Tuesday, March 22, 2011

So now we know for sure - there is food poisoning in Kiev! Lucas got hit pretty hard over night and Jeanne and Dave had minor occurences. We have narrowed down the culprit to dry soup mixed with tap water.  It's been a funky day after a sleepless night.

We did manage to get ourselves together and go to the SDA to pick up our referral letter. That particular office does not open until 4:00 PM (or until tea time is over).

The cool thing is that the half-hour wait afforded us the time to meet and talk to other adoptive families from the States. (There were other families waiting but somehow we only talked to the English-speaking ones....). A couple from Louisville KY and a woman traveling with her young adult son from Salt Lake City, UT.

Tomorrow morning we will go with Viktor to the juvenile services office to present the letter from the SDA (referral letter) that gives us access to the orphanage to meet Sasha for a supervised visit.

On Friday we alluded to some topics to be covered in a future blog - here goes:

Official renaming of Oleksandr Koshevyy:
        Last Friday Igor pulled aside and told us that if we were going to give Sasha a new name it had to be done that day. The social worker was leaving town for 2 weeks and she needed to prepare the documents before she left. We had known since last summer that Sasha wanted to change his name to Jason but since we arrived last week he said no, he wanted to be called Justin now. With Igor transalating (and Tatiana and Natasha present as well) we presented Sasha with 4 options one of which he could choose: Oleksandr (Sasha), Paul, Joshua or Jason. Such a weighty time! He chose Jason. The official records will show his name to be: Jason Sasha Ritzman.

A high level family meeting entertaining 8 more adoptions.
           We were having dinner last week and the 3 of us were talking about how we could adopt all of the children. Each of us felt exactly the same - that we want to bring home and join to our family any or all of the children unspoken for. Together we remarked how amazing the children at Cradle of Children's Hope are. Even though the language difference is a barrier it's pretty easy to see their individual tempraments, gifts and abilities. These children get a lot of help and intervention. From group therapy sessions to classes taking place right in the orphanage there is an equipping of them that draws out their strengths.

The impact of new admissions.
         During our initial tour of the orphanage we were taken to 3-room area specifically for newly admitted children. Upon admission the children are quarantined and examined for things like illness, affliction, lice and behavior issues. After a period of time (or, we guess, when beds are available) they integrate and join the rest of the children. During our tour these children were sleeping (it was afternoon naptime) and then we saw them at the concert given last week. The children were brought into the performance room and sat in the chairs where we adults sat to watch their future friends perform the concert. These stunningly beautiful children are a sibling group with 1 girl (guessing she's 8) and 2 boys (maybe 5 & 6). They looked frail and withdrawn especially with their heads shaved.


We are hoping and praying the delay with the SDA does not push our court date past our scheduled flight time back to the states. We will ask Viktor tomorrow.