Backpost #4

This morning we were up early and K and Mark headed to the ticket office to try to secure tickets for tonight. No luck. They were told to check back 6 hours before the train was to leave, so either at noon or 3 depending on which train we wanted to take. At this point, any train sounded good. Mark and I stayed in the apartment while K went to do some scanning for other families. We lounged around—I read “The Princess Bride” while he watched soccer highlights on TV. We caught up with Kostya a little later and went to the ticket office to check on tickets—still nothing. Then Mark and I went exploring while K stayed in. We wandered all over looking for free wireless internet since we still hadn’t been able to post or email to let everyone know what was going on. We didn’t have any luck with that, but we did find lunch at Mister Snack where we were able to point at what we wanted to eat. We got two delicious sandwiches and had a great time hanging out. We wandered by O’Panas and the Opera House and took pictures. Then we stopped by the ticket office to again check for tickets, but since K wasn’t with us we called him once we found the office and he spoke with one of the workers. The woman who handled the train tickets was still out at lunch, but the other worker gave us a phone number to call her a little later on.

When we got back to the apartment, K waited a bit then called the ticket office. They had found 3 tickets for us on the 9pm train so we hurried over to the office and purchased them. On the way back, Mark and I stopped at an internet café to try to post to the blog. We were unsuccessful as Internet Explorer kept shutting down, but we sent an email to my mom with the login information for her to post on the blog for us. Hopefully she was able to do that.
When we got back to the apartment, we packed up as much as we could and waited until it was time to pick up our referral papers. When we got to the SDA, K picked up our papers and we left, but had to go back again when he realized they hadn’t given him any contact information for the inspector. He got that info and called the inspector right away to make sure we would be able to meet tomorrow. After his conversation with the inspector, we received more information on the boys. They have been on the registry since March, but no families had been referred to them until us. Apparently, when the boys entered the system, the SDA called the orphanage director and asked about the boys—health, etc. She gave a very negative report—so bad that the SDA did not refer any families to see these boys because they didn’t believe they would be adopted. However, a little while ago the local social worker who had seen the boys in court (when mom’s parental rights were terminated) called the SDA and asked why no families were being sent to see the boys, as she felt they were of normal enough development to be adopted. At that point, the SDA decided to offer the boys to a family, and that family was us. K also said that apparently the youngest one doesn’t talk. We’re not sure what’s going on with that, so it should be an interesting meeting tomorrow.

I think right now I’m just nervous about meeting the boys, as I know how hard it will be to say no if we need to. Tonight should be a good night’s rest as we are on the train and it always lulls me to sleep.