Day 4- SDA!

This morning we both woke up super early.  We didn't have to be out of the apartment until 11, but at 4:45am the sun begins to rise, and our curtains aren't exactly black-out quality.  We are pretty much bathed in bright orange sunlight much earlier than should be allowed.

We attempted to iron our clothes for our SDA appointment, but found that the iron in the closet was broken.  Bryan spritzed water from the iron  onto his shirt and then flattened it out the best that he could.  The hair dryer here works, though, so at least I had that under control.

We had enough time to stop by the convenience store and buy a coke and some juice (I thought it was orange, but it was like a orange-grapefruit-fruit-punch hybrid).

Nikko called on our cell phone (which the RR team provides you with when you get in country pre-programmed with everyone's numbers) around 10:40 to say that he would be here to pick us up at 11 and where to meet him.  He was really really nice, and gave us some more background information about the city as we drove through. He took us to the SDA, but we were about 45 minutes early, so he told us that we could walk around by the vendors and he would wait for Yulia.

Here is a great place to get your Matroishka dolls, t-shirts, beautiful scarves, embroidered clothing, paintings, etc.

When we were done, Yulia was already here, arranging paperwork.  She is totally easy to understand and had everything prepared and waiting for us.  Nikko had given us a copy of our dossier earlier for us to take to our region with us, and she had all of our original dossier documents with her.  We waited on a couch in a little hallway until Yulia called us upstairs in to a small office.

There was one woman in the office, and we sat on a small couch surrounding a table.  She asked us (yulia translated) about where we lived, what we do, and about our family.  I brought out our photo book to show pictures.  She asked why we wanted to adopt a child with special needs.  I loved that we had our photos there to share, because it was just easier to show details.  Oh, we also had to show our passports while we were there.

The SDA lady was really nice, smiling at our photos and asked things like if we had a park behind our house.  She then took our Danil's file and we got to see 1 photo of him when he was about 20 months old and one of him from about 6 months ago.  She went over a brief medical history, and told us his parents' names and their brief history.  We learned that he has a sister who lives with his birth parents.

After she was done with his file, she told us that our referral would be done between 4-5pm tomorrow afternoon!!  And that was it :)  All in all, we were in the office for maybe 15 minutes.  And just like that, we are officially committed in the U government's eyes to Danil.  No one else can step in and sweep him up.  It feels good to be official!

Yulia sent Nikko to make copies of some of our documents for the referral, and Nikko sent us to have lunch in a small pizza cafe accross the street while he did that.

We ordered pizza and a cup of borscht.  Pizza was very thin crusted and had spicey salami and yellow peppers on it.  The borscht was like a good vegetable soup- it reminded me of my grandma's. More importantly, the waitress did't speak English, but we muddled through it and had lunch!  (the menu was translated, though.  Funny thing- one salad had listed "lettuce, onions, and cheese with blue mould."  Normally I like blue cheese, but put it that way, and now I'm not so sure!)

Nikko met us in the restaurant as we were finishing up, and then took us to the train station where we bought our tickets to Danil's region.  It was 1060 rph, which is about $132 for 2 first class tickets on the overnight train.  That means we will have our own compartment, which is probably a good thing not to be in a small compartment with 2 other people for 8 hours.  Just saying that the expectation for showering and washing clothes over here is a little different than what we are used to.  Nikko said that we might like our own compartment because "U* people like to drink a lot."  LOL.

He took care of finding the right train, speaking with the ticket person, and letting us know when he'll pick us up tomorrow to get our referrral and to take us to the train station.  He said he'd be sure that we get on the right train, too :)  He dropped us back off at our apartment and now we have the rest of the day to relax, do some more walking, and hit up the buffet restaurant again with the Moniers and possibly the Hazeltons.

Thank you for all your prayers and support today!  Next up:  pray for a quick court date, a successful court date, and the ability to skip the 10 day waiting period.  Even though we are enjoying our kid-free time here, it would be so nice to have an expedited reunion with ALL members of our family together!