Moritz Adoption

Wow! I spoke with the gal who met "R"! :)

And she really made me want to meet this little girl. It was so
absolutely wonderful to speak with this woman. She told me all about
the conditions in the children's hospital, the food, the hotel
apartments, the medical exams, everything! We talked for about 45
minutes. They are adopting 2 little girls (siblings), ages 20 months
and 3 years old. They have a 3 1/2 year old little boy at home adopted
from Russia. So she knew her stuff. She said "R" is so cute and such a
sweet little girl and that she would have adopted her herself if she was
still available. "R" appeared serious but something about her made Deb
just love her. She said she just wanted to make her laugh. She has big
brown eyes and a captivating mouth (that's what she said). She walked
very confidently and moved around efficiently...sometimes children in
this type of setting don't. She said "R" was VERY into the honey
flavored teddy grahams that they had brought for their daughters. :)
She appeared very healthy to her. She got so excited when she was
telling me about this little girl. I was so honored that she wanted to
tell me about her. I wish I could tell Dan all of this but he's flying
to India right now!

Deb also told me a bit about the setting. The children's hospital
appears very clean. It is being used because the orphanage is
completely full. So all the children are going to the hospital right
now instead. The hospital is overcrowded as well. She didn't see any
toys so we'll be sure to bring some along. The older girls are
protective of the younger girls. They appear to have plenty of food and
don't seem deprived. Deb and her husband had 3 visits with their
children. The first was about 30 minutes long (way too short she
said). The second two visits were about 1 hour each. On the first or
second day they did their medical exams. We have to see 7-9 specialist
doctors. I guess that can be rather comical. They went with 2 other
American couples so they survived together. She said much of that time
was spent waiting. She said it was never real uncomfortable or awkward
but that occasionally cleaning people would come empty the trash while
she had her shirt off or her husband was otherwise unclothed. We had a
good laugh about that. She said she didn't worry about safety. The
needles feel like razers going in though when you get blood taken.
Guess they're a bit rough on that front.

The hotel apartments we're staying in sound lovely. So that's a plus!
The food sounds like it was great too.

Oh yeah, and here's another good tale for ya. Dan and I did our
syphilis test today and had to talk to our dr's about it a few weeks
ago. They thought we were crazy for needing another one. Sure enough,
today our agency tells us that Russia no longer accepts the U.S.'s
syphilis test. They only want to do it themselves over there (they
figured out they could make more money that way I guess). So today's
test won't count. I may as well not even bother getting the results
back. We have to have a syphilis test over there. Dang! This stuff
could really make one lose their mind after awhile. But you just gotta
laugh....it's one step closer to getting the child.

Our appt with the international adoption doctor is Thursday afternoon.
I got in way quicker than I have before! I guess they understood me when
I said it was kind of urgent. We have one picture of "R" (that I drove
2 hours to get this afternoon!) She is cute...big dark eyes like "L".
She has quite the bow on in the photo. :) But she appears healthy.
I'll be curious to hear what the doctor says about her. I don't know if
they can tell much from one full body photo. I think "L" and "R"
definitely look related.

So, thank you for the continued prayers. We really feel like God put
this couple in our path for a reason. I realized after the call tonight
how much I was beaming when Deb referred to "R" as "my daughter". I
wasn't even sure if I wanted to go down this road until now. I guess
I'll be making a trip to get some Teddy Grahams........

posted by Dan @ 10:02 PM