Prayers at work

This is the sign along the street outside the gate to the orphanage.

This is a picture of the grape arbor pointing away from the orphanage.

This is the first picture we got to take of our new son which at this point we had not named.

I want to tell everyone thank you so much for your prayers. We have been praying that God would go before us and we certainly saw evidence of Him doing that today. Alexi and Nastya picked us up (I told them hi for you, Mandy) and we went off in search of the inspector. We finally found her office building and then the correct hall, correct door, etc. This was her first day back at the office from holiday--can you believe it! She seemed very pleasant and again our photo album was a blessing, I believe, as is the fact that we have already adopted Caleb (with Syndrome Down, as they call it here) from nearby Vorzel. This is her first experience with international adoption. She and Nastya got some paperwork put together, then she put on her coat and jumped in the car with us to go visit the director of the orphanage.

I was totally unsure what to expect. Nastya said that when she called the director he said this is "highly irregular" as no one has adopted from his facility. The orphanage grounds seemed quite pleasant with a grape arbor walkway, some kind of hothouse that has numerous plants inside, corridors lined with plants, no bad odors. We met with the director--whom we hear the children refer to as 'PAPA'--and with the medical doctor of R's area. I was expecting to be grilled about our desire to adopt but no one asked us any questions at all.

Within about 15 or so minutes we were walking toward the room where R was. We walked into a large room where about 7 little boys were seated quietly around a table. One of the workers called out a little blond-headed boy dressed in a green and white striped sweater, shirt with green and white plaid shirt underneath, green pants, sandals. He was very soft-spoken, repeated Mama and Papa when asked, sat in a chair and of course seemed very uncertain of exactly what was going on. I showed him pictures of our family, touched his hand, touched his sweater, made some funny sounds, but he mostly just looked at me. That's OK, I am a total stranger to him at this point--but not for long :) I asked if I could take a picture and was told that as soon as we had made a firm decision to adopt him then a picture would be allowed. We let them know we had already made that decision. So I did get one picture. Though I think he is about the same height as Caleb, he is definitely less husky. He does seem very sweet, Kris--thanks so much for letting us know about him. He is precious.

Then back to the director's office to hammer out more paperwork. Then drove the inspector back to her office. Nastya told us that they are trying to get all necessary paperwork so the inspector can present our case at the guardianship council tomorrow, which I believe Nastya said is the LAST time they meet this year. My goodness, I have been marveling at God's timing all day.

Then off we went in search for a notary whose office was open. Of course, there are kazillions of notaries but Nastya wanted to use one they were familiar with. Strike one, strike two. The third wasn't feeling well but was willing to do the notary work from her home office. We left papers there, went for a quick lunch and came back to sign the papers. Would you believe this notary already had our names in her computer because she notarized things for us--in her office clear across the city-- when we were in Kiev last time. That just boggles my mind.

It was a long day but we accomplished way more than I dreamed possible. Thank you so much.