Travel Date

I don't even know how to begin this post. We've been waiting for "the call" for so long that I really think I'd resigned myself to believe it wasn't ever going to happen. But it did! My phone rang yesterday at 1:27 p.m. It's funny how I know exactly what time it was. I was sitting at my desk at work and when I saw the number of our adoption agency pop up on our phone, I immediately looked at my clock to see what time it was for some reason. Anyway, that moment will be burned into my brain forever. I braced myself for bad news; I think it was almost a post-traumatic response to having received such horrible news about Sergey back in March. When I heard our social worker's voice, I almost expected to hear her say, "I'm so sorry Tesney, but I've got some devastating news." That was exactly what she said when she informed me about Sergey. So when she started telling me that she had tentative travel dates, I think I was so ecstatic that I didn't even hear anything past that.

After a few minutes of squealing on the inside, I tried to get my thoughts together and write down the important details. We will be traveling for one week in August. We have three days at the orphanage with Kirill. We have been so blessed to be in contact with two other families who have recently traveled to this region; to the very baby house where Kirill lives! So we do have a good idea of what to expect there. We have been very pleased to hear that the orphanage is one of the nicest orphanages in the region and the director is "a breath of fresh air." I couldn't be happier that our sweet Kirill has been given good care as far as we can tell.

We also got updated medical records-no surprises there-they seem to indicate that Kirill is pretty healthy. There are a couple of things that I'm just a tiny bit concerned about, but nothing that can't be addressed once we are back in the states. Anyone who has experience with international adoptions can tell you that medical records can be quite inaccurate and you never really know until you get the child back to the states for a thorough evaluation!

We also got the full-sized files of Kirill's pictures. We already had the pics...the ones we have shared here...but they were thumbnail-sized and didn't really show all of his features well. So here they are again so you can get a better look at how cute Kirill really is!

So we are frantically getting things ready to travel in just a few days!!! It's crazy how you go from wait, wait, wait to GO! GO! GO! when you adopt. We have felt that this day would never come, so now that it's here it feels surreal.

Recognize This Face?

I got a Facebook message this week from another family who is in the process of adopting from our region. It included a link that had pictures of children from one of the orphanages. This picture of a little boy named Kirill was on the site. I'm almost 100% positive it's our Kirill as a baby. I can't be certain, but the ears are exactly alike. Plus, they have the date of birth listed and it's the same as our Kirill, except for the year. It's not uncommon for sites that feature pictures of children to have mistakes regarding birthdate years. Plus, I just can't imagine that there is another Kirill with exactly the same birthdate that looks so much like our Kirill and is in an orphanage in the same region. That would be a HUGE coincidence. What do you think??? I'd especially like to hear from my friends who have adopted from Eastern Europe.

I know I've been pretty silent lately on here. I just haven't had much to say. I could type volumes about how bad the waiting sucks, but that really doesn't do much to help the situation. It just makes me think about it more and believe me, I don't need help with that. We did hear from our agency that the Director of the Federal Database of Orphans has been on vacay and is was supposed to return this past week. We were told to expect him to take a week or two to re-orient and get organized after being gone on vacation, and then we would get our first travel date. I'm not holding my breath, but I'm hopeful. It's just become too hard to get focused on any date. At this point, I'll be happy if Kirill is home by the time he's 18.

So that's pretty much it for now. I'll update as soon as I know anything. I'm really better at updating on Facebook about the day-to-day stuff. So check there for more information! I hope to have some really good news soon.