Moscow and visitation

After about 10 min of trying to figure out how to convince the ipad it wants to have Internet in English as opposed to Russian, I think I am finally ready to blog....something. More of a process as I type on an insanely small keyboard. It's been a trip already. Our flights all went well, even JFK in New York City where we had only a 50 min layover to catch our next flight. The biggest issue was upon arrival. We had hired a car service to pick us up at the international airport in Moscow as our agency doesn't like to have families driving with the amount of cash we have to carry and unknown taxi drivers in unknown countries (you can see their point!). Anyway, what should have been very simple (get off plane, look for guy with sign), was not. 2 hours later we had finally figured out how to find wifi in the airport, contact the driver (he was in an accident enroute), found a pay phone, bought a card to use said phone and hired an airport approved taxi to take us into Moscow. Oddly enough the driver drove about 35 on the highway and flew through downtown (think downtown Denver...) doing about 65. We hit the hotel completely exhausted, took a 6 hour nap, grabbed some food in the hotel restaurant for my birthday dinner and went back to sleep. We met our coordinator, Andrey, the next morning to head to the medical center in Moscow for our medical clearances. We had 8 doctors stamps of approval we had to get - any where from infectious diseases to psychiatry to a surgeon. A little disconcerting...I don't think either one of us anticipated having to take our shirts off that many times and be prodded by someone mumbling in another language. That being said, it could have been a LOT worse. Our coordinator reluctantly left us to walk around Moscow (our independence scares him...he was really worried about us navigating the underground walkway systems) while he went to get his car (parking is crazy so he left it at home since we could easily walk to the doctor...when I say insane think 11,000,000 people.)He directed us to an awesome little steakhouse with great food and we got a few minutes to walk around and see the Kremlin and some sights. It pretty much rained the whole time, so hopefully next time we're here we'll get some more time for that. It took about 3.5 hours to drive from Moscow to Tver - really bad traffic in pouring rain. This morning we had our first visitation to the orphanage after picking up the social worker (she had to observe us again with Esther - she will testify on our behalf at court on Friday). A little different experience...I'll get back to that. Another couple had arrived just ahead of us and, since this was their first trip they get the "good" (read scary stuffed animal cave) room. It was pouring outside, so we, being committed, got to see a little more of the orphanage and to go in through the main play area to essentially the locker room for our visitation. Esther came in and responded exactly the same, which was good to see. Someone (most likely our coordinator and the workers) had worked with her on some words so she was directed to me as "mama" which was like the cutest thing ever. She seemed to recognize us, my bag and Bryan's phone which was exciting to see (even the social worker noticed it and remarked on it). We seemed to start off just about where we left off - she climbed into my lap and started singing the same little song she finally got brave and sang last time. To her brothers: her favorite thing we brought was the legos I grabbed as we went out the door. :) That was the good side. The rest kind of...was a lot to process. We were taken through the doors into the area she actually lives in. The main section of the orphanage where she lives with about 8 or 9 other children is about 4 rooms - a room full of cribs, a room with a basic nursery set up - toys, couches and little chairs - a tiny kitchen and a small locker room where each child had a wooden locker for their coat and shoes and the workers changed out of their street clothes and into uniforms. There were 2 overwhelming features of those rooms...the smell and the other children. She is definitely blessed to have her mental capabilities as sound as they appear. While there are no children with severe conditions with her, the majority clearing have some mental and emotional issues - obvious signs of fetal alcohol syndrome, etc. Extremely aggressive. One little girl had a black eye. One had the remainder of a bloody nose. Perhaps the most shocking was Esther's ear with obvious teeth marks - literally almost through her ear (and it's mostly healed so it could have pierced it...). While walking through the room one of the little boys attacked Bryan in a flying tackle and bit his leg. Several of the children made a beeline for the door every time it opened. And the smell. You really can't describe smell like that...and I know these are GOOD conditions. This is a GOOD orphanage. Our agency has a charitable foundation (you can google Kidsfirst foundation) that works closely with this orphanage (the outdoor improvements and work with their meals are all courtesy of fundraising they have done). But it is still an orphanage. The second visit of the day we found we couldn't handle staying inside again - we were assigned the locker room, private, but with a lot going on outside the door and still the one fluorescent bulb in a dark room with the smell...we asked instead if we could take her outside since the rain had stopped. A lot of improvement has happened to the outside since we left. Almost all the playground equipment is up and numerous shelters. MUCH more conducive to visiting and playing and much better smelling! (side note...to everyone who gave us things to bring over for her, we didn't bring everything (we wanted some fresh things for next time), but she loved everything! It helped so much with entertaining her. Thank you all!). We got a substantial amount of time again...maybe 5 hours today total. And I think that seeing the real conditions (as opposed to the "sterile" version they try to paint for the first trip) is important. Knowing exactly what she is coming from will help - your perspective changes when you see exactly how she spent the first two years of life. Tomorrow we have visitation again and then the next 2 days are court - apparently two sessions, each maybe 2 hours long. Meanwhile, the battery on the iPad is dying and I still smell like orphanage, so I think a shower is in order! Prayer requests: for less rain so we can visit outside instead of indoors For court on TH and FR (Wed and TH evening in the States) For Esther's health and safety