Going Home

Days spent in Riga:  23

Hours left in Riga:  10

This last week has flown by.

Can't even believe we are getting on a plane in 10 hours.

Fanning, party of three.

To the US of A.

Whaaaaaaaaaaaa?

D is really excited.  He will randomly look at us and say, "Five days to USA!"

He has been counting it down for about a week.

I asked him if he is nervous or scared.  He always says no, but I think he is afraid to show anything but excitement.  I tried to explain to him that it's ok to be scared, that leaving Latvia is a big deal.  

Not sure if he got it or not.  

Or maybe he thought I was saying he should be scared to come with us.

Who knows.

Lost in translation.

We took the train to Jelgava on Monday for a final trip to the orphanage.  As we were leaving the apartment, D went up to his bookshelf that holds his toys and games and he picked out a few things for his friends.  I thought it was sweet.  He is really great at sharing.

Unless it's the nerf gun.  

When I asked if we should take that, he said, "No.  Please to America."

The minute we stepped off the train in Jelgava, D was in charge.

You could tell he was so proud to know his way around.

This was his turf.

He walked about 10 paces in front of us the whole time and would look back at us and say, "This way."

He walked with some serious Jelgava swagger.

He pointed out areas of interest along the way.

I tried to soak everything in, knowing these were the streets my son grew up on.

This is where he spent his first 11 years.

I will know so little about those years.

So little about what happened on these streets.

On one street corner, there was a small group of kids, ranging from probably 10 to 17 years old. 

I would say they were a rough looking bunch, and to be honest I felt uncomfortable and avoided eye contact.

Then one of them yelled D's name.  D gave them a head nod.

I said, "Do you know them?" 

He said, "Yes."

They stared us down as we walked by.

It was like the coming together of two worlds.  Orphan world meets adopted world.  A few short weeks ago D maybe would have been hanging on that street corner with those kids.  And now he was walking with his parents and a bag of candy to say goodbye to his orphanage.

It made me realize what a tough place orphan life is.  

I'm not sure where D would have ended up in orphan world.

It's scary to think about.

He walked a little further and pointed out the orphanage ahead.

You would probably think it was a school if you walked by it.

He led us inside and we found a few of his friends.

They ran up to him and gave him big hugs.  It was cute.

The boys took to Fans right away, of course.

We hung out for awhile in his old room.  The kids are divided up by age groups, and each group has their own bedrooms, and living room, and eating area.  I had pictured in my mind a huge cafeteria but they eat with the 8-10 boys in their group at a table.  More of a family feel, which is good.

We went outside with about 4 of the boys and played tag and basketball with them.  They were jabbering away in Latvian and being typical boys.  I was a little surprised at how rough they are with each other.  There were a few times that two of the boys got into a fight and it got physical enough that Fans and I had to break it up.  You can see the anger that all these kids are dealing with.  It's rough.

And I can't be positive but I'm pretty that they were all swearing like sailors.

I think they thought it was awesome that they could say anything and we had no clue.

This is one of D's best buddies.

This is the playground that the Mission Hope ministry from Oakwood Church built last summer.  They are an AMAZING group of people.  Without them, we would have never been introduced to D.

I think it was great for D to spend a final afternoon at the orphanage.  As we walked down the street, I asked, "Are you sad to say goodbye?"

He said "No.  No more orphanage.  All done orphanage."

Again, I think it's hard for him to process this major transition and the emotions that come with it.

I will say that I will always be grateful that D was in such a good orphanage.  You can tell that he has real, meaningful relationships with the staff there.  And the orphanage director who came to visit us at our apartment several times is awesome.  She really loves him and he loves her too.

I am grateful to her and to the others at the orphanage that took in D at the age of four and have spent the last seven years helping him grow and deal with the pain of his very tough childhood.

On Tuesday D got his very first salon haircut.  The orphanage is like the army, mandatory buzz cuts.  So D was not wanting to go at all.

A haircut to him meant no fun.

Plus he was mad that we wouldn't let him get a mohawk.

So he entered the salon very pouty.

But after realizing a salon haircut involves a shampoo, he was very excited.

He was mesmerized by the entire process.  It is fun to watch him experience things like that.  

He told the lady that he wanted to look like the man in the picture over his left shoulder.

We told him, "Well, to do that you're going to have to grow a massive amount of chest hair."

It was so good to see him with a fresh haircut.  

