Kiev-appointments, day 1

       Okay this could be interesting.  I'm trying to type one handed because someone little has figured out he's not at the orphanage anymore and when I put him down he just cries.  It just breaks my heart.  So he is still awake fighting going to sleep like a real champ.
       Nikko met us at the train station and helped us with our bags.  After a not so good breakfast at the McFoxxy we left for the U.S. Embassy.  When we arrived at the Embassy, I filled the remainder of the paper work out and then headed we to have Eli's medical evaluation done. Once there, we waited for a bit to see the doctor and ran into another RR family, the Hinz's, who were finishing up too.  It's always nice meeting other families on the same journey as you.  The Hinz family adopted a little boy from the region next to ours.  We shared the same lawyer/facilitator.  The Hinz family adopted an adorable little boy whom we have prayed for for two years.  Our family was Sterling's prayer warrior.  Two years in a row when Hannah and I attended our church's annual prayer vigil for orphans and foster families, Hannah would take his picture off the fridge and take ti with her to the prayer vigil.  She would pray for Sterling, that soon a family would come for him so that he wouldn't be an orphan anymore.  Her prayers have been answered!
       So we went to our apartment next and got settled in.  My other newly adopted son calls me only its from another number that I don't recognize.  I answer. He says,"Pop its me, Max; call my phone."  So I do and get this message that "the caller is unavailable, please send sms or try back later."  I call the number that he called from to get to me and he answered the phone.  I asked him what was wrong with his phone, and he tells me the SIM card is missing.  I asked "What are you doing messing with your sim card, it should stay put in the phone".  Max said a friend needed to call his grandmother so he let him borrow his SIM card, and now it is lost.  I asked him why not just let him borrow the whole phone, and he didn't have a good answer.  I told him that I couldn't fix this for him now since I was in Kiev, and that he needed to use his head a little better.   He could I was disappointed in him, and I was was, but I really reinforced that I love him no matter what.  That I was angry with him, but I did want him to make good decisions.  He apologized and said that they would keep looking for it.  About a half hour later, I get another call.  This time from his number, on the SIM card that I had bought for him.  He was happy to tell me that they found it.   I never found out where it was lost at, and I probably don't want to know.  Its a whole different world in an orphanage.  I try not to hold to much judgment on him.  It's a rough life, and it just got a whole lot tougher on him.  The boy who was going to America, the one who started getting harassed because of others jealously now has to live with those same boys.  I know he gets picked on and even beat up a lot there.  His care takers have told us this.  I'm sure now the 'boy with the bump" as they call him is getting even more ridiculed.  It's no wonder he let someone else borrow his SIM card.  The disappointment of me was probably far easier than the fist of another. He has called me three more times tonight.  Its great to hear his voice.  I make sure to tell him every time how I love him, and that he just needs to hang in there a little longer, and that he does have a Mama and Papa now.  I tell him that I promise, I'm coming back for him.
Elijah had his first bath today.  We only filled the bathtub with very little water.  At first he wasn't sure what to think and I held him up in a sitting position or on his back while I washed him.  After I finished washing him, I rolled him on his tummy and he was quite happy playing in the water, giggling when he splashed.

         I'm only finishing this post because Eli finally went to bed.  11:57 was the magic number.  The dreaded second night.  It's always the worst.  I was hoping he was going to be different.   Boy was I wrong.  He finally realized that he wasn't in the orphanage any more.  I kept getting this look as he crying, kinda like he was saying  "Papa you're a pretty cool guy and all, but your really not the one I want right now.  Take me back "home"!  Where's my Mamas?"  Finally after many times of waking up when I layed him down after he fell asleep in my arms, he finally relented.  The good news is that he was up long enough to talk to him Mama and his sister for the first time.  I know the girls had a great time seeing more than just photos of him.
        Tomorrow we have our second Embassy appointment, and I will probably have my last post.  This has been fun, though at times it more emotional than I ever thought it would be.  It just seems that once you start talking about your day, your feelings just start blurting out.  I guess it is kind of therapy in its own way, even if the rest of the world knows now......