Day 4 Vorzel-meeting some more orphans

We were so happy to get back to the orphanage to see Kara, they had her in a pretty little dress and she was clean. We noticed her left hand had a rash on it, looked like she sucked on it a lot, it was pretty chapped.

Kara; she seemed to have distinctive moods, either rough and grabby, pulling on clothing, hair, noses, or feeling the need to move; rock, jump, and she loves the rocking. She has a worm rocker which she loves dearly; we wonder if we can find one at home. It was so much fun to see her on it, looking so strong and happy.

We were worried that day about our money, we handed over all of our agency fees the day we said yes to adopting Kara...plus the $320 for the apartment in Kyiv, we paid for our room for a week in Vorzel $490, and the inspector wanted an additional fee to expedite her paperwork.

We were down to under $1,000 and feeling desperate, we truly needed the grant money from GOAF, but my son said the check was not in yet. Money issues would plague our adoption in Ukraine, everything was so much more than what we were told.

Our son Fred Fed-Exed the grant money to us in Ukraine, the fees to do that were $130 (around that). Tom traveled to Kyiv to get it a few days later. whew, it was a relief.

We had another HUGE issue where money was concerned, we were told the orphanage wanted a $1,000 donation, we were shocked. What transpired after that revelation made us wary of the very people we counted on and we lost faith in them. Seeing the sweet children at the orphanage that day was heartbreaking. Little Roma kept calling us Mama and Papa and we learned that he was the boy they asked us about at the SDA, he was aging out of the baby house that spring and they loved him so much, they wanted him to have a forever family.

Meghan and Roma hit it right off, they even looked like one another, the same sparkling blue eyes and wonderful happy smile. I knew that Tom did not want to raise another son, we had 4 sons already and truly wanted only daughters. Still, he did capture my heart. I know the perfect family will take him home very soon, and I am thrilled for him and for them.

The little brunette, Svetlana, would look up at us with hopeful eyes, she had a melodic voice and such an endearing smile, but when Kara was brought out to us, a veil went over her eyes and she got this vacant stare.

Sasha who was sitting behind Sveta, had FAS and she was somewhat wild and often hit the other children. All the children hit one another, so it was not unusual, she seemed so smart though, but she often had to sit with the caregivers.

The playing at the orphanage wore Meghan out, and all of us had runny noses and sore throats, we got a Sprite to see if it would sooth our throats. Meghan claimed it for herself, but we had a little, I do not drink soda.

I had a hard time sleeping that night, I could not stop thinking about the other children in the orphanage and I was mad at their parents for putting them there. They all had hopes for a forever family, but having special needs meant not many adoptive parents would want them. I had spent enough time in adoption listservs to know that parents wanted children with correctable defects, and of course FAS, Down syndrome, and FAE were not. How sad for these kids, just heartbreaking.

My back hurt from the beds in our small room, I felt ill, and I was feeling betrayed and wary of our situation. It was that day I realised folks in Ukraine thought all Americans were rich, of course they would think so, just getting to Ukraine was costly, but we were and are just ordinary middle class folks, something they could not understand. All in all, it was an emotionally draining day. The only plus was having Tom and Meghan there with me and seeing Kara.

We had only been in Ukraine one week, we were both a little scared.