Our new Year 2011

We are slowly getting grounded in our new home in Minnesota.....Maggie is loving her new environment: new school in Minnetonka called St. David's pre school ; skiing and gymnastics lessons, ice skating and swimming.
One year later and she has blossomed into a lovely little girl....still attached to her mom at the hip but exploring her new life with us. We are blessed.

Here are some of the latest pictures from Minnesota...

Our new home

Our first ever visit with Santa Claus!!

Christmas 2010 Dec 25th.

Aunty Michele signing Maggie's first leg cast -- an accident going down a slide with her super

energy and enthusiasm...

Bumble bee at Halloween Oct 31 2010.

New year 2010: Our first week in Mississippi

It's January 10, 2010 --
Our first weekend together at home in Mississippi without help from Grandpa and Nanna.
Maggie Sonia is slowing adjusting to us -- she still is attached to the hips of Mary from the time she gets up to bedtime which makes a long day for Mary -- I'm still doing only 10% of the caring duties.
Our biggest challenges are : getting her to sleep......
I had started this entry when we weren't getting much sleep so I didn't add any details of our many adjustments within our new family..........
Well 8 months later 9 14 2010:Good News --
We are preparing to move to Minneapolis Minnesota. Today the truck packed everything including the VW and drove away....our little one has grown into our family...there are still many challenges but seeing her in these pictures tells part of the story...Mary is a great MOM and we are learning that little Maggie brings joy and happiness  to all who encounter her +++ energy and love.....

January 2010

February 2010

March 2010

First Birthday with us April 14 2010 !! Can you guess her favorite color?

May 2010

With Grandparents and Great Nana Goggin!

On the campus of Mississippi State Univ.....our energizer bunny!

With Mom in June in Mississippi --it is HOT!!

July 2010 --Serious cooks -- anybody wants BREAKFAST!!?

August 2010 

On the day of her Christening at the same church we were married "Immaculate Conception" in Newburyport, Massachusetts with her cousins N8 and Casey Pasko -- who are the God Parents! We feel so blessed !!

We spent the end of August on Mackinac Island with the Saxen-Puttkammers....

Willie,Mitchell,Elliot and Maggie

At the Butterfly house!

Making delicious cinnamon bread with Willie and Grandma Ama and Mom!!

Isn't she a JOY?

A wonderful carriage ride to remember!

Mitchell, Willie,Maggie and Elliot

Final ferry ride home

Home in Mississippi for the new year 2010

Twenty days ago we flew out of Mississippi on this incredible journey to Bhubaneswar Orissa to meet our new daughter for the first time. Last night we return home to Starkville, Mississippi.
I'm not eloquent enough to put into words our feelings. The adoption process has challenged us and the past 20 days were filled with many sleepless nights and questions on if we could do this?
Now each day reminds us how much we are blessed and humbled to be her parents.
Last night at the local airport, her grandparents Mike and Margaret Reardon met us at the airport to greet their new grand-daughter. We celebrate Maggie Sonia with all our friends and family.

Happy New Year 2010 to all!!!

Grandpa Mike and Nanna with Maggie Sonia

Fun in the snow

 Its been 11 days since she joined us.....Words don't describe our feelings seeing Maggie Sonia playing with us in the snow.

Merry Christmas 2009

This is our first Christmas together! The smiles in the pictures below says it all -- we (mostly Mary) haven't slept much (maybe less than 5 hours the past 3 days) but we are slowing but surely growing together as one family. Maggie Sonia still misses her care-takers at SMSS.
This transition is slow -- she's bonded with Mary but I'm a work in progress and we are seeing little signs of her acceptance of us : she is eating well; she's started to communicate with us by signing some of the words we are teaching her. Sometimes she has an infectious belly laugh!! and now has started to play with some toys.

HOME!!!

WE HAVE LANDED!!!

We landed in Minneapolis, Minnesota at 12:10 on December 23 !!!

Oh what a feeling when we stepped off the plane after almost 24 hours : We left the hotel in Delhi at 8:00 pm on Tuesday 22nd -- our first leg was a KLM flight to Amsterdam -- our flight was four hours late so we spent 7 hours at the international terminal in Delhi -- which is a work in progress -- note: they check your passports just to get into the terminal; then the signage is very poor in the terminal to find the airline desk -- If you fly KLM, they are the only airlines that check your adoption documents ! We didn't know that! and they also wanted to photo copy it : the NOC and the court guardianship. The security check-in went smoothly. We recommend coming early to the airport and then have lots of activities for your little one while you wait -- the Delhi international terminal isn't like the one in Amsterdam so the services our limited.

