Another bug

Vinny was true to his word. Fifteen minutes later he showed up at the door. I was still sitting there, gazing at this waif of a girl, a six year old little gir, who looked frightened beyone description. Terrified was more the word. Vinny walked over to the computer. He stared and didn't say anything. Finally, breaking the silence, the question was different this time. "Do you think she could love ME?" he asked? Then, taking my hand, we knelt down right there at the computer chair, and offered up a prayer. This time it was different. We asked if we thought if taking on another child was too much. We asked if taking a child that young would work. We didn't really know what to pray for, we just knew we had to pray.

As we got up from our prayer, we both received confirmation at the same time, that this tiny little child was to become ours. I instantly picked up the phone and called the adoption agency. I have to interject here, that the site I was looking at for adoption, showed many many sites that had different adoption agencies. We had no clue if this little girl belonged to our agency. If she didn't, we would not be able to adopt her, because it would just be too difficult to start a process all over again and go through another waiting period for another child.

The phone rang, and someone answered at the other end. I was absolutely stunned (as were they) when they told me they had just put the picture of Vika (Victoria) up fifteen minutes ago!!! Was she available?? I listened in unbelieveable silence as they told me the story.

Vika, it seemed, had a family that had gone over to adopt her. They had made their first visit. But, after the initial visit, they decided they didn't want her!! They didn't want her???? My heart broke when I heard that. I asked if we could start the adoption procedures immediately. They were very hesitant, because it was late in the day, and she had just been posted. So, we reached a compromise. They told me to call back first thing in the morning, and they would let me know, when their supervisor got in.

All night I kept looking at that picture, along with Katja (Ekatarina) and wondered what I was getting myself into. One, was ok. And she was nine. But six?? Was I sure?? And I had just found her that night!! Was I crazy?? We prayed and we felt the spirit whisper to us that we were to proceed with this.

The next morning, at about nine am, I started calling the agency again. I was dumbfounded when I was told that during four thirty pm and five pm the evening before, and starting at eight am that morning, about seventy people had called wanting her. She was blonde and hazel eyed, something that American's really wanted. But, because I had called fifteen minutes after she had been posted, they decided to "wait" for me to see if I still wanted her in the morning! Did I? they asked? I was so happy, I cried. Of course I did.

So, we started another long ordeal because this little girl called to us. She was in Stavropol. My question was this. Could we go see her at the same time?? Of course the agency had no answers - except for the ones they had given us with Nikki. She might not be there, she might be gone, yadda yadda yadda. But we pressed on, determined not to be discouraged.

We soon discovered that we would be allowed to see Vika when we went to see Nikki. We were on cloud nine!! Of course - there was paper work galore, and we were somewhat disgusted with everything that we ended up having to do. Money this, money that, paper this, paper that. It was so time consuming, and if you didn't have everything just right, they would make you do everything all over again. Sometimes, even if you had everything all right, they would make you do it all over again anyways. We were exhausted before we even went.

The big day came. We were finally allowed to get our passports and travel to Moscow and then on to Stavropol. There are no words to even describe the way we were feeling. We had been asked by our agency to take take some papers to Stavropol with us, to give to the agency over there, for other children who were being adopted by them, We agreed. They sent us the papers, and off we went. Just before we reached the airport, one of the top folders fell open, and much to my surprise, there was a letter from the lady who had been in Stavropol to adopt Vika!! We couldn't believe it. She had to write a letter telling the Russian Federation why she didn't want to go through the adoption. She was from Utah (of all places) and there was a phone number for her. Of course I wrote it down. I felt like this was divine intervention so I could get information on a little girl who was about to become my daughter.

And that will continue to be another story...