We got a tour of the orphanage today and saw each of the boys’ living quarters. Sasha is in a room with about 16 other cribs and Stasi is in a room with about 14 other toddler beds. We took pictures with caregivers and Sasha’s caregiver wrote him a letter. I cried when she brought it in to us. That is something to be treasured forever. Yelena is translating it for us so we will have both the original written in Russian and the English translation. We found out that when Sasha returns to his area, he throws himself onto the ground and cries for mama and dada! Tears welled up in our eyes when we heard this. When we went to see Stasi’s side, he was so possessive of us, yelling at the other kids to get away from his parents, especially dada. He was so panicky that one of the other children might take us away, he was sweating. Andy had to carry him around and reassure him that he was our little boy. Stasi was so incredibly sad today when we left. Yelena told him tomorrow he would leave the orphanage with us and he put his head on Andy’s shoulder and said, “da” (yes). We both had tears today as we drove away. It was our hardest departure to date.
The Bridge. This is the bridge that has taken us to and from our children over a dozen times over the past 6 months. Joyous moments of play, bonding, hugs and kisses, and heart wrenching moments of tears and good-byes. Today was the last time we have to cross that bridge and return back over it to our hotel without our children. Tomorrow it will be the bridge that brings us together forever. We will cross the bridge at 9:30 a.m. (6:30 pm PST) and return over it again around 11:00 a.m. with our boys. Then, we will forever be together as a family. To us, it is the most important and most beautiful bridge in the entire world.
3 comments:
I'm crying while I read your posting today because it hits home...Someday we hope to follow in your footsteps....and your description of the caregiver writing the letter and Sasha crying when you all have left...oh my goodness! Thanks for sharing all this in your blog today...I'm praying that everything will go well as you become full-time parents of your precious boys.
heather
Beautiful post, what an amazing picture you captured of the bridge and of course so much symbolism behind it...
Yes, I started crying as well when I read this particular post. There are no words. We are so happy for you guys and so glad that your boys already love you so much.
Annette (using Bo's account)
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