Back to the Beginning!

Today I went back to where it all started.  Where we first laid eyes on our Emma and Micah, and where they were raised until we brought them home.  On our way from the city we're staying in to the city that the baby house is in, we passed through another city that I sounded out the Cyrillic letters to as we sped past.  I asked the translator we had with us... is this right?  She said yes.  That was the city where Emma was born.  So today we not only went back to the beginning of where Michael's and my journey to our children began, but also the cities where each of our kids was born.

When we were on our way I was told by the contact that was letting them know we were coming that the director was not there, he was having a heart procedure done.  I kept thinking... I just need them to know who my children are, and they will understand why I've come back.  We purchased four big bags of diapers before going to the baby house, so arms loaded with these, we knocked and found someone that was filling in for the director.  She invited us in (eying the diapers) and took the call that I asked to make for our contact to speak with her.  The call didn't go through.  There was no cell reception!

She took the phone outside and we stood on the porch of the baby house while she spoke on the phone, then it was handed back to me.  He asked me the name of my children that we adopted.  Another caretaker or doctor came out at this time and handed another cell phone to the person we were speaking with then stood nearby.  As I told our contact the name of my children, the ears of the other worker perked up.  She then repeated it then said it to the others there, and I figured out by the look on their faces that this was all we had needed.

I pulled out the photo book that I'd brought along and showed them "Daria", now Emma... STANDING.

And yes, OH YES... I teared up.  They were all excited that we had come, and flipped through the photos, then welcomed us back inside.  We went straight back to the 'infirmary' area where both of our children had lived.  The pictures were passed around and explained again, and there wasn't much of a dry eye.  Two of the main caretakers of Emma were there and just kept exclaiming at how different and healthy and beautiful she is.  That Micah looked like a little professor, so smart with his glasses.

I could have spent just that time at the baby house and this entire trip would have been worthwhile to me.  WOW.  What an emotional morning, getting to see the shock and JOY on these ladies' faces.  Then I started pulling photos out of the album.  Several pictures I had multiple copies of.  At the end, I had only a few pictures left in the album, and most of the photographs stayed with the caretakers and doctors right there.

If that wasn't enough, we then went to visit other children in that baby house... two of whom have a family coming soon for them!  And two more that the main doctor that was there wanted us to meet and photograph and try to help find a family for.

There have been so many wonderful things on this trip.  Meeting "Monroe," meeting other adoptive parents and children that are going to be adopted soon, getting together with other parents raising their disabled children, meeting the OT working with the children, and the peace corp volunteer wanting to help as well, visiting the maternity hospital and having a celebration with the doctors there, visiting a baby house and learning of a child there that is available for adoption, and now... going back to the beginning and visiting with the people that raised our adopted children until we could get there.

Tomorrow is the Down syndrome conference in Kiev and Thursday we'll be flying back to the US.  It has been a wonderful trip... too short in many ways.  But I will be back soon for my sweet little boy!  And there will be more work to be done then too!


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