FIRST VISIT-DAY THREE

I have a little catching up to do! We are now how after a whirlwind last day in country and a LOOOOONNNGGG travel home.


Friday morning started off EARLY...we had to skip breakfast due to some blood work that required fasting that we were to do as part of our medical exam in country.


Our coordinator and driver picked us up at 7:10am and we headed off across town to the hospital to complete our medical exam. This is a exam that in the past was completed on the second trip the same week as your court appearance, but a new judge this year is already changing procedure and is now requiring families to be cleared the first trip, before they would even be close to being granted a court date. I find that this makes more sense anyways, and better to get it out of the way and be able to just focus on our court appearance the second trip.


There was actually no traffic on the streets this early in the morning...seemed very bizarre to not see the normal chaos of cars and people during our commute across town. Shortly, we pulled up to a building that was obviously a hospital. We followed our coordinator up the front steps and thru the door. First thing, we checked our coats (which most places we went to had us do this) and put on the scrub like booties over our shoes. We were led down the main hallway and entered a room on our left...this was the hospital administrators office. She greeted us with a kind smile and instructed us to sit on the couch opposite of her desk. If anyone has seen the tv show, Gilmore Girls, she looked EXACTLY like Babette the neighbor!! Short, round, frizzy curly short hair, VERY blue eyes. The coffee table in front of us was FILLED with delicious treats and teas...something we knew we would be offered after we had our blood work done. We were told to start filling our a 72 true or false questionaire that would be turned into the psychiatrist later. This was a shorted version of the MMPI test we had to take when we had our psych eval done last summer...easy stuff. Soon our coordinator instructed us to follow her, we walked down the hallway to another white door, in we walked to get our blood taken. Wasn't bad at all, didn't hurt a bit. We were led back down the hallway to the admin's office and could now partake of the tea and treats!! Had some DELICIOUS chocolate wafers!! Our coordinator was speaking to the administrator and I heard "something something Down" at this point the administrator looked a little sad and then smiled, she was looking over our family photobook we brought with us...our coordinator said she happily was demanding to see photos of us with our sweet girl, so I of course had my camera out in a flash to proudly show off our daughter. Her smile is something I will not soon forget...she started crying and saying how happy she was that our little girl was being given a chance at life, a chance to be important! It made me tear up seeing how emotional she was and how happy she was for us and most importantly our little one...she had to go back over to her desk, remove her glasses, and use a tissue. 


While we were enjoying tea and cookies, we were interviewed by the "Infectionist" he reviewed our chest x-rays and said we passed, they looked great. They started to ask us if we had ever had an infectious disease...remember to answer YES if you have ever had chicken pox or bronchitis as these are considered infectious diseases. :) Something that made us all laugh, was he asked Lance if it was possible that he has ever come in contact with a person who had TB...and in true Lance form he answered, "Well, anything is possible, right?" and this has the Dr. laughing saying, "True true" After a few questions we were done and had passed this part of the inspection!


We walked down the hall to another white door, we were greeted by a the neurologist. She asked us many questions, and because I have had back surgery, asked me to bend over, backwards and sideways both ways. She tested both of our reflexes. We were in her office for maybe all of 5 mins and then on to the next!


We were told to gather our things and follow once again...this time we walked down the main hallway to the other side of the hospital and down a corridor to our left, then up an elevator that was the size of a small coat closet!! Just barely enough room for all three of us. We exited and went thru a VERY small doorway, I had to turn sideways to get through with my purse and down a long hallway. We were told to sit outside a door. We were called in one at a time to get our EKG done. HA...just a very foreign way of performing an EKG. It was like a table on the left wall of an office, not like a hospital room at all. I was greeted by an older lady and instructed to lift my shirt and lay down on the exam table. A machine was next to the exam table about at my left shoulder and she picked up what seemed like an armload of things that reminded me of JUMPER CABLES! YIKES! She had 4 LARGE clamps...she was spraying down with a solution and them clamped them on both ankles and both wrists...then she took the other 6 cables, sprayed them down well with the solution, and then suctioned them all around my heart. She told me to take a deep breath in and hold it, then I was instructed to let out the breath and relax and breath normally. It was over in 10-15 seconds. I went out in the hall and waited for Lance to complete his EKG. We then headed over to the next door over and was greeted by the psychiatrist.


This meeting probably lasted about 10-15 minutes...and he just asked us questions about items that we discussed in our biography in our home study. Nothing we didn't have an answer for! He seemed please will all our answers and we were off to the next specialist! Back down the long hallway, down the closet like elevator, back down the mail corridor to the other side of the hospital. 


We waited outside another white door, and after about 5-10 mins of waiting we were asked to go inside together. There were two woman doctors (I can't remember what their titles or specialties were), one was probably a general physician who did an overall brief physical exam and tested our blood pressure. This exam took about 15 mins and we had all our papers signed off by these to doctors and on to the next!


Down a hallway again, and waited outside another white door to see the oncologist. A few questions, and a quick exam for the both of us. She did my exam first and then after doing Lance's exam, our coordinator said the doctor said "Muscles, muscles...I can't even feel what I need to feel!" We all shared a laugh, I am married to a beef cake!! :)


We headed back down the hallway (as you can see LOTS of hallways, and LOTS of white doors!) to the administrators office for more tea and treats, and to sign the official documents. The administrator stated that we passed our exams for the day and showed us all the signed paperwork and licenses of all the doctors we saw that day that would be presented to the judge. YAY! All in all it only took two hours to see 7 specialist and get blood work done.


