The First of Two Big Days

Yesterday was kind of a busy day.  We picked up our referral paperwork at the SDA, however it was not ready at 4 pm.  We met Luda at the SDA who will be traveling with us to Crimea instead of Elena who is not able to travel with us because of a foot injury. 4 pm turned into 5 pm and still no referral.  Finally at 6 pm our paperwork was ready.  We were the last people waiting in the lobby besides the security guard.  The cleaning lady at the apartment was at our apt when we arrived and our stuff was not packed yet for the driver to take us to the train station at 7pm.  We had a very stressful afternoon/evening.  No time to eat dinner and take a shower before the long train ride.  Oh, well.  We made it onto the train, although I was truly cursing myself getting on the train with all of the luggage.  We met Dr.Yuri at the station depot for the overnight train.

We arrived to beautful weather in Simferopol, much better than Kyiv where they were calling for snow.  People in Crimea were in shorts yesterday and still going to the beach swimming.

We were taken to our apartment by Misha our driver.  All 5 of us fit along with all of luggage into a Hyundai Sonata.  Our apartment is nice.  We all cleaned up and then headed to the Regional Inspector (Child Services) to get her permission to visit the orphanage.  After we had the signed documents in hand, Misha drove us to the orphanage.  We met with the Director, Deputy Director and Ophanage Doctor, to go over the information about the boys.  After we received all the information, the boys were brought into the room!

Dr. Yuri had chocolate bars for each of them and that lit up their faces.  They were dressed nicely and are blonde with blue eyes and small and thin for their age, which is typical in an orphanage.  Dr. Yuri put them through their paces to determine their development and IQ.  Their health records were in order and they both had surgery to remove their adenoids and the younger also had his tonsils removed.  These were the two items mentioned in the file at the SDA appointment, so it is nice to know that it was already taken care of .

After all the formalities, we were shown into another room to get know the kids more.  We played ball and played with the stuffed animals we brought them.  We also had gummi bears for them, so they were probably on a sugar high.  They had A LOT of energy.

It was a wonderful meeting and assuming the meeting tomorrow goes just as well with the little girl, then we will go ahead and proceed with adopting these kids.

I know that everyone wants to see pictures.  However, we will not post pics on the blog until after court, since it is a public blog, however, those who have received links to the Picasa web album from a couple of days ago, will be able to view pictures of the boys.  If you would like to receive a link to the album at our discretion, please email us or leave a comment on the blog with your email.

Thank you everyone for following our journey and thinking about us and praying for us.

Andrew, Heather, M*****, A****, C*****