[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

[GCS]

Great news! We cant wait til the day you can post pictures of your sweeties!

Get some rest!

Christina

[MamaChinch]

Oh Jessi, how wonderful and exciting! I am SOOO happy for you! Prayers for a speedy return! Get some rest now, because you will need it when they get home!! :-)

[Shay]

How exciting!! I can't wait to see pics!

[becky26]

Sounds like a great trip! Congratulations! FYI - I would talk to the agency about the time spent with the kids. For various reasons, we did not spend much time with our referrals either. But the coordinator clearly told us that this is not what the judge wants to hear. So, we had to bend the truth a little and we said that "we spent time with the child over several days". I guess it all depends on the judge!

[ophelia72]

Jess, get some rest! What a whirl wind. I am so happy for you. I truly appreciate you sharing your story and my thoughts and prayers are with you! I will send a prayer to St. Anthony he is the patron saint for children and they will be fine and treated with love until your speady return.
XOXO

[kretzklan]

I'm happy you are home and had a nice trip and loved those kiddos. It sounds like your coordinator was a class one jerko. Sorry about that. As someone mentioned above, many judges(regions?) have a set amount of time you must spend with the kids. We saw our children for 3 days - 2 hours per day and still had to "stretch" the truth for the judge and she got very specific...I think she knew something was fishy!
I hope that it all goes incredibly well from here on out!

[kretzklan]

Hey Jessi - I tried to PM you and your box is full!

[Jessi_76]

Thank you SOOOOOOOO much, everyone!!! I will try to post some more tomorrow...it was quite an adventure overall...nothing like I had expected, really.

Becky & Michelle ~ I really appreciate the advice too, about the length of visit to the baby home. They told us that each hour counts as one visit. :roll: Whatever! Not to an excited parent, it doesn't. I'm glad to know what may come up with the judge though. We were in the orphanage for a total of four hours approximately, but probably only two or slightly more with the babies. We will go back the day before court to see them again.

Ophelia ~ THANK YOU for the prayers. {{{hug******

MamaC ~ Amen to that!! I can tell with these two there will be no rest for many, many years. And I'm looking forward to it.

Shay, Christina, & anyone else who is interested, if you would like to see a picture, pm me with your email address and I can forward you one.


Have a great night, and thank you so much for your shared excitement and support!!

xoxoxo

ps)
Michelle ~ I cleared out some of my inbox.

[MamaChinch]

Jessi ~ just an add-on to the length of time, on our second trip we saw the kids before court, and the SW included that in the amount of time we spent with the kids for the judge. We were even considering printing out those pictures for our court photo album, btu we were told that wouldn't be needed.

[Jessi_76]

Thank you, Cyndi! Perhaps they take into account that the orphanage is a six hour drive outside of the city as well?? Not sure, but hopefully we'll be fine too. Printing out the pics from the day before court is a great idea! Maybe we'll try to do that if they feel it's necessary.

Have a great night.

[MissDaisyofTexas]

Jessi--

Congratulations on an awesome first trip!!!!

[angelkisses0102]

Great news...can't wait to hear you have a court date and see pictures of your little ones! Congrats on a successful first trip.

[SingleMiamiMom]

Congrats on meeting your babies...Hope you are reunited soon!

[Jessi_76]

Thank you, guys!!

It will be lots of fun when the kids are home and I can show pictures to all of you. I love seeing the picture parades; it will be fun to contribute. And, it's a wonderful way to give hope to waiting families.

Have a fantastic day! I'll try to come back later and post part 2 of our Siberian Journey...some CRAZY things happened, let me tell you.