We're coming home!!

Finally... after almost 7 weeks in India for Amit, and 4 weeks for me & Naina, and 2 years since we started this process, all four of us headed home.

We had a 3AM flight out of Mumbai, headed to Frankfurt. Krish and Naina were both real troopers about the long ordeal of getting to the airport, getting checked in, security, immigration, waiting for boarding, etc... all in the middle of the night.  Once we settled into our seats for the 8-hour journey, they both fell right asleep. After 2 hours in Frankfurt, boarded the second flight - 10.5 hours and we'd be back in SFO!

We finally got back and headed home. Krish was quietly taking in the new sights on the drive home from the airport.

The best part at the end of the long journey was that when we got home, there were Leena, Preetu, Dumma, Sheshu, Milind & Aanya - all there to welcome us home.

The house was beautifully decorated and they all shared a welcome home toast with us.  It sure felt amazing to be back.

Tomorrow...we start the rest of our lives...at home at long last!

Last stop: Delhi

Here we are in Delhi.

The flight over from Mumbai was pretty easy. Krish was totally mesmerized by the plane and I've never seen his eyes so big as when he saw us leaving the ground during takeoff!

Even though we timed it to be during his nap time, he didn't sleep at all during the flight - this curious giant metal tube we were sitting in was way too exciting! He was looking everywhere with curiosity.  It was only a 2 hr flight so it wasn't too hard to keep him busy for the short hop.

We got here on Friday and we're staying with Siddharth & Meeta.  Krish and his cousin Mehr are about the same age so it's been fun getting them together.

Today is the visa interview - we're finally going to get the stamp that's going to let us get on a plane with Krish to come back home!  Amit & Krish are at the Embassy now. Unfortunately Naina got really sick last night so she & I had to stay home. Luckily, only one parent going to the visa appointment seems to be OK.

The rest of the India trip

The days since Krish came home have been quite an adventure. We're all getting used to "the new us" which is great, but doing it in a place that isn't home has it's challenges.  We're all ready to come home!

The newly paired brother and sister have become fast friends.  They're currently sharing a room and already look pretty comfortable around each other.

In their waking hours, they enjoy running around like maniacs both at home and at the park daily.  Yesterday Naina and I found a not-so-innocent-looking Krish with a bucket of his favorite things from around the apartment. He was standing in front of an open window, one by one hurling each item outside.  Luckily we caught him before anything breakable went out there, and a passerby was kind enough to bring the casualties upstairs for us.

In between chasing behind the passport office or the birth certificate office, we're trying to get out to do some fun things too. We go to the park every day, and so far we've taken trips to the beach and the zoo, too.

As soon as we get Krish's passport, we'll be heading to Delhi where we'll get his visa.  Two "energetic" kids in an airport in a foreign country - that is going to be an adventure for sure.  Wish us luck!

KRISH COMES HOME!

Monday was Republic Day and everything was closed, so we weren't allowed to go bring Krish home that day.  It was a torturous weekend - we all just wanted him home so we could start the rest of our lives already! So we'd have to wait till Tuesday.  Finally Tuesday January 27 arrived and we couldn't wait to go get Krish.

Again I'll let the pictures do the talking here, starting with Naina decked out in her 'big sis' shirt all ready for the occasion :)

Krish was a little teary when it was time to leave with us - 

But finally our family of four headed home - 

On the way home, at the very first traffic light we stopped at - you know me and "signs" - we saw this one:

And by later that very day.....

Family of 4

Friday Jan 23.  Naina & I met Krish today!
Enough said - the pictures say everything, starting with the one on our way in the taxi....

Let's go get Krish

Finally....it's time for me & Naina to head to India. We're beyond excited but also both a bit sick!  Hoping for lots of Zzzz's on the plane.  Here's us enjoying the friendly skies.
#inflightwifi

 

Meanwhile...

While Amit was working the bureaucracy in India and visiting Krish as often as they'd let him, Naina and I were busy with last minute preps at home.  His room was ready, his clothes were put away, and big sis Naina was filming welcome videos for Amit to show Krish.  

Here's a small snippet - the whole thing is too large to post.

The Big Day

It finally happened. Today was the day. Armed with pockets filled with cars, lollipops and M&Ms, Amit went to meet Krish for the first time.  They asked Amit to keep the visit to the office for the first meeting so Krish was a little confused and uneasy of his surroundings, but seemed pretty comfortable with Amit right away!

Amit's planning to go every day, or as often as they let him visit. We can't take him home until we iron out the logistics of whether or not we can apply for his passport ourselves since neither of us is an Indian citizen.  So a bit of bureaucracy getting in the way, but hopefully we'll all be together very soon. In the meantime Amit is focusing on getting to know our son better.

