Exhausted

Thanks to those of you who posted! Sorry I didn't write last night. We have been running around NON-STOP for the passed two days. It's difficult because Rodion is 1 1/2 hours from Berdyansk.

So, I will first let you in on something we found out earlier in our process. We were told that Rodion was mildly mentally retarded. I didn't want to share that because history has shown that these children are "labeled" for unknown reasons, so I wanted to wait and see for myself what he was like. I'm SO HAPPY to report that he is amazing! There is NOTHING wrong with him (that isn't wrong with 99% of all teenagers in America!!). We were nervous about meeting him....what would we say?! When we arrived they told us he was in the infirmary because he was having an allergic reaction or something. Primo and I along with several "officials" went to where he was. He had no idea we were coming. I admit that it was a case of love at first sight for me. He looks very much like Dasha and shares many of the same mannerisms. We had a very relaxed steady flow of conversation with him. He was glowing. He shared with us that he had heard last summer that Dasha was being adopted by an American family. He has not seen her in seven years and misses her very much. Our facilitator, Victor, asked Primo and me if we wanted to go outside to discuss whether we wanted to adopt him. We said, "No, I think we've already decided!". So Victor asked Rodion if he wanted to be adopted by us and he said, "Yes, very much!!!" As we left he shook Primo's hand and I of course went in for the hug!! :)

Victor spent the next 3-4 hours gathering paperwork at the orphanage. Let me explain something to you about this place. The Molachansk orphanage is in a small village and is surrounded by pasture. Cars are scarcely seen. Most ride old time bikes or walk. It's a step back in time. Primo said that if there were ever a picture of utter despair, that would be it. The orphanage had no running water when we were there. The kids swarmed us like we were celebrities. They ran to us as if it were Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. Talk about heart breaking. Most had shoes that were barely holding together. They commented that this place was their world. They don't know anything outside the walls of the orphanage and beyond the pastures. They asked how far away America is....is it nice? They fought over the few pieces of gum we had in our pockets. One girl wrote a note to me that said she had no parents and no family. Someone looked over her shoulder and said, "You have a brother and grandmother..."and she replied, "but they don't love me." You can't in your wildest immagination picture what we witnessed there. Horrendous. We literally drove out into a field to get a signature from the doctor.

Okay, so Rodion wrote his letter requesting to be adopted. He has changed his name to Michael David Sabatini (Sorry Sheila, I know you aren't going to like that!).

Today we ran the paper chase all day. It was critical that our documents be completed and sent to Kiev in order to get permission to go to court. Ukraine has holidays next week and government offices will be closed. We finished the papers in Berdyansk around 5pm and took off for Tokmak to get Rodion's paperwork. We checked at the bus station in Berdyansk to see what time the bus would be in Tokmak. We literally out ran the bus in order to get the documents and meet the bus to get them to Kiev. We did it with time to spare!!!

Another exhausting day!!! Tomorrow we get to sleep in!!! Yeah!! There is more paperwork to be done, but not as bad as the last two days....I hope! We should be able to get Dasha tomorrow since she won't have classes. We didn't see either children today.

I'm sure I've forgotten many many things, but hopefully we'll be able to sit down and recount these stories when we get back. For now I'm hoping to get some rest. Oh! If you're wondering, Dasha didn't end up going to see Rodion (Michael) with us because she had to finish her medical report here. I will let you know how their reunion goes when it happens. I'm sure that will be difficult to put into words.

That's all for now....more to come!