Meeting Fernando Jr.

The first meeting left us badly wounded and this one appeared as if it would be the deadly wound, and it was...

The trip to Mariupol was longer and the weather was worse. The extreme fogginess slowed us down. We stopped to have lunch at the Mc Donald's in Donietsk. This time Masha did order the Big Mac combo for us but we were not charged for it and it was certainly not served to us. So we did not have any fries either... Forced diet which is always a good thing to do. Andrei had to stop on the way once more to take a little air, smoke his 88th cigarette of the day and wake up a little bit since it was getting harder to concentrate on the road after lunch, especially considering the dark and foggy day. We got there alright. Andrei is very cautious. Before going to the orphanage we had to go pick up the social worker who had attend the first visit. It was a little unnerving because he was busy and we had to wait for him in the car for almost an hour. Finally, Arcadi showed up and got in the car with great enthusiasm.
Solnichko (which means "Little Sun") is Fernando Jr's home, as it is for 120 more kids. The Director is a charming lady, she is very professional and runs the place in an almost impeccable way. We had a talk with her, in the presence of Arcadi and the Psychologist. They had never met anyone who had been born in Chile before so they asked me what made my country special. My nerves almost betrayed me and I almost said "Football (Soccer)"... I could recover my senses and almost said "Wine"... Realizing my difficult situation, Marielle cut in and said two or three beautiful things that I couldn't say for myself. I was saved! Time flew because we already knew they had to read us the whole file and we had to pretend we were interested in the small details when all we really wanted them to do was to bring us our son. They asked "Everything OK?" We answered "ochen jarasho" (very good). They all laughed and one of them went to get our boy.
There were some seconds of anxious waiting, a tense smile drawn in our faces until we clearly heard small footsteps which became faster and faster as they approached, until they reached the door and a small and wonderful creature flew to my arms screaming Papaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!! What can I say, that you are not already imagining? What can anybody do in front of such a great gift??? There we went again, directly to the floor right in the Director's Office, crawling and laughing and everything else... only this time we were immediately shown into another room.
We went into the music room. Fernandito and I were holding hands and from that moment on there was no way to break us apart. I got the first gift out of my backpack: a little 4X4 big foot truck. He yelled: Machina!!!! (car). Then I got out a small motorcycle and he yelled: Motorcicle!!! This was it, he took them off my hands, teared the packaging apart and started an endless game along the Orphanage carpets. By then, 5:30pm, half an hour later, the machina and the motorcicle needed full service. Trying to change the subject, we pulled out the laptop and started watching a video our girls (Ale and Mica) had made in Guatemala for the boys. They were both at the swings saying "Hola!!!" Fernandito repeated: "Hola Ale, Hola Mica!!" We watched it many times, we went back to the machina and again to the video and the motorcicle and the video and the machina... There were lots of pichinias and hundreds of patzeluis with hugs, bites, tickles, and everything else (just the way it should be). Then we were called back to the Director's Office. We didn't know if it was because we were too loud, or they thought we were setting a bad example for him, or just to confirm our decision. I think it was a little bit of everything, but in the end everybody was very happy because we had obviously completed our family. We had already managed to finally meet our three sons and they had also met us... Before we left, Ferni broke our hearts as we had already anticipated... Holding strongly to my hand he looked at me and asked: "Are you going to take me home now??? "