Meeting with Viktoria and Borys

We arrived at Olga’s office and were ushered in right away. Lyudmila explained our day to her and Olga exclaimed that it’s typical, but God must have wanted us here today. We then sat down to some business and she asked for the infamous letter! She then told us how this would all work. She needed to know for sure that we wanted to continue with the adoption, we would then hear what they know about Viktoria and Borys and their background and then V and B (nicknames) would come in to see us, and Olga would have a talk with them. She needed to officially hear from them that they wanted to go to us and our family, in order to proceed with preparing documents. This would be followed by a conversation with the orphanage doctor about their physical condition, vaccinations, etc. Then we would have time to talk with their teacher about their education. We could ask any questions that we would like and even we could ask later if questions came up. Olga told us that no question was considered to be stupid.

We heard from Olga about the children’s background and the reason for their parents losing parental rights. They had come to the orphanage in March 2000 because their grandmother is an invalid and couldn’t care for them. So they arrived at the ages of 4 and 3. They are both good students and very industrious. Time and space right now doesn’t allow me to go into too many details, but we will share more later about what we are learning about them. Both of them were dressed really sharp when they came in. Bora wore a little black suit without a tie. Vika was wearing a beautifully knitted sweater. They were beaming with smiles. Then they were asked to leave and wait in the other office. We had our time with the doctor and then the teacher. Olga went out for a bit and we found out later that Vika had been crying. You can imagine how hard it is when your friends have been the other kids in the orphanage. She was nervous about leaving them, but torn too because she wants to be with us. Olga told her that this is the best choice because none of these children can stay here forever. Only a few more years and they’d be out on their own in some way. They came back in a little later and the question of name change came up. We discussed the options. Borys after hearing Olga tell him, "Now Borys, what kind of American name is that! No one has the name 'Borys' in America!" firmly decided to lose that name completely. Viktoria decided to keep it as her middle name. Once the judge approves the adoption, we will introduce you to the children!