Day 29: We're back

It was so hard to say goodbye to our kids at home again...ugh, it never gets easier.  As we watched our kids get further and further away at the airport we tried to turn around and focus on the boys we would be seeing.  Have I said it enough, I can't wait until all our kids are HOME!!!


We made it here safe and without any delays...yay!  We got in very early in the morning and had to wait all day to go see the boys at 4:00, it was a LONG wait!


Finally we were in the car and off to see Valentin.  When we got to the orphanage I decided I was going to try my hand at getting in his room again.  Today I was not shooed away!  I walked in and the smell hit me along with the sorrow of seeing the condition of the other kids in his room.  I am going to have to save that for another post.  I saw our Valentin laying in his too-small crib.  He was just waking up and we locked eyes and he grinned from ear to ear...don't you know I could have melted.  What a beautiful sight! The nannies got him out of the crib and changed his diaper which was like a towel shoved inside a disposable diaper.  It appears they reuse the disposable diapers so they line them with towels...sad.  It also appears that they do not wipe the kids after #2.  TMI I know but just sharing the reality.  Both times that I have seen them change Valentin they have had to scramble for something to wipe him with, which ends up being a kitchen sponge so that tells me they usually do not wipe them well other then with the towel inside the diaper.  Anyway, he was very tolerant of everything...no moaning or crying at all...he just kept his eyes locked on me with a huge smile.  Praise God!  I knew in that moment God had answered all our prayers to prepare his heart for his mom and dad!


When they got him dressed and lifted him up I did not want them putting him in the stroller so I just reached over and grabbed him and held him.  I have learned by now it's easier to do something and get scolded then to ask and be told no.  God is helping me be brave!  The best part of all is that he did not cry at all, he let me carry him and hold him!!!!  Can you see the joy in the pictures?!?!

I think I could have held him forever!  But it was daddy's turn to play since he had not seen him in a while.

It really was a wonderful visit, like we had never left!  I struggled so much with the decision to leave him and today was confirmation that it is all okay!  He did not cry or get agitated at all.  I cannot tell you how much hope that gives us that maybe he is truly bonding with us and it gives us hope that we can handle all the plane rides home!  It's hard to leave him every time we visit but today it was especially hard.


We got back in the car to visit Joey and as we walked up to the door of his building a woman stopped us and started talking to our driver.  It was not sounding good.  We have had some concerns from the beginning about being able to adopt Joey.  There are family members in the picture that seem to care for Joey, not enough to adopt him themselves, but we are concerned they may prolong the process.  It also seems that our facilitation team is not giving us the whole story.  Anyway, all that is going through my head while they are talking and it was as if she was blocking our way into the building.  The longer the conversation went on the more concerned we got and I was sick over the thought that we might not be able to adopt Joey.


Finally our driver turned to us and said "it is okay", obviously he could see the terror on our faces.  He told us "it is okay, Joey is in the hospital."  What?!?!  How is that okay?  But we understood his point.  He said "He has sick.  Sick you get one time and not again.  You get...(and he pointed to different places on his body)."  We took this to mean chicken pox.  We hope it is just chicken pox.  Since our facilitator is still not in the country, this explanation is as good as we are going to get for now.  We get conflicted information on when our facilitator is supposed to be back in the country, but our driver said she should be back late tonight so I am hoping she can call the orphanage and get a detailed explanation.  Another facilitator called us tonight and we inquired about what happened today.  She called our driver and called us back to tell us he would not be out of the hospital until June 4th.  This is not good news because we were hoping to be able to take the boys home that week.


So we are left here not being able to visit Joey and having tons of questions, still unanswered.  We really need our facilitator to help us figure this all out.  We are really hoping she will be here soon because we have court in 2 days and have no idea what we are supposed to do for that.


For our prayer warriors, please pray for our little Joey.  How awful to be in a hospital all alone.  Picturing our poor boy all alone in the hospital probably wondering what the heck is going on and with all that itching...just breaks my heart!!!


We want to ask if we can visit him, does anyone out there know much about chicken pox?  Tyler and I have both had it so we are not worried about us, but could we spread it to Valentin?


Hopefully we will know more tomorrow...