Stahlke Adoption

The Appointment Continues Tomorrow

We arrived at the NAC building promptly at 2:30 and walked to the third floor. We were ushered to the end of a long hallway and met Valentina, who is Masha's colleague. She was there with Natalia, who served as our translator for the appointment.

After waiting about thirty minutes, we entered a room with three tables. We sat at the first one, with a woman whom they referred to as our "psychologist." She asked us to introduce ourselves formally (name, where we live, our occupations) and then wanted to know the nature of our request. She then brought out four very large red notebooks with pages of information on available children (about one page per child) who were part of sibling groups. Each page included a photo and basic information about the child, all enclosed in plastic sleeves. Paperwork on each sibling group was linked together with paper clips.

For about an hour, we leafed through all four notebooks to pull out groups of pages for sibling groups of four or more children. Sometimes the paper clips had become detached, and we had to consult Natalia to read the pages and group the children again by family name. One time, I even found a child whose information was about twenty pages removed from the rest of his siblings. The majority of sibling groups were two or three children, as we had been told. But the groups that were four or more numbered about twenty-five.

We decided to look only at groups of five or six, and during that deliberation Natalia eventually asked us which group was our first choice. By then it was 5:15 and the NAC was closing soon. There were some items of information that the paperwork did not include and when the psychologist tried to telephone the orphanage, their offices had also closed. So they told us they would telephone the orphanage in the morning, and that we should arrive tomorrow at 9:30 to continue our appointment.

Assuming that we make a decision by tomorrow on a referral, the NAC will complete paperwork (mostly a letter of introduction) that gives us permission to meet the specific group we have chosen. That letter will be ready about 3:00 pm tomorrow. We will then travel on Friday morning (possibly on Thursday evening, depending on the location of the children).

Thank you for your support, as indicated by your interest in reading about what we are doing. We also appreciate your prayers as we go through this tremendous experience.

posted by Stahlkes @ 3:06 PM