This little guy is checking us out

Then there were five

This is a little playground where the kids play.

This is the building Dimitri has been staying in. It is actually the "isolation unit". We found out he has been sick since he came into the orphanage (Feb. 8th). They moved him out of isolation today!

The children are very sweet but I have not found it to be as heartbreaking as I thought it would be. There are many children at the orphanage that are not adoptable. Their parent have placed them there because they can not afford to take care of them right now. But they come to visit and plan on taking them back home again. Our translator said that many only stay a few years. The orphanage is old but it is clean and the children really do seem to be happy. It is amazing how kids are kids no matter what the circumstances. They are mischievous and playful and laughing there in spite of the sparse environment. The resilience of kids just amazes me.

Each day we go to visit Dimitri twice a day at 10 am and then again at 3 pm. There are 7 families staying at this hotel who are adopting. That is unusual. All (but us ) are on their second trip and picked up their children for good yesterday. It was fun to go down to breakfast and see all the kids ranging in age from 5 months to 13 years old. We are just back from our second visit today. Dimitri was tired and a bit serious. They dress the kids very warm at the orphanage. He looks like a foot ball player but underneath the 3 to 4 layers of clothes are some very skinny little arms and legs. It's no wonder he can't sit up I couldn't either with that many layers on. We are trying to stay awake so we sleep tonight. We were all up in the middle of the night last night unable to sleep. Honestly it is all a bit overwhelming still I think the cloud of fatigue does not help. We haven't had much time to do any sight seeing but we are hoping to tomorrow. A good night sleep will do us all good.

Meeting Dimitri

Ants!

Somebody is Definitely teething

Look at those teeth


The two Nicks

Big Sister

Where are you taking me!

I'll take that necklace

Our trip here was long but all went very smooth. We arrived in Bishkek at 6:30 Monday morning, got to the hotel, grabbed a quick bite and went off to meet Dimitri. We had only an hour with him and it felt like 10 minutes. But it was wonderful to finally hold him and see his sweet little face in person. The first picture is a picture of some of the other children at the orphanage. They were so cute! We had to wait outside for a while and they all came peeking around the corner and under the hanging laundry to catch a glimpse of us. They warmed up quickly and some began to come over to us. What personalities! It is a picture of them sharing the discovery of the day .. Ants.

So Thanks to our good friend Anna we now have a blog. I am learning as I go as you can see by the repeat pictures. Once they are on, I am not sure how to get them off. Anyway we are off tomorrow to Kyrgyzstan to meet Dimitri (Nikolai). I would like to post more but I need to do a bit more packing and get to bed.

Shelley, Julia, Nick and Brian