Chosing a Second Child

End of Day 13...or maybe 14

Anyway, it's time to explain about child #2.  It turns out that we can’t adopt “out of region” without a whole separate dossier.  Apparently, it 's so much paperwork for each adoption that Oleg (our adoption facilitator) only does adoptions from one region at a time, so he never mentioned that we might want to have a second dossier.   If we had made a second dossier, we could have chosen from among a whole SLEW of little ones and this would have been much easier.  But, as it stands, we are limited to Region 10, Kiev Region, since we have only one dossier.

We were hoping, since Ruslan is going to take a lot of time and care, to find a child with minor special needs.  Like the beautiful little girl listed on RR who has no more problems than a deformed head!  That is the sort we were looking for.  But, the upshot is that since so many people adopt from the Kiev region, there are very few children left that are not REALLY INVOLVED.  The vast majority of the kids we saw were hugely disabled.  I just don’t know how I can handle two kids in a wheel chair at home, let alone HERE while waiting for their passports. 

There were just loads and loads of children with nothing more complicated than a cleft palate, but they are “not in Kiev region” and therefore not available to us. 

In the end, we asked for more information on two children.  One is the blonde boy (Sullivan, on RR who looks so much like Ruslan) and the other has a “nervous condition” that was really undefined.  We wanted to know if Sullivan has a chance to ever walk (not likely) and how involved the other boy is.  Nadya called Friday morning with a positive report about him (he can walk, talk, feed himself and follow basic directions) and also found out that they are both in the same orphanage in “Boyarka.”   So, we went Friday afternoon to the SDA and got a referral and papers to see one of them on Monday, although we can check them both out while we are there.  My heart just bleeds for “Sullivan” and “Jordan.”  They both seem so adorable and who will take them??  But, I can’t really disagree with Bill that two disabled children is a bit much. 

We will have to see what happens on Monday.  

As it stands, this is now Saturday morning here.  I am going to take a few kids to visit Ruslan and teach a new family how to navigate the subway/bus system while Bill stays home and catches up on his work.  I think we are going to take Sunday "off" and stay around here for a day.  Then Monday, off to Boyarka to choose a new son and on Tuesday, Bill leaves.  He has to go back to the states for a meeting for work and he'll be back on Saturday.  

Note to self:  Do NOT tease Bill about abandoning his wife and small children in a foreign country.  He will NOT laugh.  You'll just get a stricken look and solemn silence. ...I have to think of something (quickly) that I want to guilt him into doing so that this opportunity does not pass me by.  Perhaps he will fix the swing set while he is home....