Bringing Max home

Two weeks later and the week of Thanksgiving 2003, we are on our way back to Russia to pick up our new son. Our lives were about to change forever, it would no longer be just the two of us but we would now be responsible for a 4 1/2 year old.
Once again our driver Sasha was waiting for us, but this time we had many more bags with us. Most of our luggage contained donations that would not be returning with us, plus clothes for our new son. Russians do not drive the large sport utility cars that we have here, the cars are for the most part small similar to the Corolla but very old. Needless to say our American size luggage would not all fit in the trunk so the backseat became the storage for the luggage. We made the long 3 1/2 hour drive to Vladimir to Galina's apartment and our home for the next week.
It was the same routine on trip 2, make many stops before getting to visit Max. We also had to carry a large sum of cash with us to Russia, bills had to be new with no creases or marks. Finally we were back at the Vladimir city orphanage, this time Max ran to us when he saw us. He was also carrying all the items we had left with him 2 weeks before. His caretaker told us that the photo album with pictures of his new home, pets, and family never left his hands. This child was ready to leave the life of an orphan, but we first had to plead our case in Russian court.
Three days later on Thanksgiving day we were dressed in our Sunday best headed for Russian court. The orphanage director came to give her blessing on the adoption (we were told the director does not always attend court). We were taken into a very small room that resembled a courtroom but at a much smaller scale. There were 2 people on either side, similar to our prosecutor and defending attorney, a court reporter and in walked the judge. She looked like she was about 12, but not friendly looking at all. Behind us we had the orphanage director, a social worker, and Marina's boss from the adoption center, Marina was next to us to translate. We just did whatever she told us, and when asked questions faced the judge even though we were actually speaking to Marina. They went over his story about why he came to the Orphanage and determined that the connection to his biological family had been lost may years before. Marina had prepared me to answer the difficult questions, well the judge decided that Danny would be answering. When we asked why she said she wanted to hear the husbands opinion this time. I ended up quietly telling him what to say, because of course he had not listened to the conversation on how to answer that Marina and I had the night before. It seemed to be going well, then it was time to ask her to wave the mandatory 10 day waiting period. If this is not waived then you and the child must stay in the city to bond under the watchful eye of the Russian officials for 10 days before they allow you to take the child out of the country. We stated that he needed to be seen by a US medical doctor due to a few minor issues he had, plus he needed to be prepared to start school.
The hearing was over and we were sent outside to wait the decision. This took maybe 20 minutes, but seemed like hours. We were brought back to the courtroom, where the judge read many things which we understood none of it. The only part we understood was when Marina said congratulations Maksim is your son. We did not find out till later that the judge had also waived the waiting period so that we could return home in just a few days.
We had many places to go to get all the papers made official, His new Russian birth certificate with our names as parents and his new American last name, plus the adoption certificate had to be made official. A few hours later we were at the orphanage to pick up our son, he came running in with all of his possessions in tow and would not let go of us. We told him you never have to let go now. We spent some time with his group to allow him to say his goodbye's, the director kept thanking us when we should have been thanking her. We left the orphanage with our son, we were both happy and sad. It was very sad leaving all these children behind that only wanted what Max now had.
His first night with us we were lucky to have Galina, she could communicate with him to explain things to him and she even read him a book before bed. We showed him his new clothes which made him very excited, but what shocked us was his excitement over his own toothbrush. I am hoping they didn't share a toothbrush but this made me think they did. The next morning we woke up as a family and had to say our goodbye's to our new Russian friends Marina and Galina. They are both very special women and have helped so many children find permanent homes, they will always have a special place in our hearts. We made the long drive to Moscow with a child that had not ridden in a car in a very longtime. He would not move from the window and everything was new to him. We were taken to an apartment in Moscow, the home of another translator who was not at all like our Vladimir friends. We spent the weekend there since we had to wait until Monday to go to the American embassy to get his paperwork to enter the US. I had to almost beg her to show us Moscow, after all who knew if we would ever return to Russia.
Monday morning we headed out early to take Max to a Dr for his required physical, this was really a joke and more of a way for them to get more money from us. The next stop was the US Embassy, there were long lines of Russians trying to get US Visa's. We just walked up showed the US passports and went right in....felt great to be an American. We filed all the paperwork to get his approval to enter the US with us and were told to return for our interview appointment after lunch. When we came back the room was filled with families just like us, and we even met a family from Cleveland that had adopted a boy from Max's group in Vladimir so the boys were very excited to see each other. Finally we were called for our interview and given "the packet" that would allow him into the US. We were now free to take him home, which happened the next day.
We arrived at the airport very early and of course our flight was cancelled, here we were stuck in a strange airport with a child we could not communicate with for hours. Max found the escalators to be a source of entertainment. During our delay we relied on fellow passengers that spoke Russian to communicate with our new son. The fondest memory I have of this day is when I bought Max a bag of candy and before eating any he went to each of the people we had been talking to and offered some to them. This is his way today, those that know him would agree. Finally we were on a flight to New York, we were only able to get 2 seats together so Danny and I traded off sitting with Max. This was the longest flight of my life, I had always seen kids acting up on flights and running down the aisles and said that will never be my child. Well this day it was my child, he was screaming, kicking me, biting me, you name it he did it. He also refused to put the seat belt on. When I asked the flight attendant to have the Russian speaking flight attendant come explain to him that he had to wear it, she says to him in ENGLISH little boy you have to wear the seat belt. I could have done that, luckily there was a nice Russian woman across the aisle who spoke to him which calmed him a little. Everyone cheered when the plane landed and I suspect it was that they would soon be free of this very vocal Russian boy soon. Max was now a citizen of the US, we got through Immigration fairly quick and off to find our flight to Cincinnati. We were again separated but this time Danny took Max, who finally slept on the 2 hour flight from New York to Cincinnati. We landed at CVG and our family was home, exhausted but happy. Max had never been in a car seat so this presented a new adventure...getting this child buckled in for the short ride home. Again he scratched, bit and screamed, but we finally got him buckled in and he settled right down. We arrived home where he met his furry brothers and sisters ( we have 4 dogs), he must have really been tired because he did not pay any attention to them. We showed him his new room and everyone got some much needed sleep. That was almost 6 years ago, we have had many ups and downs in the past six year. His diagnosis of Adhd and Rad has brought the biggest challenge, but we deal with day by day.