Meeting Nico and Santiago

We did have only 4 minutes to get out of the train. Fortunately, Andrei, Masha's brother and our loyal and cautious driver, was already waiting for us at the Kramatorsk station. First task: to get our three suitcases plus the double stroller into the trunk of the Hyudai Sonata, in the middle of 1 foot of snow apart from the one that kept falling...
Two of them fit in the trunk with the stroller. The third one shared the back seat with us. The drive was short. Masha offered us to stay in a little apartment inside her mother's house. We were there in less than 20 minutes. Her mother had prepared an "a la carte" breakfast that we had been able to coordinate also from the train. Fresh fruit and yogurt for me. Tea, ham, cheese and bread for Marielle. We had breakfast in 15 minutes, sent a short email to let our family know that we had made it to Kramatorsk, and prepared one of our suitcases with things to spend 2 days in Mariupol. I must confess that at that point (7am tuesday) Marielle was still wearing her ukrainian costume (high boots, skirt, party make-up and necklace...) and I didn't anymore if I had the scarf of the tie arround my neck. The same clothes we wore to the appointment with the whispering lady at the SDA, only they had more wrinckles and a certain odor we caught in our first class train compartment, aside from the bags under our eyes and the beard that was starting to grow on my face...

Well, we set off just like that. In the end it's all a question of attittude.

The trip had two stages: first, we would go to the Baby House in Artemovsk to meet Nicolas and Santiago. After this, we would go to Mariupol to meet Fernando Jr. and spend the night there.

We arrived in Artemovsk an hour later. The road was good but the weather was terrible. Very foggy, lots of snow and mud at the side of the road. At some points the snow was beginning to melt. We got to the Artemovsk Baby House de Artemovsk arround 9am.

We entered the small orphanage which looked very poor and old from the outside but felt very warm on the inside. Not only because of the heaters but mainly because of the smile, care and friendship with which we were greeted. While we went in, we would correctly salute everyone with a smiling "Dobri Dien" (courtesy of the Pflucker-Koval family) and thank with another smiling "Spasiva" (gracias) to those who showed us the way. We finally met Inna, a woman we had heard so much about from all the others who have been at this orphanage. Inna is the young director of the "Baby House" and she not only runs the place but knows and loves every single child in the orphanage as if it was hers. Additionally, she is in charge of making magic to make ends meet with the limited budget she receives which is not enough to cover the House's needs. Only meeting her made us realize how far we had come along. We finally felt we were soooo colose to meeting two of our children. Inna carefully read the medical records and available history on each one of them. We made some questions and she was able to answer to most of them. Finally we asked to see the boys.
One of the caretakers who was in the office went to get them. The door was half open. We could not see what was about to happen very well but we could hear when somebody approached. We tried to say something, or maybe not. Maybe it was just our thoughts. Our hearts were beating fastly. Suddenly we heard some footsteps, and some little footsteps as well. The door opened and we could see this tiny little child, walking, with his hair well combed, nicely dressed, who saw us and stretched out his arms to me saying: Papa!! It was Santiago!!! (Vlad) I was already on my knees at that point, with my arms equally stretched towards him and saying: sin!!! (son!!!) We gave a really biiiiiiiiiiiiig and long hug. I kissed him while I tried not to suffocate him with my long contained hug. He also kissed me and repeated Papa, Papa. Marielle, by our side, smiled with tears in her eyes and tried to be a part of this big hug. I don't know how long this scene lasted but I do know that it will last forever in the hearts of those that were there. We took a few pictures. Some were taken by Masha, who also laughed nervously for being a part of this chapter. Then, without even noticing, other footsteps were coming. It was the caretaker again but this time she had great Nico in her arms. The whole room lit up as he entered. I don't know if it was his big smile of his wonderful blue eyes. All he said was a very loud MAMA!!! Marielle could not contain herself and ran to him and hugged him.
At that point I don't know who cried, who laughed, some of us were on the floor playing, the director was trying to get to the door in between our legs, Masha couldn't decide wether to take pictures or go and play in the floor with us... a mess!!! A great and wonderful mess. We didn't care about the clothes or the high heels anymore, or anything else for that matter. The family was finally starting to come together.
We immediately went on to having some "pichinias" (cookies) to continue to win our sons over, but they looked pretty won over to me. We had pichinias, then we played with little cars, finally we took out some crayons with which, having no other paper at hand, we scribbled on the outside of the file that Marielle had brought with some important adoption documents...
We played and played and then kept on playing. Each pichinia costed one patzelui (kiss). Then there was a "Bush style" devaluation and the exchage rate went up to one pichinia for about 14 patzeluis, plus a few tickles, bites, and all the other stuff we "sudacas" do to show affection to our kids.
Until it was time to leave...
We were still at the Director's office, and besides we had to set out to Mariupol to meet the older brother (only a year older a still practically a baby). But that is part of the next chapter. This chapter would keep us company during the following 2 hours on the road.