Tuesday’s Entry (part 2) – Monday in Vlad

What an emotional day! First Justin and I began our day in prayer and in our prayers we often ask God to please open doors for us that should be open and close those that should be closed. Please make it apparent to us, Lord, what you have in store for us. I feel that by asking for that guidance, certain things just fall into place without Justin and I having a chance to mess it up.

Lana - our interpreter, Irena – our agency rep, and Alec – our driver were supposed to pick us up at 10:30 a.m. to go to our MOE (minister of education) appointment. This is where we would officially be approved to see a child and be invited to visit an orphanage. Now, I didn’t post this earlier because I didn’t want our parents to freak out, but when we were picked up from the airport Lana told us that our documents had not arrived from Moscow yet. “Don’t worry He-There – Now is not the time to worry,” she said. Sure, sure I won’t worry a bit! Yeah right!!! So Justin and I were both sick to our stomachs that on Monday we would not be able to go see the lil guy. At 10:00 a.m. the phone in our room rings. Lana says to us the papers had night arrived yet, but they are supposed to be at the courier’s office by 11:30 so they are going to pick us up at 11 instead of 10:30. Again… “Don’t worry He-There – Now is not the time to worry,” she said. Ummmm I am thinking now is a great time to start to worry.

So at about 11:15 they arrived to pick us up. The city driving here is like no other. Different than Chicago for sure! It is best to just not pay attention. We stopped by the courier’s office and Irena came out with a huge smile on her face and said congratulations! Our papers arrived! We went to the MOE and answered some questions. We were told Tatiana was in a good mood today and we were lucky for that. When she saw the pictures in our homestudy of Brady and Madison she smiled and said beautiful children! Awww sucks – we sure think so :o) She showed us the picture of our lil guy and invited us to go visit him. So we were back in the van and off. Ohhhh – one more thing for future first time travelers to Vlad… ladies be sure to take Kleenex with you at all times. In the public restrooms, there are to toilet seats and no toilet paper. I get the no toilet seat thing. They say that you should not sit on public toilet seats anyway so why have them. The no toilet paper thing… I don’t get. Someone suggested that perhaps it just gets stolen. Not for sure – but always be prepared.

Because our day started so late with waiting for the papers to arrive, we could not go to the baby home right away because it was nap time. So we went back (we did exchange our money – that is a story for another entry!) to the hotel and ate lunch with Lana, Irena, Alec, and the Pittman family. I was surprised I could even eat. I was still nervous about our first visit. The drive to the baby home is about 45 minutes from the hotel. When we arrived, we had to put little blue things, like surgical hats, over our shoes so that we didn’t dirty the floor. We got the impression from the beginning that cleanliness is very valued there. We were taken upstairs to a room with a couch, two chairs, and some toys and waited for him to come in. When he came into the room he was so incredibly cute. He smiled from ear to ear and came right over to Justin and I and began to check us out. He was intrigued by all of the toys in the room and was anxious to start playing. I will say though, first timers reading this… be prepared for your child to look awkward in the clothing. The home put him in a visiting outfit which was blue cotton tights with shorts over the top, a long sleeved shirt tucked in, and brown shoes that are too small and look like something we would put on a little girl. It catches you off guard at first. But I have to say, his smile and eagerness to play with us helped get over the awkward look.

He is a little guy. Average for the baby home, but much smaller than a ‘typical’ three year old in the States. He has shown growth over the measurements we were given and that is a relief. He was able to sort objects, jump, blow bubbles, play with the cars, put objects together, etc… All of the ‘tests’ we had planned to put him through he just showed us on his own by playing with the toys. We brought Fruit Loops in a little package. They were a huge hit! Here was particular moment that stole my heart… We had put together an album of pictures of Brady, Madison, Justin, and I to share with him. We did not plan on getting it out the first day. He found it in the bag and pulled it out. He immediately took it over to a clear spot on the floor and started to look at it. He face lit up. His back was to Justin and when he got to a picture of Justin and I he got very excited, pointed to the picture and then turned to point to Justin and said PaPa. Wowza! I think it caught Justin off guard a bit.

Well our entries are too long now so I will stop for the day. We will go back and visit each day. We will need to have made our decision of whether or not to accept the referral by Thursday. We cannot share any pictures on here until after we return for our court date. We will share his name though in our entry after Thursday’s decision. We hope all is well back at home. We appreciate comments on the blog and emails. It is great to know that we are still in touch somewhat with things back in the States. We miss Brady and Madison a lot! We love you guys.

Dasvidanyia (Goodbye!)