A Great First Meeting

It took us 12 hours by train to get to Odessa (Southern Ukraine) from Kiev this morning. The train made a ton of stops along the way, but we managed to sleep for a few hours. We got in so early that our facilitators arranged for a young couple to sit with us at McDonald's for a couple of hours before they came to drive us another hour to the orphanage. When we arrived in the small town where the orphanage is, we picked up a Social Worker who took us to see the little boy. We waited in a room full of chairs that faced a podium. It looked it was set up for church, but it was just a meeting room. Thankfully we had brought things to do with him and give him. He was brought to the room by one of his caretakers. He walked in the room shyly and we immediately gave him big hugs and kisses. He has very short brown hair (not blonde like I thought I'd seen in the old, unfocused photo at the State Dept.) with brown eyes and seems tall for a 4 year old. He looks more like a little man, than an old toddler. I handed him a car carrier, car, and key that had all kinds of cool gadgets on it. This was the focus of our attention for a while. He and all the adults in the room (Paul, me, our facilitators, the social worker, and some other orphanage workers) were trying to figure out how the key makes the car run and how the car carrier pushes the car out! He loved it! Then we got out a koosh that he kept pulling on and saying that it looked like a hedgehog. Then we played catch and soccer with it. He seems to have great fine and gross motor skills and be able to speak well in Russian!:) He kept trying to hold back his smiles and laughter, which was so endearing. We were with him for about an hour and then he had to leave for lunch and nap so we said our good-bye's and he thanked us for the gifts. Afterwards we met with the doctor who gave us all "healthy" reports for him. Thank you God! At the end of the conversation, Paul asked the doctor if the little boy wanted to be adopted and the doctor replied that all the children want to be adopted and talk about when their mama and papa are coming to bring them home. We will go back to see him tomorrow.