Friday, April 3, 2009

We are definitely excited about our visit with Olga, pronounced Olia, the 4 year old girl we visited with on Friday. She is a very cute and shy little girl. She has some minor health issues that we will verify with a specialist in the states and she has slight delay in mental and speech. She is working with a speech therapist and is having progress. She was very shy and did not want to visit with us at first. However, by the time our 2 hour visit with her was over, she cried to have to leave us. She opened up to us and loved playing with Drew & Gabrielle. We all enjoyed her and Drew & Gabrielle just loved her. She was laughing and playing and was able to enjoy herself a bit more than she is allowed to with the children in the orphanage. We are staying in the city and will be visiting with her today from 4 to 7 and then tomorrow for a few hours. We hope that all will go well and we will be able to give this little girl a chance for a good life with our family.

Olga came to the orphanage when she was 1 year & 3 months. She was taken from her mother due to neglect. The child was very afraid when she first came to the orphanage. They said she was always putting her hands in front of her face. She had to be in the orphanage for 1 year without a visit from a family member to make her available for adoption, then the children have to be listed for 14 months for Ukrainians to adopt. After the 14 months, then they become available for international adoption. She just became available for international adoption and we were the first to be able to receive a referral to visit her.

We are in a different area, nothing like Kiev. The conditions are much poorer in this area, so we will be limited on our internet access. We will do our best to keep everyone posted about our progress. So, if all goes well, we will start the process next week for a court date and then return home for the 10 day wait period.

Thanks again to everyone. We will be in touch.