Today is The Day!!

I'm sitting here in the early morning trying to imagine what this appointment will be like. How will we choose? How will we say "no" to those we do not choose? I realize we are not personally rejecting them. But what is it REALLY that differentiates "the one" from all the rest? This is like nothing I've ever done before. The importance is overwhelming. And yet, I do not feel overwhelmed. I know that God led us here, and I know He will see it through. I have prayed almost all night long. We have friends and family in the States who offered to get up in the middle of the night (4am CST) to pray us through our appointment. We are ready.

. . . . . . .

Zhenia will be here shortly. He has prepared us as best he can for the appointment. The girls are excited. They will be with us, but they have things to keep them busy. We are to smile and be patient and let Zhenia do his job. We have our photo album just in case they want to see it. They may ask questions. They may not. We will see files of children who meet our age criteria. He says we will see boys, girls, and sibling groups of 2 (because we are approved for up to 2 children). We have 1 hour. He seems quite certain we will see "good kids."

. . . . . . .

Oh, where to begin! We walked up our street to St. Sophia cathedral, down a major street to St. Mikhail's cathedral, down a side street to the ministry which stands in the shadow of yet another church. We had a short wait - maybe 15 min. The walk did us good. Settled us with some exercise. They called us in about 10 after 12.

We met with the supervisor of the adoption ministry. Zhenia said this is a good thing. They are all good, but having the supervisor was especially good. She took out our dossier and asked one question: Why 3-7 years old? Why not 2? I was prepared for many questions but not that one. Thankfully, Cliff had a response - that we wanted to keep the child closer in age to our other children. We smiled, stayed engaged through all the translation, and she got up and went to get files.

She came back with about 5 files all recently made available for international adoption. Three looked interesting, so we took a closer look. We can't give details in a public format, so please understand. Then we narrowed to 2. The supervisor called the region for more information. We asked if there were any other files available. She brought back a binder of girls. We flipped through, asked about a few, and then we found her. The picture "spoke" to both of us immediately, and we asked for more information. It didn't take long to realize that this was the best match of the day.

We cannot tell you much about her. She is 6 years old. Her birthday is in November. She has a great smile and a terrific name. She lives in an city east of Kiev. I'll find it on a map and post it later. Zhenia says this is a good region to work with. We will get to meet her in person on Monday.

Next steps:

Receive referral papers tomorrow afternoon.

Travel by train to region overnight Saturday to Sunday.

Get settled in region.

Meet our girl Monday morning.

Make final decision about the match (Yes/No)

After our appointment we took a picture outside the agency, walked back past our flat, and to a Ukrainian cafeteria where Zhenia helped us pick out some "traditional" food. I'll post separately about that. Then he left to do more paperwork for us. Now we're back at the flat enjoying some down time.