Simferopol Day 2

Brandon and I were blessed with a very restful night’s sleep.  When we woke we were all smiles knowing that this was the day we would meet our son!  We tried to busy ourselves with, unpacking our bags, organizing donations, and making sure that we had the proper paperwork.  When we got ready today, I tried to imagine what a good mother would look like to Vitaliy.  I wanted to look, smell, and feel like a gentle mom.  At 2pm our driving came to pick us up from the apartment.  We drove though Simferopol to the orphanage/boarding school in Lozove.  It took us about 15 minutes to arrive, I recognized it from pictures as we pulled up.  We were so excited!  We were lead into a room and introduced to the orphanage director.  A young woman came in and she spoke some English.  We were just sitting in this room while the women spoke to each other.  The director showed us 3 pictures of Vitaliy and commented on how much he looks like Brandon.  We thought we were going to be asked a lot of questions and given information on Vitaliy, but we just sat there kind of awkward like as they spoke.  Another woman kept coming in and out of the room and they spoke.  I was facing away from the door and then the door opened again and in walked Vitaliy!  I jumped up from my chair, dropped to my knees and hugged him, probably a little too tightly and of course I was crying.  Brandon says that I hugged for 5 minutes before he got the opportunity to touch him.  ;)  Then he sat in a chair in between us and sort of had a stunned expression on his face.  The young woman and director spoke to him and while looking down he would sort of shake his head and say “da”.  He would look at us every little bit with a smile and look back down.  Brandon says I was petting his head too much, so I tried to control myself from over touching him. I brought a banana and clementine to give to him and we was thrilled.  Then they asked us if we were coming back tomorrow and how long we were staying then.  We said we would come everyday and for as long as they would let us each day.  Then we were lead to another room, that was referred to as the weekend activity room and we sat at a table with Vitaliy. In this room, we gave him a small lego set to put together and he and Brandon worked on it.  They were so cute! 

After this he wanted to take us to the building where he lives, he was still holding the banana and I told him he could eat it.  He had the entire thing gone in about 30 seconds!  I guess we will be bringing a banana everyday to him.  We followed him up some stairs and he took us to a bigger room with some old couches.  Then other boys came in and he showed them his new lego toy. I started to take come pictures and then the boys and Vitaliy decided to show off for us.  Vitaliy and N. did hand stands and walked across the room on their hands, they did some breakdancing, some running and flipping.  It was very entertaining.

  I was instructed by them to video tape all their moves and then they would run over to watch what we taped.  Brandon brought out his I-Touch and one boy clicked on the Angry Birds icon, then Brandon game to Vitaliy and that is when he lost interest in us.  LOL

We let him play while the other boys took our camera and took pictures of us and anyone who walked into the room. After this we followed Vitaliy downstairs and back to the first building we were in. He let us know that it was snack time, and walked away to the cafeteria. We followed him and he got a cookie wafer and glass of milk. 

After snack we had to leave, but we told him we would be back in the morning.  Our driver met us in front of the building and called Vitaliy over and handed him a handful of hard candy to share.  Vitaliy smiled and walked away when our driver called to him and said to tell his momma and papa goodbye.  He giggled a bit and waved goodbye. 
No one was able to speak very good English, so we didn’t really get to talk to him or anyone for that matter.  But tomorrow we are being picked up at 0845 and taken back and our missionary friend Natalya will be there to help us communicate and spend time with him. I am thankful I brought toys and activities to do with him that don’t require spoken language. 
Vitaliy is ADORABLE, small, he smelled clean, his hair was so blond, and soft.  It felt SO GOOD to squish him.  Looking forward to tomorrow!!!