma and Pappa loved her in Russian. She "got it". She just looked at both of us and began babbling away. Irina "interpreted": She loves you back ;0)) Whatever she said, she sounded happy....or perhaps it was just the new apple sauce we had just given her. Her face was all dirty, so were her hands and she was beaming ;0)) Lovely way of sending us off to court!!! We promise to love you whether clean or dirty ;0)))
Please think of us tomorrow morning. Sven is nervous right now while I'm strangely calm....perhaps because Irina told us our respective roles: Sven gets to talk about the finances, our houses, our jobs, etc. I get to explain how much we have come to love this little person ;0)).
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Day 29 - A Christmas miracle
To our utter amazement and delight, it appears that we may be headed to court on Christmas morning!!! I can't think of a more beautiful day nor a better fitting one to begin our new family life. My mom has been praying for a Christmas miracle...It certainly feels like one!
We have been running around the city today, getting ourselves ready, printing off pictures, last minute Christmas items and gifts. We noticed quite a bit more people out shopping today. They will be exchanging gifts on Dec. 31rst...so they are really beginning to get in the holiday spirit. We certainly are!! The countdown to Christmas has taken on a new turn...now Sven and I are counting down the hours as well as Yannik! I told him that this year, his sister would be quite the gift to us all. He asked whether we could wrap her and put a bow on her head...hmm..knowing our little gal's personality, I'm not sure she would put up with that ;0)))
We visit her again tomorrow...I wonder if she will feel our excitement! We had supper with the Lajoys tonight and I confided that I was feeling a bit nervous...not only for court (ha ha... yes, a rather nervous lawyer!) but also at beginning this new chapter of our lives. I plan on telling Mlle O. tomorrow that if the judge says yes, I promise to be the best mom that I can be...even though neither one can understand each other's language at the moment. Who needs words when you have love, right?
We have been running around the city today, getting ourselves ready, printing off pictures, last minute Christmas items and gifts. We noticed quite a bit more people out shopping today. They will be exchanging gifts on Dec. 31rst...so they are really beginning to get in the holiday spirit. We certainly are!! The countdown to Christmas has taken on a new turn...now Sven and I are counting down the hours as well as Yannik! I told him that this year, his sister would be quite the gift to us all. He asked whether we could wrap her and put a bow on her head...hmm..knowing our little gal's personality, I'm not sure she would put up with that ;0)))
We visit her again tomorrow...I wonder if she will feel our excitement! We had supper with the Lajoys tonight and I confided that I was feeling a bit nervous...not only for court (ha ha... yes, a rather nervous lawyer!) but also at beginning this new chapter of our lives. I plan on telling Mlle O. tomorrow that if the judge says yes, I promise to be the best mom that I can be...even though neither one can understand each other's language at the moment. Who needs words when you have love, right?
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
It will give you infinite pleasure!!
The translations always make us smile...(always a tad stronger language than we're used to...perhaps "hours of fun" would be more appropriate for an 18 month old...) In any event, this one had Dominic and Cindy laughing...hey it's already providing pleasure!
We picked it up for Mlle O. for Christmas. She loves anything with music, buttons and lights...pretty typical I think!
Day 28 - Crossing our fingers
Thanks to alot of brainstorming, we hope that our documents will be arriving in Astana on Friday or Saturday. We'll then hire someone to fly them over to Petro. It might seem like quite the ordeal but Fed Ex was asking $1800 for the privilege of PERHAPS receiving them Friday. Ouch! It was only going to take 4 days to Astana with DHL...so that's the plan. Cross your fingers everyone...we need a court date before 2010 for one of our documents to be valid.
Svetlana and Irina are requesting a court date for Tuesday, Dec. 29th...in a week from today!!
We had a nice visit with Mlle O. today. She discovered crayons...not necessarily drawing! She also figured out that the apple sauce we had brought was ALOT more delicious that the crayons ;0)) Lesson learned..lesson learned! She hung on to that spoon (first time we have seen her with a utensil) during all of our visit - almost to ensure that she could have access to more food. I think we need to reassure her that there will always be food....seems like a pretty typical result of orphanage living. We had read about it. I want her to realize that we are more than the providers of food...but it is a start.
She is really getting attached to Sven now...She is really enjoying teasing him. Today we were practicing the alphabet sounds with the letter A - Ba Ca Da Fa Ga... she really got into that...we were happy to see that she understands...now she just has to learn it!
I wouldn't be honest if I didn't say that I wasn't nervous about having her full time after having only 2 hour visits. (Kaz has got it right though...having lived through the bonding process... we really appreciate this getting to know each other phase!) We are now thinking long term and just hoping that she will get used to us being there all the time. She will def. have to mourn the only home that she has known for the last 20 months. Guess you could say that we are swichting gears in our heads now and are preparing for a new part of the journey... Let's just hope that we can get there in a week's time!!
Svetlana and Irina are requesting a court date for Tuesday, Dec. 29th...in a week from today!!
We had a nice visit with Mlle O. today. She discovered crayons...not necessarily drawing! She also figured out that the apple sauce we had brought was ALOT more delicious that the crayons ;0)) Lesson learned..lesson learned! She hung on to that spoon (first time we have seen her with a utensil) during all of our visit - almost to ensure that she could have access to more food. I think we need to reassure her that there will always be food....seems like a pretty typical result of orphanage living. We had read about it. I want her to realize that we are more than the providers of food...but it is a start.
She is really getting attached to Sven now...She is really enjoying teasing him. Today we were practicing the alphabet sounds with the letter A - Ba Ca Da Fa Ga... she really got into that...we were happy to see that she understands...now she just has to learn it!
I wouldn't be honest if I didn't say that I wasn't nervous about having her full time after having only 2 hour visits. (Kaz has got it right though...having lived through the bonding process... we really appreciate this getting to know each other phase!) We are now thinking long term and just hoping that she will get used to us being there all the time. She will def. have to mourn the only home that she has known for the last 20 months. Guess you could say that we are swichting gears in our heads now and are preparing for a new part of the journey... Let's just hope that we can get there in a week's time!!
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