On Sunday, our first full day in the capital city, our driver took us on a great little tour of part of the city. We went to a fabulous history museum. We also drove by the adoption dept. I'd seen so many pictures of it as well as so many pics of the beautiful church directly across the street. It was surreal to see it all with my own eyes. It was even more surreal to go back on Monday and have our own adoption appointment and to get a referral for our our girl!!! Her file contained very little info, but on Jan 20, we were thrilled to accept her referral. We went back to the adoption dept on Jan 21 to pick up the official paperwork that would allow the in-country process to really begin.
After we picked up our referral paperwork on Jan 21 we had dinner with three other lovely families, one of which we learned lives only about 30-40 minutes away from us in NC! They'd adopted four children from this country and were back to adopt two more. After our meal, we hurried through the beginnings of a decently big snow storm to grab our bags and board the overnight train for our girl's region.
We arrived in region about 6:00am. We were exhausted after little sleep and running on adrenaline. Our facilitator and driver took us to a store to grab something for breakfast, and then we headed for the apartment where we'd stay for the remainder of our time in region. We had just over an hour to get cleaned up before we'd leave the apartment and go to the regional social worker's office to get more paperwork taken care of before we could go to the orphanage. That meeting went well, and we were off to the orphanage.
Pulling into the orphanage driveway for the first time was so exciting. I knew our girl was inside those walls waiting on us to show up so she could meet us. I couldn't think much about myself because I was thinking so much about her. Was she excited? Scared? She knew were were coming.. that she'd be meeting us that day. She'd been kept home from school while all her friends left for a typical day. Her day would be anything but typical.
We met with the assistant director and some other personnel. We spent about 15 minutes going over her file and at the end of their little briefing, we were asked if we wanted to meet her. Of course we said yes!!
We were escorted into a very hot green room. Luke and I sat there with our facilitator waiting. Just a few minutes later, I glanced over my shoulder through the doorway, and I saw her walking toward the room where we were sitting!! For the first time, I laid eyes on my sweet girl.
The first few minutes were awkward. She was a nervous wreck. We were, too. We gave her a few gifts including a phone (for her own translation app, games and music - a glorified iPod) she'd been wanting. We got our first huge smile and a 'Thank You' in English.
I remember that one of the first things I said to her (that the facilitator translated) was "We're nervous, too." That seemed to put her at a bit of ease. We chatted for a few more minutes. Then our facilitator asked her if she wanted to be our daughter.
She said yes.
Our facilitator left the room with the other personnel to begin the paperwork process, and for the first time, we were alone with her. There wasn't much talking. We were all nervous and lost trying to figure out the best way to communicate. But it wouldn't take long.
Oh yeah... and her name was Anastasia "Nastya."
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