We left and were told because it was Friday, the traffic was EXTRA bad, and that by the time we would arrive at the baby house we wouldn't have much time with our girlie, SO we all decided to maximize the time of our last visit with her that we would go to the baby house at 4pm. We made the LONG trek back to the hotel, they were right, I didn't think the traffic could get worse, but it DID!


We were dropped off at our hotel and told they would come pick us up by 3:15pm. Lance and I hadn't had much time to venture out because of all the appointments and official meetings and getting paperwork signed. So we thought this would be a perfect time to go explore! It was a beautiful 0 degrees but VERY clear blue sky and sunny. I will say that walking three blocks, we couldn't feel our faces!! FROZEN!! But still fun to get out and about. We found a grocery mart and bought a couple things, then decided that we would stop for lunch, I saw a place that looked busy and in small letters on the door, said menu in ENGLISH! Whew. Well, we spent the next 20 mins trying to find the english menu, or figure our how the heck we were supposed to order watching the busy line, and feeling defeated that NO ONE spoke english! Wow, we missed our coordinator/translator at that moment. We didn't want to make a scene as the silly Americans that didn't know what the heck we were doing...so when the line lulled, we hoped right in and said, "Po-angleski?" (English?) and the teenager at the cash register dug around behind the counter and pulled out a couple crinkled pieces of computer paper with the menu in russian and english...YAY!! So we ordered some pancakes (crepes) with Chicken and mushroom, some borscht, and tea for two! It was quite the adventure! :) Glad we finally figured it out, and it was delicious and warmed our bellies. Found out from our translator that this resturant was called "Teaspoon" which made sense because the logo was a spoon. 


We went back to our hotel room to relax and watch a movie to pass the time. Soon it was 3:00pm and we headed to the lobby to wait. We were very excited to see our sweet girl again, and trying desperately not to focus on the fact that it would be our last visit with her for a matter of months. Being fully present in the moment and praising the Lord for the small miracles that he prepared before us.


We arrived at the cheerful baby house and were greeted cheerfully by a worker and told to head upstairs to the music room, the same room we used for our visit the day before. We waited just a few minutes and could hear her caregivers down the stairs calling her name. Up the stairs and into the room came a nanny (our coordinator said groups typically had 2-3 caregivers and a nanny or two...she looked like a teenage girl and wasn't wearing the formal uniform like the others we met, so we figured she was a nanny) with our sweet little girl hugging her neck. I took her from the young girl, and Lance and I went to sit with her on the couch.


She had either just woken up from a nap or someone had woke her up, because she was very groggy and just staring at us like who are you? How did I get here? No expression, just awe. :) It took her awhile to wake up so we just sat, smiled, and talked to her while she stared at us. After a little bit, she climbed off my lap and walked over to the stuffed animals to find her favorite two little squirrels, one she like more than the other, the one she like best was holding a little red and white mushroom. She is definitely a little girl who knows what she likes and what she doesn't. She can say "Da" (Yes) and "Nyet" (No) and has a pretty serious grunt that conveys A LOT. She was not as outgoing as the days before, more snuggly...content to sit in my lap and play with those squirrels making them walk and bounce up and down while saying, "Doop a dup dup dup." Learned today that she sucks her thumb, which I find to be the cutest thing ever, but really most everything she does it cute! And really it a convenient way to sooth herself when she doesn't have anything else. 


This last meeting didn't end the way we had envisioned...she ended up starting to cry to the point that we couldn't console her...not a painful cry, just a tired or overwhelmed, over stimulated cry. Our coordinator took her and tried to calm her down by speaking words in the language she understands, but that didn't work either. So we decided that she just needed to go back to her groupa, her safe place. It was SO hard to see her crying and know that we couldn't console her. Lance and i prayed specifically to not take offense or have our feelings hurt at any point in preparing to have a moment like this. We don't have any idea what disrupting her schedule was like for her, or having so much attention, or even coming at a different time of day, was she tired, or hungry, or just done having visitors? Our hearts were protected and we both knew that we are still just strange visitors to her and understood completely her right to cry at any time...I think it was also a wonderful reminder for us that this journey of removing her from all that she knows and bringing her into a completely new world is not going to be all easy. They are going to be times ahead that we aren't going to be able to console her easily, trust takes time, and love even longer, after that trust has been established. 


EVERY caregiver we came in contact with said they were just overjoyed for our girl to have a family and were so quick to brag about all the wonderful things she does. She likes to help set the table and clean up from meal time. She loves to makes sure all the blankets are put away properly and without any wrinkles(Lucy, this girl is a girl after your own heart!!) the list goes on an on. 


We have SUCH a God given peace in our hearts about leaving her for a few months. We hate it don't get me wrong, I wish we could have carried her out of that baby house with us that day...but we know the place she is living is a good place, with good people who really love her and that eases our hearts. More answered prayers...the Lord has been faithful to ensure she is loved and well cared for, and we really couldn't ask for more than that in this type of situation. We know all well, this is not always the case. This baby house has also done MANY adoptions and so they are familiar with the process and excited for their children to find families. The district social worker also has facilitated MANY adoptions so i have no doubt she will represent us well in court. 


We have been given a HUGE gift!!!! We know the months ahead will not all be easy, but we know we have a faithful God who has called us to be her parents and travel this long road to bring her home. We have full faith that he will provide us with exactly what we need right when we need it!! We are both overjoyed by how this week went...we couldn't have asked for anything more!

WE

ARE

IN

LOVE!!!

More photos to come...