Day 6 Meeting Dasha

Today has been such a great day!  It started off early because we thought our facilitator, Sasha, was coming to our apartment at 8:00 and we wanted to make sure we were ready and on time.  Sasha lives 11 hours away and took an overnight bus to Donetsk.  The bus was running behind and so she never arrived until 9:30.  Then she had to take a quick shower and get ready and we were out the door at 10:00 am.  Our first stop was the social worker's office in Makiivka.  Her name was Natalia and she met with us briefly before accompanying us to the baby house.

This is the building where the social worker's office is located.

On the way to the baby house, Sasha told me that Dasha was supposed to be transferred to a place called Mariupol this morning with two other boys from her orphange.  Oh how thankful I am that we were here today and she did not have to make that change.  As we approached the baby house, I began to recognize the brightly colored playground equipment that I'd seen in so many photos.  We pulled up to the building and there was a group of about 10 kids walking with a nanny.  I immediately spotted Dasha.  I couldn't look at her for very long because Sasha and the social worker were leading us into the building.  We went straight to the deputy director's office.  Her name is Ludmila and she was a very nice lady.  Apparently we would normally have met with the executive director, but that person was on vacation this week.  Ludmila's telephone was ringing off the hook so we just sat nervously waiting for her to finish her calls.  She called for Dasha's file to be brought in and while we waited, she asked us some questions about why we wanted to adopt and she thanked us for coming so far to get Dasha.  Once the file arrived, she began telling us all about Dasha.  We got tons more information then we received during our SDA appointment.  About 5 minutes into the meeting, the door opened and there stood Dasha in different clothes than what I had seen her in just a few minutes earlier.  Ludmila motioned for them to close the door because we weren't ready.  They must have waited outside for us because when we opened the door to go find her, there she was.  There were six adults all staring at this little girl and she just started screaming.  Ludmila picked her up and tried to settle her and I brought her a doll, but she wasn't interested.  Norm suggested getting the bubbles and that did the trick.  She loved them!  I blew some and then let her try.  She was blowing so hard that I was covered in bubble solution pretty quickly.  She warmed up to Norm so fast.  He was acting silly and making her smile by blowing up a balloon and letting it go flying all over the room.  She even gave him a hug!  It was ADORABLE!  We looked at the photo album I made and she was very interested in the pages with Matthew, Sammy and Caleb.  We tried telling her, "Mama, Papa, Dasha" and touching each person as we said the name.  She would nod her head and smile.  We realize she understands none of this, but it was cute.  She is so totally adorable and it took every ounce of control not to squeeze her. :)  When the visit ended, she gave us each a hug.  Sasha asked her if we could come back tomorrow and she nodded her head yes.   We ended up only getting to spend about 25 minutes with her before she had to go eat lunch.  It wasn't long, but we enjoyed every second of it.  Of course, we immediately told them that we wanted to adopt her so we could get the paperwork started today.  Sasha told us that the orphange staff told her they hoped we adopt Dasha because they think Norm looks like her papa.  When we left the baby house we went straight to the notary to have a few papers notarized (yes, we're still notarizing)  and then we were dropped off at our apartment and Sasha continued to work on paperwork all afternoon.  I am so excited for our next visit and can't wait to see Dasha again in the morning.