August 27
“Every Good and Perfect Gift Comes From Above”
Today is a day of celebration, it is Caleb’s “Gotcha Day”! We had court today and the verdict was read and we are now officially the very proud parents of Caleb Benjamin Collier! Court was at 11am this morning. We were a bit nervous this morning. There was a lot to get together; speeches, gifts, donations, pictures and ourselves. We were picked up at 10:40 by our driver and interpertor. We went to the courthouse and were ushered into a large room, with no chairs and told to wait. About 20 minutes later we were called into the judges office (a female). We were accompanied by our interpertor, secretary to the Minister of Education, Dr. Victoria and a prosecutor. The judge gave a short speech describing why we were gathered etc. Then, Ethan stood and gave a five minute speech describing our marriage, why we chose Caleb, and asking the court to grant us custody. I then stood and gave my four line speech. The judge asked me if we had looked at other children before choosing Caleb, if I had looked into other countries, why Kazakhstan and not other countries. Then the doctor stood and talked about Caleb’s medical history. The prosecutor stood and stated he felt we should be granted custody. We all left the room, and were called back in two minutes later, we all stood and she said that the decision of the court was that we’d become his parents and his name be changed to Caleb
Benjamin Collier! What a time of rejoicing! Even though in our hearts he has been our son since we first laid eyes on him, it is a relief to have the official verdict read and become his legal parents. We left court, went to the store to pick up a cake for the hospital staff and drove to the hospital. We went into the doctor’s office where a nurse brought Caleb into us. He looked a little shell shocked at first to see us outside of his “room”. We took some pictures, goodbyes and thank-you’s were said and then we carried our son out to the car and were taken home to the hotel. We laid him on our bed and just stared at him. He started crawling all around, looking at things, like the veil had been taken off from his eyes. He has squeeled, laughed and babbled more in two hours then he did in the 20 days we visited him at the hospital. We then gave him a bottle, we were a little nervous that he would not take it since the nipple was a much slower flow than what he was used to, but no problems, He actually took it easier and slower than the one at the hospital. Then the long a waited bath time! He was such a champ, never a fuss or a cry even when Ethan poured the water over his head. After we dried him off he could hardly keep his little eyes open, we put a diaper and a tee shirt on him and laid him in his new crib, he did not cry just, fell asleep. He has now been asleep for 2 ½ hours. Ethan keeps going to the room just dying to wake him, I have held him back. I do not think waking a sleeping baby is a great idea. We do have one minor obstacle, there is currently no electricity, so we are just wondering how we are going to give him his bottle when he awakens. We are so happy to finally have our son with us, where he belongs. We look forward to seeing what the future holds for this special little boy and are honored to have been given the responsibility of being his mother and father! Praise to Him! Our cup overflows as my grandmother would say!
