Last night we took the night train to Crimea just inside the island. The train station was beautiful on the inside. It had huge chandeliers, murals on the walls and ceiling. There was a huge escalator in the center of the building to take you to the platforms to catch your train. There are always herds of people everywhere you try to go. They push through to get ahead of everyone in the lines. On our way to the train this was the case and we lost sight of George. We knew the train was at platform 10 so we headed in that direction. There was a split at the end of the stairs so we just chose one direction. By this time we are very scared we lost him and very cold. It is -1 degrees with the wind chill. We get to the front of the train and of course we needed the back so we started walking again. After what felt like forever we decided to call George. He said to just walk to back of train. When we finally found him we were frozen and our hands and feet hurt but we made it so all was ok. The train was nice and clean. We rented a whole cabin with 4 beds. The cabin was very small with just enough room to turn around between the beds. The ride was nice, not too much rocking. As the night went on it got hotter and hotter and before we knew it we were so hot that we could not breathe! I bet it was 90 degrees in there. I guess that is what we get for complaining about being cold. Before the night was over Shawn was fanning us to cool off. Needless to say we did not get too much sleep. We arrived at the stop about 9:20 am. It was beautiful weather. Very warm, maybe 45. It was foggy but I can handle that. Our driver was waiting for us. After a quick stop at a market for water and food we were on the road. He was a good driver but the roads were very rough. There we no places to stop if you had to go to the bathroom. We were told they just stop on the side of the road to go!! We arrived in Kerch at about 12:30. We stopped at a pizzeria, it is not pizza like we eat but it was absolute delicious! 1:00 was our appointment with the orphanage social worker for approval to see children. She reviewed the SDA approval, asked a few questions and wrote us another permission slip. From there we went to the orphanage. We discussed their situation, separation of 4^th child, spoke with doctor about diagnosis and past experiences with children. Now we finally get to go and meet Pavel, Maxium, and Alexandra (who we found out likes to be called Sasha)! They decided to start youngest to oldest because the oldest children were still in school and had to be taken out of class. When we walked into her “groupa” there were several children in the process of getting dressed near the door but I noticed a little girl playing over by the toys who was already dressed. When she looked up and saw me she came running towards me. (I guess the picture book I sent paid off) As she got to her caregiver she changed her mind about running to me and ran to her, peeking at me the whole time. Her caregiver whispered to her and off she came running again and ran right up wanting a hug and to be picked up. She looked me in the eyes and says “mama”. She then went to Shawn and hugged him. About this time the other children arrive and we are escorted out after and round of quick hugs for mama and papa so that we could all be together alone. We walked to another building. Shawn walking holding hands with Maxium, me holding Sasha, and Pavel leading the way with the others who are with us. We spent time with the children looking at pictures on the computer, drawing pictures, making necklaces and bracelets, looking at books. They are very smart and what to have our attention. Maxium could not stop smiling. I pulled out my flash cards and was showing the children that they were “pa ruski” on the front and English on the back and we found out that they can read English. We were so shocked but very excited. It will not be so hard to communicate now that we know they have a head start. Pavel is defiantly the leader of the group. They all look to him for comfort and to ask questions. He basically fathers the younger children. He is kind and gentle with them and you can see his love for them in his eyes. Pavel says he like classical music and football (soccer). Maxium and Sasha are pretty quiet and have not shared too much. We looked at pictures on the walls of children in their groupa and shared their names. They both speak very quiet and fast. We are so excited.

Unfortunately we are not going to be able to bring the children home this trip. Maxium was born in Russia and we are going to have to apply for a birth certificate there to get his visa and passport to come home. We will have to make a second trip. This gives up time to prepare their rooms and buy what they will need when they come home.

Today were are off to Simperopol to get papers notarized. This is a 2 hour drive one way so it will take up most of our day. We hope to see the children around 3. Pavel has class until 1 and then lunch so I think it will work out good.