The time had come. We were finally herded together, and suddenly, out of the blue, we realized that Aliana's two older sister's, Luba and Angela had been notified of the adoption, and had been sent to the orphanage to say their goodbyes. I don't remember which one, but one was NOT happy at all - (I don't blame her) and she cried and cried and cried. (They both cried). I tried to translate that we would be good to her, and give her a good home... it was obvious that Aliana wanted to be with us, and loved us, but she was so torn with her sister's there. With Nikki, it was somewhat different. Svet wasn't anywhere to be seen, and Natasha watched nervously until the end, and so just before we left, I hugged her and NIkki together, and pulled my watch off and gave it to her. She was crying then, and it was breaking my heart. Just before we got in the van to leave, another surprise!! We found out that both times we had been there, Aliana had a brother there named Hassan. He was thirteen!!! So, I marched him over and had him hug his sister goodbye also. Parting was such bitter sorrow for Aliana. Now, for NIkki - she just hopped in the van. She wanted OUT. She was so ready to go. It was like, "C'mon you guy's, lets GO!".
We finally got Aliana away from her sisters and got a group shot with the orphanage. Then we got in the van and we left. It was late, and Aliana sang to us all the way back. I think I wrote that already in another posting. She cried a little, but held on for dear life. We all felt relief. We did get pulled over by the Russian police at one point for quite a while, we were nervous, it was dark, and so we prayed. We were basically in the middle of nowhere. Finally, they left. We were at an old gas station, so we allowed the girls to run in for some drinks and treats. How they enjoyed that!
We got back to the hotel very late, and everyone was very tired. The girls would not be ours for about five - seven more days in Russian court, but the orphanage had been VERY kind, and had let the girls go at the point, so we wouldn't have to keep traveling the three hour ride every day back to see the girls while we were there. So technically, at that point, we were parents!! It felt so good! Tomorrow, we had an appointment to go see Cami. We were so tired, but before we went to bed, we showed the girls how we prayed. We saw smiles and giggles, they didn't know what to do, but the Spirit was strong, and they were very obedient. How lucky we were.
More to follow.....
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