From one child to the next ... wow
We waited all morning Friday for a call that the paperwork had been legally stamped and was ready to be signed, in order for us to officially visit our other referral, the little girl in Cherepanov. By 11;20 a.m. it still was not stamped and signed, so they told us we may as well go visit Ruslan.
But during our visit with Ruslan, at about 2:20 p.m., our adoption agency rep came in and said the paperwork had been signed and we must leave immediately to go and sign the papers at the Dept of Education and then leave for the baby home in Cherepanov, which was 2 hours away.
What a rush. We slept most of the trip to the baby home, in what was a very poor city about 110 km south of Novosibirsk. The blight in Russia is apparent everywhere actually.
When we got there, we quickly interviewed the doctor about Yana, and found out she had been taken from her mother at age 1, due to neglect. The house was filthy, the baby wasn't being fed properly, and the mother had been drinking during and after childbirth. Like with nearly every adoptive child here, they termed her development 'delayed'.
We met with her for the next 1 1/2 hours and had a good time. Once we bribed her with toys to like us, she played with a princess puzzle, an annoying phone with multiple rings (I'll need to get used to that sort of stuff), and even the tape measure that we used to measure her head circumference. As you can see in the photo, here Fran is measuring her own head and asking Yana to read the tape for her. Yana gave her the measurement in centimeters, which caused quite a problem for Fran, who had asked for the measurement in inches. A scolding ensured, and then an argument between Fran and Yana over America's inability to fully embrace the metric system, and as it got even uglier, I had to leave the room to avoid the catfight.
But during our visit with Ruslan, at about 2:20 p.m., our adoption agency rep came in and said the paperwork had been signed and we must leave immediately to go and sign the papers at the Dept of Education and then leave for the baby home in Cherepanov, which was 2 hours away.
What a rush. We slept most of the trip to the baby home, in what was a very poor city about 110 km south of Novosibirsk. The blight in Russia is apparent everywhere actually.
When we got there, we quickly interviewed the doctor about Yana, and found out she had been taken from her mother at age 1, due to neglect. The house was filthy, the baby wasn't being fed properly, and the mother had been drinking during and after childbirth. Like with nearly every adoptive child here, they termed her development 'delayed'.
We met with her for the next 1 1/2 hours and had a good time. Once we bribed her with toys to like us, she played with a princess puzzle, an annoying phone with multiple rings (I'll need to get used to that sort of stuff), and even the tape measure that we used to measure her head circumference. As you can see in the photo, here Fran is measuring her own head and asking Yana to read the tape for her. Yana gave her the measurement in centimeters, which caused quite a problem for Fran, who had asked for the measurement in inches. A scolding ensured, and then an argument between Fran and Yana over America's inability to fully embrace the metric system, and as it got even uglier, I had to leave the room to avoid the catfight.
posted by The LeForts | 10:33 AM
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