Saturday, December 18, 2004
Day 4
Today we got up at 3am to be ready for our translator and driver to pick us up
at 3:30am. They arrived on time and we packed our luggage into their car and
took off. The roads looked icy and for part of the trip we saw snow coming
down. We were on unlit backroads most of the time and doing 100km/hr +. We were
passing cars left and right. We spent so much time on the left side of the road
that I was beginning to think we were in England. I was expecting a few more
gray hairs to appear on this trip but I wasn't expecting the chest pains I got
a couple of times during the six hour trip to the orphanage. The more time we
spent skating down the left hand side of the road passing cars, the more I was
expecting to meet Jesus today. I could feel myself perspiring as I wondered if
death was going to be painful before meeting Jesus. Well, we survived the trip.
We met with the orphanage doctor who told us about the little girl we had come
to see. She said the girl was born at about 25=26 weeks. She talked about her
delays. We were shocked when she mentioned that they suspected the girl was
mentally retarded. It was sad and frustrating for us. The National Adoption
Center had said nothing about this to us. It would have saved us driving for 6
hours to the orphanage and 6 hours back. We visited with the girl. She did not
respond to us. She was in her own little world. She did not respond to noises
Cindy made. She did not maintain eye contact with us. It was sad. We signed a
document stating we had seen the girl and listing reasons why we decided not to
adopt her. We drove the 6 hours back to Kiev with more stress. I did get the
driver to slow down some. We were physically and mentally exhausted by the time
we got back to Kiev. We are now at a different apartment. It is very nice. We
received information from our translator that we will have another appointment
at the National Adoption Center on Tuesday. With God's help, this appointment
will go better. Please pray for us.
at 3:30am. They arrived on time and we packed our luggage into their car and
took off. The roads looked icy and for part of the trip we saw snow coming
down. We were on unlit backroads most of the time and doing 100km/hr +. We were
passing cars left and right. We spent so much time on the left side of the road
that I was beginning to think we were in England. I was expecting a few more
gray hairs to appear on this trip but I wasn't expecting the chest pains I got
a couple of times during the six hour trip to the orphanage. The more time we
spent skating down the left hand side of the road passing cars, the more I was
expecting to meet Jesus today. I could feel myself perspiring as I wondered if
death was going to be painful before meeting Jesus. Well, we survived the trip.
We met with the orphanage doctor who told us about the little girl we had come
to see. She said the girl was born at about 25=26 weeks. She talked about her
delays. We were shocked when she mentioned that they suspected the girl was
mentally retarded. It was sad and frustrating for us. The National Adoption
Center had said nothing about this to us. It would have saved us driving for 6
hours to the orphanage and 6 hours back. We visited with the girl. She did not
respond to us. She was in her own little world. She did not respond to noises
Cindy made. She did not maintain eye contact with us. It was sad. We signed a
document stating we had seen the girl and listing reasons why we decided not to
adopt her. We drove the 6 hours back to Kiev with more stress. I did get the
driver to slow down some. We were physically and mentally exhausted by the time
we got back to Kiev. We are now at a different apartment. It is very nice. We
received information from our translator that we will have another appointment
at the National Adoption Center on Tuesday. With God's help, this appointment
will go better. Please pray for us.
