Saturday, November 29, 2008

Missing a Visit


We still are without Internet in the room. It comes and goes and mostly it’s been going and not coming. We had it briefly yesterday morning, but not since. We have been able to put these blog posts on our memory stick and upload them from the business center downstairs. We haven’t been able to check email for a couple days however, so if we haven’t replied to you, it’s nothing personal.

Yesterday was really foggy. The weather had become much cooler and it had rained a little. Most of the day we had some of the heaviest fog that we’ve ever seen. It lifted a little bit in the late afternoon, but not completely. It was back by nightfall.

Also, we were unable to meet with the kids yesterday (Friday). As we were waiting in the lobby, our interpreter called the hotel to let us know that the driver would not be coming today. Our coordinator had another family coming in and they couldn’t locate the child that they were to adopt. As a result, everyone on his team was working on solving that problem and the driver was not available to take us to the orphanage. They called later Friday night to let us know that all was well and that they would be here at 8:30 this morning to take us over. This morning, we learned that the child was there, but the paperwork was all-wrong and had him being adopted by a different family. They were able to get it solved.

We went over to the orphanage today and the kids didn’t know we were coming this morning. The interpreter tried calling the orphanage several times last night but could not through, the line was busy. Hence, the kids didn’t know why we didn’t show up when they expected us yesterday afternoon. This had us very worried. You see, the last time we were there (Thursday afternoon), Peter was ill. He was running a fever and had to blow his nose a lot. Just a normal kid head cold, nothing to worry about. However, when we saw him ill and in the infirmary on Thursday and then we didn’t show up on Friday, we didn’t want the kids to think that we changed our mind about the adoption because one of them was ill. When we arrived this morning, Kim was still sleeping. One of the caretakers went to wake her. She dressed quickly and came running and then we all went across the parking lot to the next building over which houses the infirmary. Peter’s fever had broken and he looks like he’ll be able to go back to the regular orphanage area soon. We only had about 75 minutes today even though it’s Saturday. The driver had to be back at the hotel at 10:30 to take a couple to the baby orphanage (which has a very strict schedule). On the way out, the driver stopped so we could take a few photos of Kim’s school.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi from your family in the USA Ohio. We are all thinking of each day and waiting to share all the new family experiances with Kim and Peter. Hope they like dogs, as Bandit loves kids and so does Lucky. Bandit spent all day with the kids in the basement on Thanksgiving, and was very content, but misses Luke and Beth. Mom M has been Christmas shopping looking for just the right gift for everyone. It it St Nick or Santa Clause for Kim and Peter? Do they have gift giving on Christmas say or on New Years Day as I read somewhere? Or we can do both.

The Merricks said...

Actually, I think it translates as father Christmas. Christmas in Russia is in the first week of January. We'll celebrate an American Christmas on Christmas day! We also need to have a birthday for Kim on Dec. 20th. Thanks for taking care of Bandit. Still no computer in the room...limited access to the one we are using... and it has a virus :-)

Anonymous said...

The school looks very dreary! Where is the color? It looks more like an american jail than a school. I'm glad the children are all getting along. Is Russian Christmas on Jan 6 which is the same day as Epiphany in the US? Also, do Kim and Peter know anything of religion or God?

The Merricks said...

Amy,

I believe that Russian Christmas is the 7th this year. I think I recall our interpreter saying that is is the first Sunday in January. Kim knows very little about God. On our last trip she told us that she was baptised as an infant (Russian Orthodox). They were found begging outside of the church by our hotel and that is how they got into the orphanage system. We don't think peter knows anything about God... yet. We were asked about religious freedmom in court and the court wanted to make sure that the children will have a choice. It seems that they don't understand that faith is always a choice... a very personal one between you and God.