SDA Meeting Complete. referral coming

As Colin said, we had our SDA meeting today. This is the entrance to the SDA. It is in a very nice part of the city with lots of old 1700s / 1800s style buildings.











It is next door to a beautiful church, St. Andrew's.










We got there a couple of minutes early and had to wait outside the gate. Claire wasn't too thrilled with that.














Once we got inside, the wait is in a very narrow hallway, with one sofa (and about 15 people). We only had to wait a few minutes.


The woman there was very nice. She looks like Pam from "The Office". She only spoke Russian, but clearly she understood (and presumably speaks) English.

We were only shown siblings. We saw no single children. I think this is partially due to our indicating willingness to adopt 2 siblings. Kind of like when I applied for a ROTC scholarship. I indicated desire to major in math or engineering. The Air Force needed engineers. They would not let me major in math. I think it is more difficult to get siblings adopted, so they will take that opportunity when possible. Can't really blame them. Also, we have heard recently that there are very few single children without significant health problems.

Besides all the kids we were shown looked very healthy. Very minor problems at most. Like astigmatism and myopia. And like most orphans, most had some developmental delay. We were expecting that anyway. Nothing of concern.

We probably overstayed our welcome a bit. We ran about 1hr 15 min. In the end, we had our facilitator call the orphanages to get more information. She will call us with what info she is able to get, and we will make our decision tomorrow (for a referral, that is. Not a final decision). Then, tomorrow afternoon we get our referral and Friday, travel to the orphanage to meet the children.

Yulia (our facilitator) is checking on 3 sets of siblings (2 boys, a boy and girl, and a girl and boy). They all have good information on their file. Hopefully, the file will reflect the situation correctly.

Water situation is slightly better. The girls had cold showers this morning, but Colin's and my showers were a bit warmer than room temperature (so that's probably in the 50s).

Thanks to all for continued prayer. We definitely need guidance in making the right decision for these children and for our family.