[Jessi_76]

Wow! Our children are absolutely AMAZING!!! I cannot even begin to tell you how wildly in love with them we are already!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm not sure I believe this, but we've been told by the in-region coordinator, that the adoptions are a 110% guarantee and that we can NOT lose our referrals. God how I hope she is right. Our agreements to adopt are notarized and at the MOE and our dossier is being reviewed by the judge or given to him, or something like that.

We only got to spend two hours, one day with them which was HEARTBREAKING. But, our agency in the States and their office in St. Petersburg is REALLY upset with the coordinator in our region because we were supposed to stay overnight and see them again the next morning before heading back to Krasnoyarsk. However, it may have all worked in our favor because they are dilligently trying to get us an early court date so we can go back sooner rather than later. Fingers crossed. We're DYING to get them home!! If it was a matter of going back in 6-8 weeks and seeing them once, or going back in 3-4 months and seeing them twice, we surely would have chosen to see them only once and go back sooner.

The little girl, who turned 9 months the day before we arrived at the orphanage, is an ABSOLUTE angel!!!! So well behaved and just loved us to death. She has the most beautiful eyes and truly seems at peace when she was with us...especially me, which of course melted my heart. The little boy, who was 18 months and 1 week when we arrived at the orphanage, was a bit shy, but super cute. He had a great personality and made loads of little facial expressions...he was like this tiny little man. He walks so tall and confident...it's adorable!! The chidren got along very well together, which was wonderful since it was their first time ever meeting.

The orphanage staff were all very hospitable and sweet. The one caretaker told us she has known our son since the day he entered the home and he is her "wonder boy." This was before we met him, and I began to cry...so did she!! It was such a moment. One of our daughter's caretakers told us that she is their "beauty" and they all call her "Miss Orphanage." The orphanage is nice and they seem to care for the children as best as they possibly could given the number of babies living there.

Now our coordinator is another story! Man oh man!! Our agency even told us that she is, "going to get in trouble," for the way she treated us. She, and I kid you not, told us that we cannot see the children a second day because we are giving them so much attention that they are going to begin to demand more from their caretakers than the caretakers have to give to them. And then, the next day, she told us that she was right, and she spoke to the orphanage director that morning, and the children already think they are special and are demanding more attention. Grrrrr...this highly annoyed me! We are there to meet them, bond with them, and give them attention...that's what adoptive families do. This lady was a wretch, and because of her, we are not staying the 10 days on the second trip...we don't trust that she'll take us back there. However, on the flip side, our translator was BEYOND AMAZING!!! We just loved her to death!!

I have SO many more stories to tell, but they will have to wait for another day. I am still utterly exhausted.

Have a wonderful week, everyone, and I'll talk to you all soon!!

xoxox
Jessi