Meeting Our Daughter

With  butterflies in our stomachs, we entered the baby orphanage to meet with the director. She is a nice, but a very stern women, who prides herself in her orphanage being the cleanest and best decorated in the region. The director then proceeded to ask us questions, why we picked Katya, how long we've lived in the US, where we work, etc. She was amazed that we were Ukrainian immigrants and really warmed up to us.  She then called in the doctor and the doctor gave us all the medical information they had on file. We learned Katya had never been visited by anyone after she was abandoned at the hospital and she's been at the orphanage since three months old. We also learned our baby girl's birthday is April 12th, so she will be four years old in a few short weeks. The director said Katya has never given them any troubles, she is potty trained (hooray!) and doesn't require much attention or work. She told us she is very shy and often plays independently. They said she speaks, but not much. 

As we sat on the couch, nervous and excited, the doctor walked in with our little Ukrainian doll. She immediately came to me and sat in my lap, but didn't say a word. I was instantly surprised by how tiny she was, only 11.3 kilograms (22.6 lbs). She had the same vision problems as Andrey, and wore little glasses on her tiny little face. At her young age, she already required a -4.5 prescription. None the less, I was grateful this doctor and director had recognized her eye problems and made an effort to get her glasses. Katya was shy as can be, hiding her face and slouching as to draw the attention away from herself. We gave her a little doll and she just nodded. After holding her for a bit, I put her in daddy's lap and you could tell she was tense, but the director explained she was very afraid of men. Go figure, she's probably only seen a few  men in her lifetime, the orphanage employees are all women. We then went into the other room, which has a large aquarium and large couch to sit on. Katya came up real close to me and I picked her up in my lap and she just cuddled up real close, laid her head on my chest and stared at my scarf. We spent an hour or two with Katya the first day and although we could hardly get any whispered words out of her, she did answer me when I pointed at Roman and asked her, who is this? It was the faintest whisper, but she said "papa." When he pointed at me and asked her the same question, she smiled and whispered "mama." At the end of our first visit, she warmed up to both Roman and I, but we could tell she was very shy by nature but loved being hugged and kissed. Katya was taken away to have lunch, so we said our goodbyes. Roman and I both said she reminded us of Andrey when we first met him. 

As we were leaving, the orphanage director asked if we wanted to take a tour. Um, of course! Let me tell you, the orphanages in Ukraine mostly restrict your visits with children to one or two rooms,  as they don't want people roaming through other parts of the facility. The director gave us the entire tour, and we were so pleasantly surprised how much attention was put into this orphanage. As we were walking around, we walked into Katya's group and she immediately came up to give me a hug and whispered mama. My heart melted. Se was such a sweet pea. Roman and I both knew after this visit that we have loved this little girl before we met her, but this visit confirmed our love.