I haven't posted any updates on what was happening a year ago in a week because, well, nothing happened for a week! We stayed in a B&B in Kiev and adored the family we stayed with. They were Christians, spoke English, and their home was a little piece of America nestled in to Ukraine. We also met up with a few people during this week of waiting-- Charissa and John had completed their adoption of Ava and miraculously had their 10 days waived and we were able to visit with them one evening. We also met Joy and her husband Kevin that were adopting Caleb from near Kiev and staying in the area. And Sheila and her husband Randy passed through and grabbed a quick bite to eat with us on their way to meet their new daughter, Lera!
We're so glad there were opportunities to meet people whom we'd communicated via computer with for so long, and to have some things to take our mind off the question of whether or not we'd receive Emma's referral... and whether they'd give us a second referral at the same time (or not).
Up until 'today' we had been told that there were no other children, just "Daria" (Emma's birth name) but when our facilitator called us to say to come to the SDA later in the day, he said he thinks there's a second child. When we met him up on that snowy hill he said there's a baby, and he doesn't know anything more. We waited again in the stuffy staircase until we were invited upstairs with the SDA translator, through a hallway and into a room that worked as a few office and into the small room in the corner where we again sat and faced the SDA worker and translator.
This time they asked us questions about why our first appointment didn't work out and when we answered them honestly- the director refused to sign off- they stated again "that's not legal". Yes, we know... but there's nothing we could realistically do to fight it.
Then on to the referrals. They laid down Emma's first, and attached was a picture of a skinny little baby wrapped in a big blanket that was being held up for a photo. She must have been somewhere between a week and a month old- still very tiny but more alert than a newborn. She had whisps of blonde hair and the nurse holding her up was holding her out all bundled- away from her body and upright. It was a weird way to take a photo of a baby!
Then came Micah's :) He had a little meat on his face and cheeks and had RED hair that stood straight up in the picture. I believe his was more just a photo of his head not his entire body.
We immediately said "yes" to both and were led from the building. We then met up with our regional facilitator to get train tickets for Sunday but none were available. She did get some over the weekend but we were in the 'cheap section' and it SHOWED...
Mike and I, specifically, had been praying for Daria for months and felt she was all but out of reach, so this was a huge answer to our own prayers that she would be coming home-- we didn't imagine it would be to us!! (though I see a great illustration here of how we often pray for God to DO SOMETHING but how often do we realize that He was intending for US to be the ones that do it? :) )
Wow!
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