On Wednesday, we went to the Tea House to meet up with the only Young Life staff person in the country of Latvia.  Her name is Aylona and she moved here two months ago from the Ukraine to start Young Life in Riga.  It was great to chat with her, and amazing to see how YL is reaching kids in all parts of the world.  She said that on our last trip to Latvia in 6 months, the three of us are invited to her place for Ukrainian borscht.  

Sweet.  

(I think?)

That night we made a fun discovery.  There is a family from Missouri living in our apartment building who are adopting a 13 year old girl named Monta.  We clicked right away and have had a lot of fun hanging out together.  D and Monta were fast friends and immediate buddies.  I think there is this instant bond between two kids that have been orphans all their lives.  They just get each other.  It was so fun to watch them interact.

It's too bad we didn't meet them earlier.  But we plan on staying in touch and have invited them to come to Wisconsin any time.

We have of course spent more time wandering in Old Riga.

Can you spot the geocachers?

It was during this wandering through Old Riga that I got separated from Fans and D for about 20 minutes.  They had walked around a corner and I didn't notice, so we were looking for each other everywhere.  With no cell service, I just had to wander around and hope to find them.

Fans said that as soon as they realized I was missing, D was freaked out and starting crying.  Fans tried to tell him that they would find me and it was not a big deal, but D was really worried.  Sad that something like that makes him so emotional, but I have to be honest, when he saw me again and ran to me with tears in his eyes, it felt pretty darn good!  I was like, "Wow, this kid really does like me."  And I had to enjoy the moment because God knows there will come times when he will be more than happy to misplace me.

A few days later when we were looking at our Riga map he pointed to the spot and said, "That's where we lost mom."

Yesterday we had our final orphan court hearing in Jelgava.  We were early to the courtroom, so D played judge for a bit.

Come to order.  

All rise.

Now, everyone...put your pants up.  

The court hearing went great, as did the US Embassy appointment that followed.

D will not officially be ours until our third trip to Latvia which will happen later this year.  But we were now officially allowed to take D to the US.

Last night we met up at Lido with our Missouri friends along with a few other adopting families currently in Riga that our attorney is working with.

Then we rode these super sweet car/bike things.

It was set up like a little city with working street lights and everything.

Clearly D did not follow any of the road signs.

Today we saw Zinta, our interpreter and driver, for the last time.  

D has been mad crushing on Zinta since day one.  She drives a fast, loud, stick shift car, she plays Temple Run, AND she snowboards.  D was all kinds of in love with Zinta.

If only she was 22 years younger.

She had him at "I'll let you sit on top of the seatless motorcycle that I happen to be towing in my trailer today."

We had our last Yo Yo Fro Yo.

Every time we leave that place, we say, "You know, that really didn't taste that good."

But the bright colors and happy music draw us in every.  single.  time.

Our time in Riga has been amazing.

Early on we started a nightly habit of writing down everything we had done that day.  As I look at it tonight, I realize just why I am so stinking tired.

It's been 23 days that I will never forget.

23 days of bonding.

23 days of being completely confused at restaurants.

23 days of eating too much sugar.

23 days of seeing cool things that we never noticed before.

23 days of experiencing things for the first time.

23 days of becoming a family.

There is a bridge in a park here in Riga that is covered in padlocks.

 People write their names on the lock, attach it to the bridge, then toss the key in the river.  Many adoptive families have gone before us and written the names of their new family on a lock and left it on the bridge.

We can't wait to do that on our last trip to Latvia.

Locking our family together, officially.

Speaking of officially, we have decided on a name for D.

During our whole stay in Riga, we have been going back and forth on his name.  He came to us as Deniss Daniels (last name omitted).

He really likes the name Deniss.  

He did NOT want to keep Daniels.

He really wanted his middle name to be Nike.

Or Adidas.

There may or may not have been a whole pout dedicated to keeping hope alive for the middle name of Nike.

But, as a family, we finally ended up on

Dennis Christopher Fanning.

We actually just call him D most of the time, but he also really likes the nickname of DC.  Sometimes it's Den.  Sometimes it's Tomats, which is Latvian for tomatoes, which he eats a pint of almost every day.  

The only time we actually ever call him Dennis is when he is busy looking at something or somebody behind him and is about to walk into traffic.  Or a pole.  Which actually happens a lot.

As I prepare to fly to the US tomorrow, I am praising God tonight for how he has brought this little family together.  

For the last nine months, our focus, our time, our effort…has all been spent on bringing D home.

And tomorrow we will.