Setember 5 - Gotcha Day

We arrived in Almaty at 5:00am and after clearing customs and finding our luggage and driver, we were able to go and get checked into our hotel. We were not able to go to the baby house in the morning but our coordinator had everything setup for 4:00pm. We took a much needed nap which helped get over some of our jet lag. We were met by our team right on time and we headed across town to baby house #3. If you remember he was at BH #1 but it is being renovated so he was moved to #3. The move was another issue that we worried about when we were in the U.S. waiting to return, but it turned out that he just rolled with it and the staff at BH #3 took good care of him. They were very polite and seemed pleased to hand him over and genuinely happy for Andrew. He was fairly timid since he has not seen us in nearly four weeks so we took our time changing him into his new clothes while our interpreter videoed.

This is the day we have been waiting for; the day we could walk him out of the baby house and have him in our care as a member of the family. I expected to be giddy when we made it to this momentous day and it was happy, and it was great, but it was not the crescendo of tears and emotions that I expected. One emotion that did take me by surprise was how proud I felt! It feels like what I experienced the day Stacye gave birth to Lainey. What is so very poignant is that day, was also September 5. I will never forget either day.

After we got back to the hotel we needed some supplies so we took him for a stroll to the grocery store a few blocks up. He did great and sat in the stroller just taking in all of the sights. We were happy to get him out and about and show him off a little. We can't wait for all of our family and friends to meet him.

We will be posting a picture of Andrew soon. - M

We are so thankful to finally have Andrew with us. We wish Lainey was here with us as well. We are looking forward to all of us being together again and for her to see her baby brother for the first time in 2 months.
It’s been a wonderful day. Andrew has handled the changes very well so far. He was shy at first but was laughing by bedtime. I think that’s incredible. PTL. We’ll post more in a day or so. - S