Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Bringing Dariya home: Birth certificate, Passport and birth dad

After 7 hours of paper chasing by Luda, our facilitator, (we only had to be in the chase for 3 hours of it) we have Dariya's new birth certificate with our names, we closed her bank account out and donated the $2800 to the orphanage, and took Dariya out in her first car ride to get her passport applied for.

When we got in the car with her she didn't know what to do and got a little anxious, she didn't cry but wouldn't be still for about 30 seconds and was arching her back then she wrapped her arms around my neck and was fine.  They don't use car seats over here so she had to sit on my lap.  I think I was more stressed about it than she was, oh and the driver swerving to miss every bump in the road AHHH!

We arrived back at the orphanage around 4:30 and took Dariya back to her groupa so we could sign the final paperwork in order for us to take her out for good.  

We are praying to have her passport back on Friday.  If her passport comes back as planned on Friday.  We will have gotcha day and head to the capital for the weekend. On Monday and Tuesday we would have our embassy appointments which would mean flying home on Wednesday July 13th.  Nope we haven't booked the tickets yet we will know Thursday night if her passport will be ready for Friday so then we will book.

Once we were finished with the paperwork we went back and got Dariya to play in the sports room for a while.  About 5:45 Luda phoned us and said that the birth dad (Sasha, nickname for Alexander) had arrived at the orphanage to meet us.   He had talked to the director to find out when he could meet us and when someone would be there to translate.  He understands some English but doesn't speak it. 

We were able to visit with him for about 20-25 minutes.  He was very kind, quiet and soft hearted (sound just like Jason? YEP!)  We were able to tell him that we will raise Dariya to know that he loves her.  He gave us his email address so we can email him pictures of Dariya as she grows up.  He was so kind he said maybe just around her birthday each year.  He didn't want to ask for more than we were willing to give.   Dariya got her beautiful blue eyes from her birthdad, they look exactly like his. 

We didn't take our camera with us today as we didn't know we would be visiting Dariya (trust me it wasn't my idea) but, thankfully Luda allowed us to use her camera and take pictures of Sasha and Dariya.  He is going to come visit again on Friday so I will get many pictures then.  Luda is on the bus now back to the capital so we will have to post pictures later. 

We visited a bit longer with Luda after Sasha had to go back to work and learned that she was taking updated pictures of RR kids and new kids to be listed on RR.  One little boy is 2 years old with FAS from Dariya's groupa!  Please start praying for his forever family, he isn't walking and needs a family asap!

12 comments:

Julia said...

Don't you just LOVE Luda!! She gets the job done!! So glad she was able to take pictures of your meeting. What a wonderful chance you had to meet Dariya's father. Praise the Lord. I know that he is grieving the loss of his baby girl but at the same time rejoicing that she is going to a better life. It is NOT easy on the families over there. Praying that your e-mails through the years will bring him great joy!!

Cathy said...

Wow...so much excitement. I think I would have been an emotional wreck meeting the birth father. Glad that you got to though. I will be praying that all goes smoothly. You're almost there!

Stephanie said...

ah! so amazing!!!!!

Lori said...

I can't believe you are so close to being home with your baby girl! Continued prayers that things that things go smoothly.
And - what a blessing to be able to meet Dariya's birth father. You guys are such great witnesses for our Lord -- I am sure Jesus was shining through you =)

littlelola said...

That is just amazing! Makes me so happy to know that her birth father wants best for her. This is just the best of all situations. You get to bring a new daughter home and give her a chance to live and her father now knows that his baby girl will have a chance. Just amazing! Please Please post pictures if you are able to :)

Carol Miller said...

Yay for the 10 days being up! Praying for that passport to get back quickly!

Katrina said...

I am so excited that you got to meet her birth father. What a blessing for him and you. We have an open adoption with our daughter's birth parents and I can see the relief in her birth father's eyes to see that she is happy and we love her so much. I hope her passport comes on Friday. I will be praying for you.

Renee said...

Have I ever told you that you are my hero? You are... Love you and am praying for you all the time...oh to have Dariya home...what a glorious day that will be...

Elisabeth said...

That is so wonderful that you had the chance to meet Dariya's birth father. I know there must be both joy and sadness in his heart as he watches his little girl get adopted. I pray that God would use your witness over the years in his life for much good.

ch said...

i'm sure you can just taste that plane ride home! so happy you were able to meet with Dariya's birth father...I'm sure it did his heart infinitely good to see the love she was going to be saturated in...

Heather said...

Oh so very close...

So glad you were able to meet.Brave of him in many ways.One can only imagine what kind of pain possibly goes on in the birth parents heart as they say goodbye to their children.What a gift pictures will be to him.

Prayers form California continue.

Patti said...

I'm sitting here with the biggest lump in my throat knowing what that dad is going to miss out on, and knowing how hard it must be for him. That is amazing that he was able to meet you and know what a wonderful future Dariya will have because of you. I agree with Renee- you ARE the heroes!