We met her!!!! and adoption update

Hi everyone.............we couldn't post in the city of Szyran (sp?), but we got to meet her. Other than the cleft and orphanage related delays, she's perfect!!! She is dinky though!! I mean, I couldn't believe how small she was as they brought her in.

She crawls and tries to stand, but it's so cute and funny how she tries to stand. She holds onto things with her legs way too far in front of her. She gets up on her legs with her head on the floor. I almost think that she'll be standing on her head before she stands on her feet!!! :):):)

We knew after seeing her and talking for a little while to the dr. that is on the property that she was meant to be ours. Our translator said that we were very lucky to get her because Russia usually doesn't let such a healthy child leave the country.

We were able to take her for short walks around the orphanage and were worned about mosquitoes, but we only saw a mosquito once............in our hotel room that 1st night after the orphanage visit.

On the 1st visit day we got to spend 6 hours with her: laughing, eating, napping, etc. She was so over stimulated with all the things around her, that she didn't pay much attention to us for quite a while. She was too busy crawling around the room checking everything out. She stared for quite a while in the mirrors, I doubt she'd ever seen much of anything outside of her bed and playroom. It was great to see her explore. For naptime that 1st day, we took her outside in the stroller for her nap because we didn't want to bother the other children. There was a little covered area with about 4 beds and a large wooden playpen under it. We sat there until she finally fell asleep. She slept for about an hour and a half...........then we had to go in and meet with the orphanage director, social worker, and the doctor again. The doctor gave us all of the information on "Yulia" and the social worker talked to us about the family.

Yulia's mom was a young single woman that only signed the release papers because of Yulia's cleft issues. Her mother (Yulia's grandmother) works in the medical field and both women agreed that it was best for Yulia to be taken care of in this way.

Yulia had her 1st cleft surgery (lip) in April..........thus she didn't look much like the referral photo we'd received. I'm very glad that she's had the surgery, but she can't really breathe out of the right side of her nose...........it's really sad to hear her try to breathe.

Our 2nd meeting day was cloudy by my thoughts of her being left there. Though the caretakers work really hard and give the children all they can, they also can't give the children all the individual attention they need. She just spent 2 days getting tons of attention and being able to explore.......now she has to just sit there again. I watched her after we put her back in the wooden play pen in the play room on the 1st day (there are 2 really large pens there) and I saw her just sit and stare at the bottom of the pen. It was like I'd just put her in jail and there was no hope and nothing new to learn there. There were a small pair of plastic keys in the pen and she picked them up and kept hitting them on the floor.........not much excitement or fun could be seen. When we talked to her the 2nd day (after putting her in the pen) she was still laughing and interacting with us, like she was sure we'd be back.

I can only think about her wondering where we went and why we didn't come for her again. Then, when we do return in a couple months, she may be excited, but we'll only be able to see her for an hour that trip..............and have to leave again. She will never be able to understand that we'd be back in about 2 weeks to take her home. I can't stand the thought of how lonely this must make her feel and how much distrust it could build in her.

We know that Yulia will probably be walking by the time we get to return..............and I'm happy for her, but sad that I won't see it.

There are so many good things we've seen in this trip and so much more we're having to deal with in our thoughts.

I know that your prayers have really helped me to keep my fears at bay after talking to the doctors here in the states. I know that they also are what blessed us in being able to make an immediate decision on our little girl. We are so BLESSED by her and by our friendships.

We've been told by our interpretor (sp?) that we can return as early as Sept. 11th..........because the Judge is on vacation until then. She said when we return is totally up to us and when we get in our paperwork. I told her that all we're missing was the 171 (got it today in the mail!!!) and the dr. physical's that we weren't allowed to do until now. The 171 is now ready to head to the state department for apostille and we checked out the dr. information. We go tomorrow for blood work and then have to return in a week or so for the physical (once the bloodwork has returned). Hopefully we'll get it totally completed and to Austin (for apostille's) before I have to return to work for 2 days on the 14th (a week from tomorrow)/15th..........or at least before I return full-time on the 20th.

I'm going to post video/pictures within the next few days. We've been given the ok to post them. You can see just how cute,smart, and tiny she is. I'll also post the original referral picture for her too so you can see the change.

Prayer Requests:

1. Isabelle Hope Yulia Casebier -- that she won't be sad/lonely and will quickly trust us again when we return and are finally able to get her. For her also to stay healthy and safe until we are able to pick her up.

2. Gary still needs prayers for a permanent teaching position........so he still has a little more flexible schedule still.

3. This also means that we have financial issues for the adoption as well. This was an unexpected blessing..........but that also means that our time to raise funds was limited. I'm figuring with about $4000 per trip in airline tickets and $3500 per trip in cash, that we need at least another $15000.........PLUS hotels. We have a little in the adoption savings account thanks to a couple of Gary's family members and a church garage sale. I'm just praying that God really opens those flood gates of blessing so we can bring her home without any MORE credit card debt.

4. Our medical reports to go quickly so that everything will be in Russia very soon and they can schedule our court date.

Thank you,

Terri for the Casebier's