If you break it, you buy it

You knew it would happen. Once the children knew that we had signed the paperwork officially accepting their referral, THEN their true colors would show.

At least Ruslan's.

This afternoon we met with him for the first time since our last visit in September. He was a blond-haired angel in September, always cheery, smiling, playing nice, quiet, offering to wash our car and cut our grass as soon as we got him back to the States ...

... but then today. Now that the paperwork is signed and a court date is Tuesday, and there is no backing out, Damien, er, Ruslan turned over a new, bad leaf. As soon as the caregiver introduced him to us, he began crying loud enough to be heard throughout all of Siberia (sounds carry further in vast areas of nothingness). He acted as if he never had met us, turned red as a beet, and just wailed for the first 30 minutes of our visit, wailing that could be stopped by no toy, no word, no treat, no nothing. He was giving us a brief glimpse of what LWR (Life With Ruslan) will really be like, now that it was nearly official.

I immediately went looking for our agency representative, asking for a discount on our adoption fees, since our contract specifically called for a baby which did not pout, cry, throw tantrums, throw toys, spit up, make messes (inside or outside the diaper), and picked up all their toys at the end of the day.

This was obviously a breach of contract.

At the end of our visit with Ruslan, he whispered in my ear:

"You think today was a breach ... just wait until the long plane ride home daddy."