Monday

One week from today

...I will be a nervous wreck getting myself ready in the morning, convincing myself I need to eat even though I’ll feel like I’m going to throw up.

...we’ll meet S from our agency who I feel like I already know!

...we will have to make the big decision of whether or not to get into the world’s smallest elevator at the Ministry of Education (MOE) or walk four flights of stairs.

...we will no longer wonder who the little boy is that is about to steal our hearts.

...we’ll know what orphanage we’re going to.

...we’ll get to meet the fabulous Dr. M that we’ve heard so much about.

...we’ll be hoping and praying that this little boy is relatively healthy so that we can petition to adopt him.

...we’ll no longer have to guess what color hair he may have or the color of his eyes.

...we’ll have to agree on a name and we won’t have to say “Well, let’s see what his Russian name is first”.

...will be one of the hardest, most emotional, most rewarding, most exhausting days of our lives. But I know it will be one we’ll never, ever forget.

So what does happen on our first business day there? I know I often assume that everyone that reads our blog is adopting, but that is far from true. Obviously, since I’ve never done this before I don’t know exactly what happens, but here’s the general idea.

~ Our driver and translator pick us up and take us to the CSS office to meet with S.
~ S talks to us a bit about what to expect at our appt with the MOE.
~ We head to the MOE and they present us with written information about our referral as well as a picture (which, rumor has, is typically very outdated).
~ We agree to meet the child and head to the orphanage.
~ Once at the orphanage, we meet with the orphanage director and/or the orphanage doctor. We ask lots of questions. Dr. M also meets us there.
~ They bring our referral in to meet us and Dr. M does a thorough evaluation.
~ We spend some time with our referral (how much time depends on the orphanage, the child’s schedule and the time of day)
~ We head back to our apartment and upload pictures/video and send medical info to Dr. Johnson at University of MN.
~ We try to sleep while deciding whether or not this is the little boy that is meant to be our son. (Actually, let’s rephrase that. Keith sleeps (snores) while I decide whether or not to kick him constantly and wake him up because it’s not fair that he can sleep when my mind is going six million miles an hour.)

So there you have it!

I’m pretty much packed, with the exception of shoes. That’s always the hard part for me. I was convinced I was bringing 2 pairs – one to wear with dress pants, one to wear when just walking around but I’m not sure I can only bring 2 pairs of shoes. That would be a record for me.

Happy Monday!
Becky