Well after we boarded the flight -- Maggie Sonia did fine all the way to Amsterdam (about a 9 hours flight). We had a lovely KLM stewardess who took care of us on the flight and even gave us a gift for Maggie Sonia!! (Unfortunately our second leg of the flight with Delta Airlines was just awful -- I almost lost it with the 2 stewardess assigned to our section! -- but there was too much joy with us to make the poor Delta service spoil our journey home.

Resting before the flight at the ITC lounge in Delhi International terminal.

 

With the delay in taking off from Delhi, we didn't have a layover in Amsterdam. After we landed, we walked to our 2nd leg of the flight 2 gates over in Amsterdam for the horrible Delta Airline flight to Minneapolis.....we were so excited that we followed each hour of it on the seat monitor....with Mary saying "Are we there yet" like a little kid! It was rather cute....We forgot to pack some toys for Maggie for the flights...we highly recommend some blocks or crayons or other active play toys (we only had books) so the remote control for the in-flight entertainment became her toy. Also don't forget to pack favorite snacks. Our flight ended early at 12:10 pm on December 23 just in time for the major snow storm to start here! I felt like kissing the ground when we landed jusk like the pope :+)

The custom lines were long, but there were expecting us and for a change we got some needed special treatment by going to the front of the line! The custom service officer was super. After he checked our passports, we had a little official opening of the brown envelop from the US Embassy! It was official -- Maggie is ours. Within 10 minutes we were done --American efficiency at its best! He welcomed all of us to the United States.....what a relief! This was a 3 years journey for us. We both high fived and did the hugest group hug!!!
We've done it. WE ARE HOME! Physically and emotionally exhausted ! and Mary hasn't slept for 48 hours -- caring for Maggie Sonia takes all her time and she still will not come to me yet ... so I'm a little useless on that department but she is beginning to trust me and it will work out fine......what a wonderful joyous Christmas present for us....

I love Mary and Maggie Sonia!

A blessed Merry Christmas to all who have followed us through this journey....bye for now.

Christmas Eve in Minnesota -- this isn't Bhubaneswar, Orissa :+)

Casey Pasko and Maggie Sonia sledding.

We are flying home with our little Maggie Sonia!!

We fly home on December 23rd !! The next 24 hours on the airplane should be interesting?!!! We are hoping our little one will sleep through the first leg to Amsterdam.
For those following our flight home: we are flying Northwest/KLM flight NW8366 to Amsterdam and NW0241 to Minneapolis Minnesota.

WE ARE GOING HOME WITH MAGGIE SONIA!!!

The American Embassy approved Maggie Sonia to travel to the USA with us this afternoon at 1:30 pm. YEAH!! After 3 years, we have reached the end of the adoption process. There are many people to thank for it but most certainly the staff at Wide Horizons for Children in particular our India co-ordinator Eileen Minnucci; the American Embassy and all its staff; Catholic charities in Mississippi for the home study and Michelle Parisi who notarized all the many documents for us.

The visa process at the Embassy went smoothly. Our appointment was schedule for 9:00 am. The Embassy is only 5 minutes from this hotel (The ITC Maurya). We had walked to it from the hotel last week for a test run but we don't recommend it with a baby so today we had a driver. We arrived at the embassy at 8:35 and there was a long line already. We were ushered to a room that looks like our local DMV but larger by two orders of magnitude. Its not a kids friendly room. Each person is given a # and ours was O6. On a typical day, over 700 to a 1000 applicants go through this office but we were the only adoption case today. An hour later we were called to the first of three window booth (kind of like in the bank) which eventually will lead to the interview by the consular staff. The 2nd window is the cashier : $400 for our visa -- could this be the last of the $$ for the adoption process ? (credit cards are accepted). After we paid the fee, we waited for the interview. Its held open to the room so everyone can hear and see what's going on. (I would think they would have taken us to a conference room. Also there aren't any areas for kids to play or relax while you wait). We waited for about 2 hours before we were called for the interview.

The actual process was straightforward. We had to take an oath and then the consulate officer verified our documents. We had to give her the following : passport, NOC document (its a copy),guardianship court document and abandonment certificate.Then we explained that we needed to go back to the doctor's office for the 3 remaining shots to receive the medical review form. We were done by 11:30 and on our way to the doctor's office for the remaining shots. (Dr. Chawla's office is not far from the Embassy). His address is 37 Prithviraj Road Delhi near Khan market.

The doctor , Mary and Maggie Sonia

Not so fun immunization shots time!