A tough day!

Sorry for the delay in posting. We have been having difficulties getting Internet service here. We finally got the hotel’s computer guy to help us set it up today. They don’t have wireless, so when we asked at the desk about Internet access, they just handed us a cord! Well, as it turns out, we needed to set up some sort of “proxy server” for the cord to work, and now it does. The computer guy didn’t speak English so he couldn’t tell us what he did. So it may not work when we get home, but that’s OK, we’ll worry about that later. Anyway, we just posted yesterday’s entry (see below) now that we have everything working. So here is today’s (Monday’s) posting:

What a day! We had no idea what we were in for. We went to the Ministry of Education first thing this morning, along with Russ and Monica, another couple that are here, to get some information about the child that was referred to us. They went in first, when they were done, it was our turn. We need to stop for a second here and say how lucky we are to have them here with us. This is their second “first trip” and they have been so helpful since they’ve been through this before. Thanks again to them.

The brief description of the child given to us by the officials there seemed to indicate only some minor health issues. Then they asked if we wanted to see the child. We said “yes”, of course. So we signed some documents that expressed our interest in traveling to the orphanage to visit the director, doctor, and finally, see the child. Then they drove us to an office where the document was notarized. Then back to the MOE for more paperwork, and finally to the orphanage! Whew. All the while it’s like 90 some degrees and there is NO air conditioning anywhere here, including the van we were riding around in all day. Oh and did we mention, men don’t wear shorts in Russia?

We met with the director, doctor, and some of the caregivers first, and later they brought the child into the room as well. Our adoption consultant and translator were of course with us too. Unfortunately, the health issues of this child turned out to be much greater than expected, and we ended up turning down the referral and heading back to the MOE, more or less devastated. We can’t even explain how difficult this was, and we had literally minutes to make the decision.

When we returned to the MOE we had to explain why we turned down the referral and they were able to find another one for us. We had to go through all the same things; MOE, Notarize, MOE again, then off to a different orphanage! Our new referral was much younger than we expected. (We’re not allowed to give any specific information). We’ve sent the health information, which was better this time, to our international adoption physician in Ann Arbor. She will review it and send us back her evaluation, based on the information we provided.

So we return to the orphanage tomorrow (Tues) to spend more time with the child. We’ll let you know how that goes. We need to try to get some sleep tonight. It hasn’t been that good so far, especially for one of us. Guess who!