Stuck in Newark

So close, yet so far... Amit's flight from SFO took off as planned but his connection in Newark was cancelled!!  So after an unexpected extra 24 hours in Jersey (which felt like an eternity btw...) he is finally on his way.  Another 24 hours and the father-son meeting will finally happen.  We're all on pins and needles waiting for the big moment!

Amit heads to India!

Tomorrow's the day - Amit is leaving for India to help push things along from the India side.  We're waiting for the court hearing and then the judge's written order.  In the meantime, three days from now....Amit will meet our son!

Naina's Baby(brother)moon

The preparations for Krish are well underway at home. We're converting the study into his room so that means a bunch of changes - cleaning/filing, selling furniture, buying new furniture, painting, closet organizing. The list goes on. The process until now has been all paperwork so we're all very excited about finally getting around to the fun stuff!

Naina's been a real supporter of the newly divided attention - we're spending most weekend time working on Krish's room and she's been awesome (and even enthusiastic)
about it.  So, before we all travel to India, we wanted to fit in a trip for Naina. She picked Disneyland so off we went!

Just got back from a "Naina-weekend" of hanging out at the pool, visiting Disneyland, and eating at one of the restaurants where the Real Housewives of OC hang out - that last part was for me ;-)

Naina's been helping, too

We had a terrific helper. Naina made all the 6 sets of family photos we had to submit, plus an album to send to Krish so he can see us while we wait to meet each other.  Big sis is very excited!!

Getting home and getting going!

Things moved fast, yet slow at the same time, from that day when we accepted the referral. We had to send our home study and dossier to India once we got back in town from our trip.  It was a mad rush - we got home on a Sunday night and Anjali was supposed to drop off the dossier at the agency by noon on Tuesday.  Well...we couln't find it! We thought our agency had kept it, but they swore they gave it back to us. Either way - we need a new one - PRONTO! (btw, our agency would later tell us that they did indeed have it!!)

We spent the next 36 hours recreating the entire 60+ page dossier, including dragging a very ill Amit to the police station for new Police Clearance Letters, and finding a notary to re-do all the notarizations.

Finally it was done and delivered to BAAS on time. But things weren't as smooth as we thought.

The notary commission was expiring at the end of the year, and it was highly unlikely that all the court dates would be done by then. So we had to look for a new notary and get everything redone...again! Add more days...

October 3 comes around - a whole 6 weeks after we got Krish's referral. Finally we had everything in place and it was time to go up to Sacramento to apostille the dossier. We had heard nightmare stories of this taking all day. We braced ourselves and left bright and early at 6am to get there right when they opened at 8am.  Amazingly, we were in and out in 45 minutes!
Finally - *something* in this process went quickly!

Now time our documents were ready to go - for realsies!

Life's Big Changes

We have a new addition to our family!  On August 13, 2014 we got an email from our adoption agency that would finally give us what we had been eagerly awaiting for 18-months.  We're about to have a son!  Let me back up a couple of dozen months and explain....

December 2012 - Amit & I decided we were going to go for it - adoption was in our future! The first step was to put in our application to and get on the waiting list for their "Pre-Adopt Class".

March 2013 - An 8-hr pre-adopt class left us excited and overwhelmed all at once! It was going to be a long road, they kept telling us. We could never have imagined how long! The next 2 months were  all paperwork, getting our medical checkups, and getting interviewed by our social worker.

July 2013 - All paper work was finally submitted and our Home Study was complete. Aaahh. we breathed huge sighs of relief. One major thing was done!

August 2013 - we were registered with CARA in India! That's the agency that regulates the adoption process there.  Now the waiting really begins (well, the first round at least).

September 2013 - we heard nothing

October 2013 - we heard nothing

November 2013 - we heard nothing

December 2013 - still we heard nothing

2014 even came along....

January, February, March, April, May, June - ugh...nothing!!  Our excitement was fading into frustration.

July - nothing - We were worried.  Was this ever going to happen for us?

August 13 - Amit and I sat along the waterfront in Curacao. Naina was with my parents in Dallas and we had come to Curacao for a 4-day ''date".  As we sat there that afternoon, drinking our beers and enjoying the sights, Amit checked his phone, normally something that would have set me ablaze for his addiction to his phone. But what we saw made us both deliriously happy.  There it was...a referral for a 15 month-old boy in Mumbai!  And with that....here we go!!!

Here's the picture of Krish that we first fell in love with: