Happy Mom n Dad Day 1

Sveta waited in the cold, outside the adoption SDA building from 3:00-4:00 on Tuesday, January 19th, to make sure we got the best place in line and soon after the office opened at 4pm we had our precious papers that gave us permission to visit Sevastopol and the girls!!!! Right outside the SDA building is a statue of a young man and woman courting, and it is good luck to touch the brass beetle on the man's clothing and the young woman's ring. Of course we made sure to do so each visit:)

Our apartment is a short walk past this beautiful church, St. Michael's, to and from the SDA and so we stopped for a moment to enjoy the beauty and said a prayer of thanksgiving after receiving our wonderful papers!! Then back to the apartment, final packing and being whisked off to the airport by our retired race car driving Igor and former engineer Sveta planning each movement perfectly. We can't sing their praises enough as they got us and our seven (yes seven!) bags of luggage onto the plane safely.

Flying into Simferopol late last night, we met our next brave driver, Kostia who came over black ice to pick us up at 11pm with a 1 and a 1/2 hr drive both ways to get us to our lovely (and did I say VERY Lovely) apartment late into the morning hours. What kindness and dedication we continue to receive from our facilitators!!

And now the best part!!!

Today, January 20th, at 11am we met with the director of the orphanage, a government official and with our facilitator/translator Galya, and soon after we met the two most beautiful girls in the world!!!!

We know you all are eager to see pictures, and we are sorry we cannot share them at this time. We still have many legal steps to take, and the Ukrainian government forbids us to post any pictures until these legal requirements have been met. We expect these requirements to take several more weeks at the minimum and so we appreciate your love and patience but as a poor second best we did post a picture of two of the happiest people you could want on their first day as Mom and Dad at the front of the blog. We are sitting in the director's office, glowing!!!! after much fun and joyful time spent with our two lovely hoped for daughters!

The girls were warm and friendly at our first meeting as they were told that morning about our interest in adopting them. They went to school knowing they were going to be brought back sometime during the day to meet us. They are very loving towards each other, showing lots of affection between the two of them and this warms our hearts greatly. The director of the orphanage is sad to see them go as she is very attached to them, but wants only the best for their future. We were very impressed by the director's sincerity and affection for the children and their best interest.

At just the right time, David pulled out the two matching stuffed soft and cuddly puppies we had carried in our suitcases from the U.S., complete with red ribbons. The girls happily accepted them, playfully interacting with them, making us laugh and smile! They surprised us with their knowledge of English, quickly saying "dog" even as we had practiced our Russian saying "Cebaka."

Next, the facilitator had us sit down on the couch, with the girls next to us. We brought out the matching photo albums we had prepared with pictures of David and me, as well as our beloved Cebaka - Gracie! We also had many more photos of ourselves, our home, their bedroom to be, complete with pink bedspreads and us holding their new stuffed dog/cebakas, and also photos of extended family. These photos had labels in both Russian and English, and they worked hard to read the English but did so quite well, proud to be able to do so. We were equally impressed, already proud parents:)

We showed them pictures of our lovely friends Angella (daughter of Len and Pam) and Elona (daughter of Roger and Kelley) who live in Cincinnati, but who had previously lived in Sevastopol, and who had written the girls letters in Russian, welcoming them to Cincinnati. They eagerly read the letters and looked carefully at the pictures of these two wonderful and beautiful girls. It again, made us so happy to have these gifts to share with them.

We also told them of the lovely book from our Wyoming girls, that we plan to bring on another day, and they hugged each other with great joy!

Finally it was time to say goodbye for this first visit, but we got to take some wonderful photos of this meeting which we will always treasure! Tomorrow we go back around 2pm after they are out of school and we will be allowed to visit again. We will bring books and games (thanks for the UNO and Yahtzee!!) and start our wonderful adventure as we all get to know each other over the next few weeks.

Again, thank you for all your prayers, love and comments - you are in our hearts each day!!!

Love,

Lorelle and David (aka Mama and Papa!!!)