Meeting Yan

We made it to Lugansk and are doing well! We flew from Kiev on Wednesday evening and got into Lugansk around 10:00 pm. We had to get up pretty early on Thursday morning to meet with the local Inspector and then the Director of the Children's home to get permission to meet Yan. It was probably around 12:00 pm by the time we were able to actually meet him.

Our first interaction was in an office with 6 or 7 adults. It was a bit awkward and Yan was appropriately shy. We were able to go back to his room to play with him for a couple of hours after the initial meeting. The time flew as the three of us became more familiar with each other playing with Legos and doing a puzzle. He was very excited about playing with both and it served as a great activity to get to know each other. He did well with both.


Within a short period of time, Yan began to make eye contact, smile, ask for help and began to show affection. It was an incredible experience. I think we were more nervous than he. There are about 12 children in his "groupa" evenly split between boys and girls. Yan shares a room with 5 other boys. They are obviously very close. He was very excited to share his new toys with some of his friends. Near the end of our first meeting, one of the other boys stuck his head in the door and asked Yan if we were his new parents and were going to take him home with us. Yan responded "yes" to his friend and immediately looked at Karen and I and asked us "yes?" as if to say "I am - right?"


Yan speaks Russian. He is a talkative child. The language barrier is harder than we expected. We have a translator with us 90% of the time, but we still feel as though we are missing so much. We had a chance to visit with him again yesterday (Friday). He gave us each a big hug and told us he was hoping that we were going to come back. Later on in the day, he asked if we were from Amercia and if he was going to come on a plane with us. Going out to the play ground he looked at Karen - called her Mama and asked her to hold his hand. The whole experience is just wild. There is no other way to put it. The children are taken care of very well. Those that work there obviously love the children very much.

Below are a couple pictures of Yan and Karen. One in his room, one where Yan is sharing a juice box we brought for him with Karen and the other in the playground with Karen. As you can see form the pictures, he has dark eyes, is missing a couple of front teeth and is usually smiling and happy. Basically, he is a normal skinny 6-year old. There are so many stories to share that we can't wait to tell you all about.


Our schedule is beginning to shape up as follows. We will likely go to court to adopt Yan this Friday. If all goes well in court, we will have a 10-day waiting period before the adoption is final. After that, we have a couple days of getting a birth certificate and other paperwork in Lugans'k and then back to Kiev for 3 - 4 days. After that - we head for home!!! Over the next couple weeks, we will be able to visit Yan on a daily basis from 3 - 5 pm. So our days will be centered around that. Great time to get to know Yan or is it Michael?