Emotional Rollercoaster....

We want to apologize for the delay in updating our blog. The last 2 days have been very emotional for the both of us with many highs and lows...where to begin?

On Monday morning we arrived at the Ministry of Education at 10:30am to receive our "child referral." Up until this point we have had absolutely no advance information on the child that we were being matched up with because Moscow Region is considered a "Blind Referral" region. We learned of a boy who was 25 months old and located at an orphanage (Baby Home) approx 1 hour outside of Moscow. The only information provided to us at the MOE that morning was his name, age, the fact that he was a little mentally delayed (which is normal for children in an orphanage), high blood pressure, and a little underweight (again, this is normal for children in an orphanage setting). Very excited to meet this little man, we loaded into the car with our Driver (Sergei) and our translator (Tanya) and headed out through the CRAZY Moscow traffic to the orphanage. We also had a local pediatrician that we hired to meet us at the Baby Home to do a medical physical on the child.

When we arrived at the Baby Home we were met with a very unpleasant reality....The beautiful 25 month old boy we were matched with was very, very sick. Upon reading through his medical records we learned that he was diagnosed with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and was experiencing "heavy" mental and social delays. We were told that he spends the majority of the day crying by himself and would most likely never fully recover from this condition. This information was absolutely devastating to hear. At the advisement of the pediatrician we had to make the gut wrenching decision to decline the referral, as we are just unable to properly care for this special child with his current condition. This was a decision that was very, very difficult to make.

We then drove back to the MOE to discuss the situation with the social worker in hopes of receiving a second referral for another child. We were told that due to the current economic conditions in Russia, many local Moscovites have started fostering babies to supplement their lost income (if they are unemployed) from the Government. This is a practice that was started in 2007, but has never been as popular as now considering the current economic climate in Moscow. As a result of this "fostering" program, many young babies are currently unavailable to foreign families. We were told by the MOE that there are no more children under the age of 24 months available for foreign adoptions in Moscow. (note: Orphaned babies are not available to foreign families unless they have been on the National Adoption Registry Database or at least 8 months. This allows Russian citizens "first dibs" at their own children). For the second time in less then 10 hours we received news that we did not want to hear. This was by far the worst thing that could have happened to us over here. On Monday night we were mentally preparing ourselves for the reality of possibly heading home without an accepted child.

Our adoption facilitator here in Moscow started making phone calls on Monday night to all of the Baby Homes in the Moscow Region in hopes of finding another child that was available and off of the National Database registry. We were asked to return to the MOE on Tuesday morning for an update.

Tuesday morning we arrived at the MOE with our translator and waited for an update. After a wait that seemed like hours (but it was probably only 15 minutes), we were told of an 8 month and 1 DAY old boy who just came off the database that morning. He was located approx 1.5 hours outside of Moscow, but because of a recent bout with bronchitis, he was not currently at the orphanage, but at the local hospital for treatment. We were told that orphanages are very quick to get any child that is sick to the hospital, rather then to allow them to get the other kids sick in the orphanage. This was great news to hear, but with what happened on Monday we approached this with cautious optimism. We were eager to drive out to see him right away, but was told that the director of the hospital would not be available to speak to us on Tuesday and that our trip out to see him would have to wait until today (Wednesday).

Big Day #2....

After a very restless night sleep, we woke up early this morning in anticipation of meeting our second baby referral. We actually convinced our driver and translator to allow us to take the Moscow Metro (subway) into the part of the city to meet them to help cut down on the traffic congestion that we would face. Riding the subway was great. And if you ever had a question as to "How many people can you squeeze into a Moscow subway car?" the answer is "Always one more!" No...seriously....no joke.

We arrived at the Metro station to meet Sergei and Tanya and we headed out to the hospital to see the new little man. We had the same pediatrician meet us to perform another medical physical on the baby. We arrived at the hospital at 11:00am, paid the 14 rubles to buy 2 pairs of required "booties" to cover our shoes and we headed up to the 2nd floor.

This was a day that the two of us had envisioned in our minds over and over again for at least the past 10 months. The thoughts of....will he cry when we hold him?.....will he laugh?.....will he be healthy?.....how will we react?....

Today was amazing! We walked in to a very small hospital room with 5 full cribs and to make a long story short.....We ACCEPTED the referral and we now are one step closer to being a family of 4.

The baby is great! His medical review and physical was all "thumbs up!" from both our hired Russian pediatrician, and from our local pediatrician at home.

Tomorrow morning we will officially sign the papers accepting him as our new son at the notary office and will file the necessary legal paperwork to petition the court to make this official.

What a day.....We are going to bed....It is currently 10:07pm.