June 11, 2007
Visit to the orphanage
Today we visited the orphanage office and then the orphanage itself to see my brother for the first time. The day started out especially dark with lots of rain and clouds but was overcome with the anticipation of finely meeting my new brother in a few hours
My dad and I first made our way to the orphanage office to check on the status of the adoption papers. Getting there was somewhat disappointing for us, we were told that Daniel would possibly be ready by the time we leave. I can deal with “possibly” but when we got there we found that almost nothing had been done and we were told “the best thing we could do right now was to pray that God makes the government faster”. We spent about 3 hours going in circles till they changed their mind and said they “couldn’t do anything related to adoption until their boss told them they could do it”. This whole ordeal had been a huge disappointment for me. But through all this we did get permission to visit so we could see Daniel at 2:00pm … this made the meeting worth it. When we left the office at around 11:45 it was decided to walk to the collage down the way and meet some people there. Everyone seemed to be very content with the way things were run and we talked to some very friendly people until 1:00, when we walked back to the office. Part of the arrangement that was made that morning was that we would take an older boy along to show us the way. The hour ride that followed was a bitter sweet time for me and my heart was filled with disappointment on how the day had gone and joy that Daniel was waiting for us.
When we arrived at the orphanage it was very quite and only a few kids were visible as they sat in the door-way to their dorms. We slowly made our way to the office to meet the director and announce our arrival. He greeted us with a handshake and told us that he had heard we were coming. When I turned around again I saw Daniel making his way toward us from the other side of the orphanage his crutch moving as fast as it possibly could. in the first few minuets with my brother lots of hugs were exchanged and tears fought back but not many words were spoken, simply because nothing could be said to make that time any better.
The time we could spend at the orphanage was very limited due to the rain and how late in the day it already was, but Daniel was able to show me most his friends and a taste of the place he had called home for the past 9 years before we had to leave. All total we spent a little over an hour walking around. My first impression of the orphanage is that it’s a place filled with an unknown tension that is felt by everyone there. I only saw my brother and a girl our friends are adopting smile and not more than 4 kids came over to meet us. The time spent talking to Daniel was well worth it, but I feel bad that we had to leave him there for a few more nights until we get all the unfinished adoption papers sorted out. The ride home was very gloomy, rain was pouring down and most of the roads were starting to become flooded. Overall the day went as “planned” but with lots of disappointment.