Look at this sign, this was taken from the main road and points the way to the baby home #17. It is nestled among several other apartment buildings in a neighborhood type area. On this particular day we did not get to go to the music room with Connor because there was some sort of meeting going on in there. So, we got to go downstairs to a completely different room. It was an odd room with paneling on the walls, a small couch and not much else. It seemed to have been decorated in the 1960's, I sort of felt like I was in the Jungle Room at Graceland. (If you have been there then you know what I mean!) We did get a peek in the room that was adjacent to where we were. Here is what we saw.
It appears to be some kind of physical therapy/sensory type room for the children. While we were there they brought a few children in and then closed the door so we couldn't watch them. We were told that all the children get a chance to go in this room a few times a month. I thought it was a pretty cool room actually. I wished we could have taken Connor in there on our visit though, that ball pit looked like a lot of fun!
Then they finally brought Connor out to us! We let him sit on this little horse, he wasn't too sure what to do with it though!
Love those two bottom teeth!!
This giant bear was in the corner, I just had to get a quick picture of him by it. I don't think he saw the humor in it though! He looks a bit scared.
At the end of this visit we started to get a little sad as we knew we only had one more visit left until we had to leave for home without our baby boy. As we were leaving on this day we were greeted by a most handsome man as we were walking out the doorway. It turns out he was the orphanage director. (You always hear about these people, delays are always blamed on them. They tend to be mysterious people to adoptive parents.) He was quite tall and was wearing a blue suit. He had sandy brown hair and the most gorgeous green eyes. He carried himself quite well, like he was somebody of importance. He introduced himself to us, shook our hands, and asked if we had any questions for him. No, we didn't. We were in shock, it was if the president or the pope or somebody was standing in front of us. Our translator asked him about the lapel he was wearing on his suit and she later told us he had a position in Parliament. I'm not too sure exactly what that means, but evidently he wears a lot of hats over there. We met him again at court in May, he was still as handsome then as he was on that cold March day! We were quite impressed, he made a good impression that's for sure! I am sure he is enjoying (or has enjoyed!) the nice expensive bottle of liquor we brought him on our court trip. (
Haha! Wink, wink) In the end, if it got Connor home a few months earlier it was surely worth every penny! Around this time we realized it was because of the relationship this man had with Alla that we got to meet Connor before he was one (a big "no no" in Moscow) and it got to count as our first trip. In May we learned that because Alla knew him we got court bumped up earlier because this man would be on vacation in June. If we didn't have court in May we would have to wait until September for court. She convinced him to have court earlier rather than later. I didn't mind too much when we were asked to bring a gift for his daughter and wife on our third trip, that backpack and bottle of perfume were worth getting Connor that much earlier. We for sure had angels watching over us through the whole process! (I know some people might look at these gifts as "bribes" but it is true that in Russia they are looked at as "gifts". In fact when we were with
Svetlana we gave her a box of chocolates as a gift for staying with her in addition to what we paid her. She rushed to her room and gave us a box of chocolates for Travis. Gift giving really is a part of their culture.)
Look at this sign, this was taken from the main road and points the way to the baby home #17. It is nestled among several other apartment buildings in a neighborhood type area. On this particular day we did not get to go to the music room with Connor because there was some sort of meeting going on in there. So, we got to go downstairs to a completely different room. It was an odd room with paneling on the walls, a small couch and not much else. It seemed to have been decorated in the 1960's, I sort of felt like I was in the Jungle Room at Graceland. (If you have been there then you know what I mean!) We did get a peek in the room that was adjacent to where we were. Here is what we saw.
Then they finally brought Connor out to us! We let him sit on this little horse, he wasn't too sure what to do with it though!
This giant bear was in the corner, I just had to get a quick picture of him by it. I don't think he saw the humor in it though! He looks a bit scared.
At the end of this visit we started to get a little sad as we knew we only had one more visit left until we had to leave for home without our baby boy. As we were leaving on this day we were greeted by a most handsome man as we were walking out the doorway. It turns out he was the orphanage director. (You always hear about these people, delays are always blamed on them. They tend to be mysterious people to adoptive parents.) He was quite tall and was wearing a blue suit. He had sandy brown hair and the most gorgeous green eyes. He carried himself quite well, like he was somebody of importance. He introduced himself to us, shook our hands, and asked if we had any questions for him. No, we didn't. We were in shock, it was if the president or the pope or somebody was standing in front of us. Our translator asked him about the lapel he was wearing on his suit and she later told us he had a position in Parliament. I'm not too sure exactly what that means, but evidently he wears a lot of hats over there. We met him again at court in May, he was still as handsome then as he was on that cold March day! We were quite impressed, he made a good impression that's for sure! I am sure he is enjoying (or has enjoyed!) the nice expensive bottle of liquor we brought him on our court trip. (Haha! Wink, wink) In the end, if it got Connor home a few months earlier it was surely worth every penny! Around this time we realized it was because of the relationship this man had with Alla that we got to meet Connor before he was one (a big "no no" in Moscow) and it got to count as our first trip. In May we learned that because Alla knew him we got court bumped up earlier because this man would be on vacation in June. If we didn't have court in May we would have to wait until September for court. She convinced him to have court earlier rather than later. I didn't mind too much when we were asked to bring a gift for his daughter and wife on our third trip, that backpack and bottle of perfume were worth getting Connor that much earlier. We for sure had angels watching over us through the whole process! (I know some people might look at these gifts as "bribes" but it is true that in Russia they are looked at as "gifts". In fact when we were with Svetlana we gave her a box of chocolates as a gift for staying with her in addition to what we paid her. She rushed to her room and gave us a box of chocolates for Travis. Gift giving really is a part of their culture.)
No comments:
Post a Comment