Rousseau Adoption Journal Day 2

Day 2

We were supposed to be picked up by Helen and Slava at 9:45. They finally made it to the hotel at 10:05 due to a big accident on the way. Another Moscow day is under way. HAHA

When we arrived at the orphanage for our meeting at 10:30, we were told that our soon-to-be daughter wasn’t there! They had taken her to the hospital! Extreme fear was creeping in while we waited for the translation that was slowly coming out. Turns out that after we left yesterday, the hospital called and 4 of the children had to go in to get their annual tuberculosis test read. For some reason, the orphanage didn’t notify our agency to post-pone our arrival. While we waited, we were able to show one of the staff the pictures we had brought of Brittany and Kaylen. We also had pictures of our house in Colorado and some of the hiking and camping that we had done there. Also, while we were waiting, we were able to see the room where Olga lives. She has a tiny locker and bed all to her own. She’s #11 on these. Inside her locker is all her clothes – all of the set she has on her body and another set! Her little pink shoes she was wearing yesterday were in the bottom as, we found out later, she was wearing her snowsuit and boots because it is so cold out.

This

Ally's bed is the last one on the left, right in front of the nurse.

Helen

Each child has his or her own locker. Helen and Pete are looking at #11 (Ally's).

The

These are the tables where the children eat thier meals.

Olga finally arrived at 10:50. She broke into a big smile as soon as she saw Tracy & I. That said, she was a little shy/hesitant about coming up to us. As I did yesterday, I stayed back a little so I didn’t scare her with the unaccustomed male presence. While I took pictures and talked with Helen about the Russian language and alphabet, Tracy & Olga played with a couple of toys we had brought with us that day. I joined them a couple of minutes later. I wanted to spend a little time as well, since we were told that we could only be together until 11:30. At this time, same as yesterday, the children use the restroom and clean up before lunch at 12:00. A few minutes before 11:30, Olga laid her head in Tracy’s lap. At first, we just thought that maybe she was tired, but no. When Tracy picked her up, she rested her head on Tracy’s shoulder and nuzzled her head into her neck and was softly crying. She sensed we were about to leave again and was trying to get as close as possible! She wouldn’t even go back to her room with one of the staff members. Tracy and I walked upstairs and had to bring her back to her group. You should’ve seen the look on her face when we were leaving!!! That beautiful little face with a tiny tear rolling down her cheek waving bye-bye was adorable. Tracy blew her a kiss and she tried to imitate it. She kissed her hand, blew it to us then looked down at her hand to figure out what she just did… precious beyond words! When we had to walk out and close that door, I truly think it would’ve been easier to rip our own hearts out of chest with our bare hands and jump up and down on them!!! I’m still not sure how Tracy stayed composed throughout it all.

After we left the orphanage, we had to go back to the hotel and pick up our U.S. money so we could go to the Cradle of Hope office and pay our fees. This covered our humanitarian aid fee, state fee, 4 ½ days of driver and translator, 2 airport transfers & a service fee.

This

Cradle of Hope's office in Moscow. Don't ask me what all the writing says.

Last thing we did was head over to Old Arbat Street for some souvenir shopping. Helen knew a good shop that was indoors and was relatively cheaper than some of the others. We bought a bunch of matrushka dolls and other items.

Not sure what we’re going to do for dinner tonight… if it’s really good, we’ll let y’all know!

We miss everybody!!! Talk to you later, Pete