Finally we get to see our son

We were up & ready when our lawyer arrived. On the way I finally asked “what’s going to happened and WHEN do we get to see our son.” After she quickly explained about the proceedings of the morning, she let us know things were not as they had been planned to see our son.

It seems that a family coming the day before us for 2^nd court 4 hours away missed their flights and did not plan extra time into their travels. They missed court! If this happens court is usually re-scheduled for several months later, but this court agreed to see them Friday at 10am – 4 hours away. Well, our court was at 9am so that did not work so they said they needed to come for 3pm then. Unfortunately this met that our attorney had to travel immediately after our court was done and she told us that she did not even know if our son would have any clothes with him, it may just be him and we’d get the clothes next week. Now, we knew he’d be able to bring everything, so this was concerning because we brought him 2 shirts & a bathing suit.  And he was living 45 minutes out of Riga so we knew we’d not be able to get his stuff ourselves. Yet, at this point, there was nothing we could do except go forward. If we had to buy new clothes, then that’s what we’d do. We just wanted him with us.

Court was intimidating, but they did not try to make it so. We had a wonderful translator who told us most of what was said. After answering a bunch of questions, we were told to go outside to wait while they decided if they would let him come stay with us for bonding. Talk about palms sweating… I was VERY nervous. Oscar, on the other hand, was very calm…. We got called back in and were told we were granted the bonding period, and we had to return to court in 1 week. YEAH!

We walked out of the office hoping to see our son, but he was not here. His social worker contacted the foster family only to find out he was still at the foster home 45 minutes away.  They were trying to find a way to get him to us, and it was almost time for our attorney to leave for a 4 hours drive for the other family. We got word he was on his way finally. After about 30 minutes it was decided we would leave and meet them along their route. 

Our first glimpse of our son in 125 days was standing along side the road with his suitcases with his foster parents. I could see him as we were coming down the road in his “favorite coat.” After about a 5 minutes suitcase swap and hugs and introductions, we were on our way with our son between us.  His foster parents had been delayed as they were trying to find a car to borrow to bring him to us.

Lesson learned, note to us for the future and other families coming – please plan flights with plenty of time because if you miss your flights, it may just impact other families in country. We had our son, but it was a totally chaotic meeting along the side of the road and it made a short planned out day for our attorney a day from 6am to midnight.