If only we could make this announcement with our expressions and emotions! Please just try to imagine how we reacted when they presented us with a little GIRL that is almost 18 months old!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The picture we saw of her we would guess that she was about 6 months old. She hardly had hair, just some light fuzz, and we couldn’t tell her eye colour.
We can hardly grasp this reality! We travelled over night on a train and arrived in Dnipro at 8:30 this morning. After doing some paperwork we went to the orphanage to meet this precious little bundle. She has big beautiful blue eyes and light hair. Her cheeks are the chubby kind that you just can’t resist touching/pinching. She was wearing a very cute bright yellow velour outfit. She can walk but she isn’t very steady on her feet. Her weight now is just less than 20 pounds. When she was brought in to the room she just stared at us. Most of her attention was on Kaiden. When Darryl and I tried to touch her hand she almost broke into tears. After standing and staring at us for 5 minutes they took her away and asked if we were still interested in adopting her! As if there was a doubt! The verbal health report that we have been given was similar to what they told us about Kaiden 3 years ago.
The baby orphanage here is home to about 80 kids. It seems clean and the workers were rather friendly today.
The plans now are to visit her daily from 9-11 each morning. Our driver/landlord will be picking us up each day at 8:15. We know the first week spent visiting is difficult because we are all getting familiar to each other, but we are sure looking forward to it.
Here in Ukraine the Winter Holidays start tonight. That means that we really don’t have any paperwork getting done for the next few days. It is possible that the social workers, orphanage director, and judge are all on holidays until Jan. 8th. Things will have to proceed after that. But for right now, we are okay with just getting acquainted with our daughter/sister.
Since we now have a daughter instead of another son we really don’t have the name decided. Yes we were caught a little off guard! Hopefully by the end of tomorrow’s visit we will have a name for her. Darryl is going to try and get a picture of her tomorrow and we will post it ASAP.
As for freezing on the train overnight and living in a “different” apartment we will save those details for a later blog or share them once we get home.
At supper tonight Kaiden asked if we liked it here in Ukraine better than in Canada. We told him that we liked Canada better. He replied I like it better in Ukraine. Darryl explained that Grandma, Grandpa, Aunties, Uncles, cousins, etc. are all back home. Kaiden simply stated “Well my sister is here and that is the most important thing of all!” We wonder how fast he will change his tune.
Well, for only seeing her for five minutes today we could ramble on and on, but we must go to bed and get ready for our first true visit tomorrow!
THANKS again to everyone for the prayers, comments, and messages! Once again we truly feel blessed!
YIPPEEEE!,
Jeremy, Darryl, Kaiden, & ?????? Deck
