We had a fairly relaxing morning during which I was able to get some work done and Michele took yet another cold shower. :( We'll work with Alex here at the Bible House sometime in the next couple of days to work out the kinks in the "on-demand" water heating system.
We received a call from Tanya to meet her at the orphanage to pick up Pasha for his dental appointment at 2PM. It took a while to find Pasha in class, but he exited and we were off to the dentist's office. Michele stayed there with Pasha and Tanya and I went back to the Bible House to work a while.
An hour or so later, I received a call from Michele that Pasha's teeth were not that bad after all. The dentist filled one cavity and said the other one was not so bad and in a baby tooth. Of course, she took no xrays to confirm, so we will likely have him checked out again once we get back to the states. But, at least this was good news and we're not staring at a crown or root canal right off the bat. $40USD was not a bad sum to pay for the comfort Pasha now has.
After they were done at the dentist, Pasha, Tanya and Michele went back to the orphanage to see if they could meet up with Natasha. Michele was able to watch Natasha practice the dance routine that she and several other girls will perform at the 50 year anniversary celebration that will take place at the orphanage on October 9th. We're glad that we will be able to participate in that. Michele said Natasha danced beautifully and with much grace.
After Natasha was done, they went over to a cafe to have some food, since Pasha had not eaten breakfast and we had pulled him away for his dentail appointment before lunch. Needless to say, he was starving. I met them at the cafe and we sat and chatted for a while. We think Natasha is becoming more comfortable with us as she has started to use some English, which she does quite well. She showed us picture of her mother, brother and sister on her cell phone. All in all, it was a nice brief visit.
During this time, Tanya was running around getting more signatures. It turns out that the orphanage director had not actually signed one of the consent forms yesterday. He was not willing to do so until the regional inspector had given her approval for the refusal of adoption and separation documents signed by Jana. Tanya had those and brought them back to the orphanage for the director's signature, which he did. Then, it was back to the notary's office where we all signed the court request documents and then to the inspector's office to hand off some more papers, and finally we took the kids back to the orphanage for their study time. The regional inspectors are very sweet and came out to the car to give the kids both hugs. It turns out, one of them used to be a caregiver at the same orphanage, so knew both Pasha and Natasha.
So, we are ready to proceed, except for one thing, namely the "mess" of Pasha's paperwork. Unfortunately, his mother's last name on the birth certificate is different from the last name on the paperwork submitted when Pasha was surrendered to the state. This is a problem that has to be fixed before Tanya can go to the court to submit our adoption request. The regional inspectors and Tanya are not sure what to do, so please pray that they would be enlightened and that they would be able to find some paperwork which shows why the names are different (i.e. a marriage license or divorce decree or something like that).
Please also pray for the hearts of these kids. Not only for Pasha and Natasha, but for all in the orphan system. There are so few controls in place during their free time and they have no one really teaching them how to decide right from wrong. And the "wrong" is freely available and luring. Pray, too, that we would be able to have frank discussions with Pasha and Natasha about God's desire for them to have pure hearts and minds. We believe this to be really important as we set the right foundation for us as their parents, but more importantly for God to be their Heavenly Father. We can see that these are two sweet kids and hope that seeds that have been planted will start to grow.
That's it for now. Off to bed and hopeful for good news tomorrow on "Pasha's messy papers"!
Bruce & Michele
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We had the exact same problem with our son's paperwork. The last name on his birth certificate didn't match the name in the separation papers. Our facilitator said at the time that this was a "big deal" and could throw a wrench into to the works. Luckily, after spending a day sleuthing she found an obscure document somewhere that his bio mom had filed that changed his name to hers. It only cost us a one-day delay. I hope you can get your issue resolved quickly. Blessings to you!
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear you're making progress! We'll keep praying!
ReplyDeleteIt's beautiful to think about how you are already concerned with your new children's spiritual growth, and how God is providing for them by bringing them into your family. Keep up the faith, and remember that your friends are praying for you!
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