Thurs and Fri Visits with the children.

I am at the mall now updating this blog. We come here after our morning visits with the children. Every morning we arrive and hand in our passports to the orphanage and then we go get the kids. Yesterday we went to the children's shop and bought some toys. We must have stayed in the toy store for over an hour trying to figure out what would be best to buy. We bought pots and pans (play dishes), more coloring books, and an ABC (leap frog type of toy) but in Russian. We also bought some floor puzzles and a blanket to put on the ground. We always bring the other children cookies and give them to the Nannies to pass around. It is so difficult to see so many beautiful children coming around you and knowing that when most of them grow up...many will be homeless on the street and some sent to institutions. Right now though they are smiling and so happy to watch the staff open the cookies that we brought. We will do this everyday because this is all we can offer all these children right now.
It is so funny, the moment we enter the orphanage gates...the children who are playing outside stop what they are doing and run up to Ian jumping up and down and pointing telling him "Mama, Papa, Mama, Papa!!" He gets this big big smile and you could see how he just became "the most popular boy in his group". He knows it too. Ok everyone reading this if you have been thinking of adopting...do it...there are so many kids who need you.

Wed morning: We are here

Ok I know the suspense is getting to you but I really wanted those who are reading about this journey to really experience what we are.
So Wed am as the train arrived, we were met there by our new taxi driver. He was a young man who spoke no English at all. Niko shook hands with Serge the taxi driver and off we went to the children's protective services to go get our paperwork and the social worker. We all squeezed in the car...it was a 4 passenger car (that includes driver) and it was 6 of us and tons of luggage. The back end of the car pratically dragged but this was custom and as long as everyone sat on everyone's lap and the doors closed that was all that mattered. The worst part was the back passenger windows did not roll down and their was no AC! It was all good though because...we are going straight to the orphanage! Yahoo! It would only be an hour or so until we were able to hug our children and see them after a year.

So once we arrived to the orphanage the doctor sat down and told us about each child. Each child's folder was old and all documentation was hand written, not one empty spot on those papers. I guess 4 years of living in the orphanage there has got to be alot of writing. Ian's folder was 4 inches thick and Ellia's was half of that. Niko did his best translating and in a nut shell....the children have been at the orphanage since they were born and no one has ever visited them. They are very particular about documenting the times a parent or relative visits and both these children had no recorded visits EVER. In regards to medical honestly there was not much that can be understood and as we have learned from our previous children...it is important to get a pediatrician who is familiar with international adoptions because you basically arrive to the USA with very little info other then gestation age and Apgar scores. Does it really matter anyways?? Would I change my mind at this point? No not at all. Even if they told us that there was a possibility that one of these children would probably pass away soon....I would say what I said last year when they said that about Nicholas...ok then he will die with a mom and dad. He will not die alone. These children need a chance of living they all need someone who will love them unconditionally...through good and bad, sickness and health and life and death. That is why we are here. Anyways returning back to Wed.
As the doctor was talking...their was a knock and turning of the door knob....I knew it had to be one of the children...I knew it and who was it? Ian!! He came in holding the nanny's hand very shy but with an excited look on his face. I just went to my knees so I could look straight at him and said hello and cupped his face in my hands kissing him on the forehead. They then translated that this was Momma and Papa and brother. He had such a cute smile...I think he remembered us from last year just by the way he looked at us. He then stood next to the doctor as she finished talking about him and he understood everything she said. I wish i could speak Russian. I wish I had a Russian friend at home. Ian then came and sat on my lap as we started to discuss Ellia. The knock on the door again and here was little Ellia!! She saw all of us in the room, and she covered her eyes but peaked through them (she is extremely shy). I felt as if she had not grown at all in one year and she was so tiny. Steven got up and picked her up. It didn't take long before she was playing with his go-tee.(hope I spelled that right). How can I tell you what I was feeling? I am so glad that I had no eye makeup on because if I did....well I would have had it all smudged. I could not stop tearing. To be here, one year later and to come back to get these children who stared at me last year as I loved on Oksana and Nicholas and who called me Mama as I walked by them...is amazing. Without God we could not have done this. If you honestly let God help you take care of these orphans....He will.
At this meeting we set up times to visit everyday except Sundays. We did not take pictures on that first meeting but we knew tomorrow we would return.

So here are the pictures of the next visit. We play with them outside.