16 Feb – 1:45pm St Petersburg time
We meet with an official from the Ministry of Social Services or something like that. She officially gave us our referral. It was a government building with 6-8 other couples there with their translators all doing the same thing. We found out his birthday is Oct 2nd, 2007. He had a twin brother that died at 2 months old. They were given up at birth by their mother. When we were told he was a twin, both Britt and I thought to ourselves…well we can’t leave the twin brother here, but then they told us he had died. We are off to the orphanage to meet him and gather more info.
16 Feb – 8pm
We met Artyom today. They call him Tyoma – it sounds like “Toe Ma.” We were at the orphanage for about 2 hours. It took over 40 minutes to get there from our hotel and we never even left St Petersburg. It is a city made up of 42 islands,17 waterways and 5 million people.
Here is what we know of his story: He was born 2 Oct 2007 along with his brother Arthur. His mother was 22 and gave him up on Oct 8th. He went straight from the maternity hospital to the orphanage along with his brother on 10 Oct 2007. His brother died of SIDS on 19 Dec 2007. Before that neither one was ever sick and they were very healthy at birth. He has very dark eyes, oriental features and brown hair. The social worker (she picked the boys up at the hospital) said his mother was slim, small and Khyrghyz (from Khyrghyzstan). He has never been contacted or written to by anyone and it is very possible that his mother was in Russia illegally looking for work. Many Khyrghyzs come to St Petersburg to find work and send the money home. All his bloodwork has always been negative or within normal ranges and the only time he has been sick was in Mar 2008 – he had the flu and they sent him to the hospital because of his brother and all tests came back normal. Right now he is getting over the chicken pox (hence the blue/green spots – it is medicine to keep it from itching). He didn’t want to look at us at first and was very scared. Then I put him on my lap, gave him a cookie and he calmed down. Then we got out a bunch of toys…he loved the bubbles and a red car. He would never look at Britt and if Britt looked at him, he would cry…he had never seen a man before. But, after a while I gave him to Britt and he warmed up to him right away. He got very comfortable on his lap and even snuggled in a bit. We brought a stacking/nesting toy and he loved it…he was stacking/ putting them inside each other and then toys inside that. He is walking, going from sitting to standing on his own and even walked backwards. He never did smile for us today, but he did do some talking (babble with 1 or 2 Russian words mixed in) He is 31 in tall-we measured him.
Our day tomorrow: We will go to the orphanage from 10-12 and then from 3-4:30. We have to make our decision at that time and if we decide we want to adopt him than we have to have a name at that time too. We will talk to our adoption doctor tonight and unless she sees something we have missed, we plan on adopting him.
We meet with an official from the Ministry of Social Services or something like that. She officially gave us our referral. It was a government building with 6-8 other couples there with their translators all doing the same thing. We found out his birthday is Oct 2nd, 2007. He had a twin brother that died at 2 months old. They were given up at birth by their mother. When we were told he was a twin, both Britt and I thought to ourselves…well we can’t leave the twin brother here, but then they told us he had died. We are off to the orphanage to meet him and gather more info.
16 Feb – 8pm
We met Artyom today. They call him Tyoma – it sounds like “Toe Ma.” We were at the orphanage for about 2 hours. It took over 40 minutes to get there from our hotel and we never even left St Petersburg. It is a city made up of 42 islands,17 waterways and 5 million people.
Here is what we know of his story: He was born 2 Oct 2007 along with his brother Arthur. His mother was 22 and gave him up on Oct 8th. He went straight from the maternity hospital to the orphanage along with his brother on 10 Oct 2007. His brother died of SIDS on 19 Dec 2007. Before that neither one was ever sick and they were very healthy at birth. He has very dark eyes, oriental features and brown hair. The social worker (she picked the boys up at the hospital) said his mother was slim, small and Khyrghyz (from Khyrghyzstan). He has never been contacted or written to by anyone and it is very possible that his mother was in Russia illegally looking for work. Many Khyrghyzs come to St Petersburg to find work and send the money home. All his bloodwork has always been negative or within normal ranges and the only time he has been sick was in Mar 2008 – he had the flu and they sent him to the hospital because of his brother and all tests came back normal. Right now he is getting over the chicken pox (hence the blue/green spots – it is medicine to keep it from itching). He didn’t want to look at us at first and was very scared. Then I put him on my lap, gave him a cookie and he calmed down. Then we got out a bunch of toys…he loved the bubbles and a red car. He would never look at Britt and if Britt looked at him, he would cry…he had never seen a man before. But, after a while I gave him to Britt and he warmed up to him right away. He got very comfortable on his lap and even snuggled in a bit. We brought a stacking/nesting toy and he loved it…he was stacking/ putting them inside each other and then toys inside that. He is walking, going from sitting to standing on his own and even walked backwards. He never did smile for us today, but he did do some talking (babble with 1 or 2 Russian words mixed in) He is 31 in tall-we measured him.
Our day tomorrow: We will go to the orphanage from 10-12 and then from 3-4:30. We have to make our decision at that time and if we decide we want to adopt him than we have to have a name at that time too. We will talk to our adoption doctor tonight and unless she sees something we have missed, we plan on adopting him.
How exciting! Thanks for keeping us updated!
ReplyDeleteI think you need to use Arthur somewere in his name - can't wait to hug this little guy- love Mom Shenk
ReplyDelete