Our Visit with V!

We arrived in the town where V's orphanage is located yesterday. We are in a small apartment (Beth and me and our translator, "O." (I was asked not to use real names.) We had no internet connection yesterday so couldn't write till now. 

We saw V yesterday! We arrived at the orphanage late in the afternoon and  sat in an office while the translator and some of the orphanage  officials spoke to each other in Russian while we sweated and stared at the walls.  After awhile Beth looked toward the open office doorway and exclaimed, “Hi.” I knew by her expression that it was V. The door was behind me, I turned to see him standing there looking just like he did a year ago…healthy, handsome, tanned, just a bit taller. I approached him and put my hand out and then decided to go for a hug. He responded a little shyly but then he smiled warmly at us. Beth came up and hugged him. The translator said, “you may ask him questions now.” I asked how he felt, how he was.  He just said, "okay" and seemed a little reticent to say more. Beth told him how much we missed him and joked about him being taller than her now. Then I asked, "Would you like to come live with us in America" and he smiled and nodded his head, "yes."  Then the director and the other orphanage official asked him questions in Russian. After that they paged through a file and read some information about V's background which was translated for us.  Then the official pulled out some certificates and said Vlad had recently received a third place award for athletics and a first place award for art and that he did well academically. I looked over and smiled at him in approval and he smiled back. From there we went to what appeared to be the nurses office and we were given some information about V's health and then it was time to go. V followed us back to our car and we hugged him again and said we would be back soon. It was too short a visit and difficult to really communicate with him personally with so many people around us. We drove away and kept looking back and waving at him and he did the same as he walked away. Beth and I had tears forming as we headed down the long dirt driveway. 

We didn't get to see him today. I'll write about today's adventures later, but we hope to see him again tomorrow.

This is a heavily edited post. Some day I'll publish the full version. But, we are so thankful to have seen him, that he appears to be well and seems to be excited to come home with us! Can't wait to see him again!