I forgot to mention in the last post that we’re blogging these in Moscow time so the date & time of the posts are 9 hours ahead of C.S.T.

What an eventful day!   Pashe picked us up at the apartment at 9:15 a.m. to go meet Svetlana at the CSS office.   While there, Svetlana assured us that the little boy they had selected for us was just perfect.   She was very proud of her selection, saying that he looks very much like his new daddy.

While at the CSS office, we made fast friends of another couple, Keith & Debbie from North Carolina, who’re here on their 3rd trip to take their new son home.   They offered up lots of great insights from the other end of this whole adoption process.

We went from there to the Ministry of Education (home of the smallest elevator in the entire world - no kidding!) to get our referral.   The MOE director presented us with a very early photo and some basic history & medical details.   Keith had warned us not to be alarmed by the horrible baby photo that we’d be given and sure enough, we’ve decided that the same people who do DMV photos in the U.S. must be responsible for the photos of the children in the Russian adoption database.

We left the MOE and traveled about an hour out to the southern edge of Moscow to the Podolsk baby home.   Here we are in front of the baby home:

Rob & Dede at the orphanage in the Moscow region


We met briefly with the doctor, with Svetlana & Pashe translating and guiding us through some basic information - he’s 20 months old and very healthy.   We were given slipcovers for our shoes and led upstairs to a little area with a couch.   One of the orphanage caregivers arrived with a sturdy little fellow (weighing about 25 lbs.) in her arms and just as simple as that, we met our new son!   Everyone kept commenting at how much he looks like Rob.   We were prepared for him to be cranky since they had just awakened him from his nap, but he was very alert and happy.   He didn’t hesitate at all to give me a big hug and even went to Rob right away.

As you know, we’re not allowed to post photos of him yet.   He won’t be officially ours until after court and the 10-day wait.   Then you’ll be sick of looking at all of the photos of our little guy.

We were so nerve-wracked last night, neither of us got more than an hour or so of sleep, so we should rest well tonight.   Then we’re off with Pasche early tomorrow morning back out to the orphanage to spend a couple of hours playing with our son.   (That still sounds so weird to say!)
 

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