When Nadia and Ruslan entered the room, I felt a little shy but I wanted to reassure them so I hugged them tightly. They both look so small and young. They were happy to see us, but we could see that Nadia looked stressed. She keeps her emotions controlled, but there was a tightness in her face. Luda explained that their biological mother was downstairs. Oh my.

She had come to visit them and was waiting to see them. They visited with us first. We gave them each some simple presents. Ruslan got a Monopoly game and Nadia got a pink heart shaped pillow, some monkey slippers and a valentine t-shirt. Nadia hugged the pillow to her throughout the visit. It must have been very hard day for her.

The Regional Director came in the room and asked everyone what their decision was. We all said yes. Then, we had to go to the Director's office to give a formal yes. When asked, Ruslan immediately shot out a firm and certain "tak!" (yes!); Nadia started a rambling answer, but the official immediately interrupted her and said "yes, or no?" to which she responded "tak". This is clearly much more traumatic for her, which is understandable; indeed, it would be a bad sign if she felt nothing in such a momentous situation.

When that was done, we sat on a bench outside his office while the paperwork process got started in earnest. There must be mountains of procedures and paperwork.



We returned to the visiting room and were soon playing monopoly with Andrew and Ruslan. Ruslan was banker and can add and subrtract very quickly. He seemed to understand what we were saying as we explained the game. He must be very smart. Andrew's big heart showed when Ruslan overspent and Andrew kept wanting to give him money--it was just killing him to see poor Ruslan in financial straits while he was rolling in cash. They are very cute together.


Nadia spent much of the day visiting her mother and having difficult conversations, I'm sure. The Director also spoke with their mother and told her that we were there to adopt them and bring them to America. We didn't meet or see her. Ruslan saw their mother for a little while but spent most of the day with us. He and Andrew are very happy about being brothers and it was great to see how much the three children love each other.

Ruslan and Nadia are social orphans. They have living parents and a family, including adult brothers and sisters, but their family has left them to grow up here in the orphanage after neglecting to take care of them at home and then losing their parental rights years ago. Nadia and Ruslan need and want parents, a family and a home.When we adopt them, we expect that they may want to stay in touch with their family here, to one degree or another. It's a little like an open adoption in that they will live with us but be able to maintain some contact with their family here. Reality is with such a bad history and such great distance and little contact, it will be a diminishing relationship at most.

Other kids kept peeking in the room. We are giving the kids a lot to talk about. One girl even asked about my new auburn hair! Perhaps would have liked to have had more private time to spend with just our kids, but it was OK.

I was tired, hungry and exhausted by the time we left the school. It was dinnertime and since we'd skipped lunch, we went straight to our favorite pizza place. After a relaxing dinner, we checked into our old hotel and I was happy to crawl into the clean, comfy bed.I was emotionally exhausted and would have cried except Andrew was right there on his comfy, soft futon. Mark said some encouraging things to me and that helped. I knew that I was overwrought so I changed my focus by reading a gripping book until I fell asleep.

This morning, we had a nice breakfast at the Hotel before driving over to the school. Nadia and Ruslan are getting medical exams, Luda is immersed in paperwork and Andrew is happily visiting his old class. This quiet time gave me chance to write this (with Mark's input.)

I wonder what adventure is coming today. More relatives? Some unforeseen drama? Maybe we'll be lucky and just have another happy monopoly game.


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