Our First Day Together

Our first day together as a family went very well. Of course we are struggling with communication, but everyone (including Nathan) is taking a good attitude toward the language-gap. We have even developed some inside jokes, some of which are carried over from our trip in April with the Clarks (“Nip in the Nile”) and others that are developing naturally within the dynamics of the five of us (Nathan loves to make Sam and Jessica laugh by making funny faces at them!). We have had some pretty good laughs.

The time at the orphanage was taken up with meeting the social worker and the “Inspector” who will both write reports and appear at court on Wednesday, making their recommendations. We met in the orphanage director’s office. Tanya interpreted for us. We were read a medical history for both children, and wrote statements to the effect that we knew their history and we still wanted to adopt them! The meeting went very well (I think we passed!), and then they fed us lunch. We had prepared Nathan (who is very picky about food) to accept and enjoy whatever they put before us, and he did (tasting the fish, enjoying the soup and filling up on bread)! He is being really great; we are so proud of him! After lunch, we unpacked the huge duffle bag of clothes we brought from home for the children in the orphanage, and then took our leave.

We didn’t take many pictures yet. The first of us as a family is posted below. We’ll be putting up more, so keep checking back here. The dial-up internet connection here in Penza is very slow (14.4 kbs) so we won’t be doing much in the way of website updates, so the blog will be our main vehicle. We’ll try to send out an email to everyone after our court appearance.

I (Glen) woke up at 4:30 this morning and have not been able to go back to sleep, so I got up and wrote this. Shifting from California time to Russia time is hard! The time difference in Moscow and Penza is +11 hours, so 4:30 AM is for my biological clock 5:30 PM! Needless to say, we will probably get adjusted just in time to fly back home and do it all over again!

We played Yahtzee last night, among other games. Both Sam and Jessica took to it well, as did Nathan. We were a little concerned that Jessica might not join in, but she did without a hint of hesitancy! Sam, of course, is a gamer and we are going to have quite the challenge to keep him entertained.

We were supposed to leave Penza for the orphanage at 10 AM yesterday, but Tanya (IGAA’s legal rep. in Penza) got hung up somewhere and we didn’t leave until 11. Tanya was telling us that since April, Jessica has been calling her at least once a week to get an update on the adoption proceedings, being very inquisitive and learning pretty much how it all works. Since she knew when we were planning to arrive at the orphanage and we missed that appointed time, we got a call en route from her to make sure we were still coming! When I hugged her for the first time (this time), I could feel her let off a sigh of relief! She had been worried that we were going to change our minds! You can be praying for her and Sam, that God would begin to heal their wounds of abandonment and rejection. We have our work cut out for us, but God is already at work!

More to come!

Blessings,

Glen, Cyndy, Nathan, Jessica and Sam