Snow Flurries, Second Visit to Orphanage, and a return to Petro

02 Oct 07, Tuesday, Airtau & Petropavlovsk, Kazakhstan (entered 3 Oct)
Major event of the day: Snow Flurries, Second Visit to Orphanage, and a return to Petro

We slept much better without our neighbors giving us the late night disco or early bumping around. All I can say about the accommodation is that it’s pretty Spartan and reminds me of an old college dorm, but the food is very good and inexpensive. If it is what the children are used to eating then we won’t have any issues.

We didn’t leave the hotel to wander around this morning. Instead we did some reading and relaxing while we waited for Masha and Sasha to come pick us up. Bill was putting the finishing touches on a slideshow for the children we met yesterday. Besides, we were still stuffed from yesterday’s feast.

Last night was a long and hard evening for us. We talked for several hours after returning to the room. We had a lot to think about now that we knew there was another sibling and that we now know the mother comes to visit every other week or so. Although Svetlana tells us that everything is clear with the courts for these two and that she would have no problem supporting us in court because the mother’s parental rights were terminated for good cause, we decided to let the children make their decision. If they are the children we are looking for, then it will be clear.

A month ago, when we were given the update that the children wanted to be in a family, we had not realized that they still had hope in reuniting with their own maternal Mother. We could see that they had come to a decision and were confident in their decision. As heart breaking as it was for Bill and I to hear. They have “hope” and are optimistic that they will reunite with their Mother. We could not take that away from them and will keep them in our prayers.

Although it was only a short distance to the orphanage, it was a very long ride for us. Although their answer was not what we wanted to hear and we could have told the director that we wanted them anyway, that was just not the right thing to do. Had there been no mother in their lives, we would have pressed forward. All we could do was to wish them well and give then a couple small gifts that we had brought along.

It was also a hard for the director and his assistant. The orphanage is in a small town over 40 miles from the next city, and there are a lot of children, around 175, hoping that some day someone would come for them. They want some success stories too.

The children we are looking for are not in Airtau. All we could do was go back to the hotel and pack our bags for the return trip to Petropavlovsk. It was a long trip with little talking. Our children are out there, we just have to find them.