Final Day at Orphanage

Today was hard. We had to say goodbye to our son. We met the judge today and answered some basic questions. It looks like we will be able to return for court on March 23rd, which is great. This is an unordinarily quick turnaround for a court date. We are still waiting on one piece of paperwork required for court so pray that we get this document in time!

Here is a picture of the orphanage. We have been told that there are approximately 100 children, ages 2 months through 3 yrs. You would never know it though. We have been there several times and it is very quiet. We rarely hear or see other children. We have been able to peek in his room where there appears to be around 15-20 other little ones. They are broken out into rooms based upon age. Each room seems to have roughly 3-4 women caretakers. They do a great job and seem to care deeply for these children. They are doing the best with what resources they have, which doesn't appear to be many.

We had two visits at the orphanage today and they were great (except for the fact that we both nearly vomitted upon entering the building due to the smell. Don't quite know how to describe the smell, but it takes some getting used to). He was in a great mood as usual. He smiles at nearly everything and everyone. We must have disrupted his napping schedule because he was very sleepy.

Got in our first car accident of the trip as well. Although, as you will see from pictures of the traffic, it is amazing that we didn't hit another car or pedestrian; instead it was a hand rail.

Tonight is our last night in the region and we will return to Moscow tomorrow morning. We will do some sightseeing and then return home on Sunday. We'll post more pictures tomorrow in Moscow when we have better internet service. Can't wait to see you all.

Shane and Teddi