Finding Home Part 4

Our first night in Bucharest included being shown to our beautiful, very old, home. We would be sharing it with other adoptive parents from Manitoba, but each couple would only pay $25 a night to stay. A significant saving over the $100+ charged at any of the hotels and a much better place (cockroach free, I might add) than many of the other options for rent. A blessing we didn’t understand until we saw some of the living conditions other Canadians were in while staying in Bucharest.

We also met our interpreter and his wife that evening-lovely people who became very dear to us over the course of the adoption and our stay in Romania. In fact, Katy’s middle name is the name of our interpreter’s wife. The story behind this is that when she made the trip in to the maternity hospital in Ploiesti (the city in which Katy was born, about ¾ of an hour from Bucharest), the birth mother indicated that she did not want to name the baby and that our interpreter’s wife should. So our wonderful, spunky friend named Katy after herself! I love that. We would have likely named her that anyway, but I think it delightful that she made sure it happened! M, our interpreter’s wife (initial to maintain privacy) had been told about a baby born to a young, single girl who didn’t want her baby to go to an orphanage, and had asked the nurse if they knew of anyone who might adopt her. One of the nurses knew that M had helped with foreign adoption in the past, so contacted M to see if she knew of someone. M answered that, yes, she had a couple from Canada coming in just a few days. She took a day off of work to go to the hospital and make arrangements with the birth mother and grandmother and convince the hospital staff to not let our baby go to anyone else (a real possibility). So that’s how we came to hear about our baby girl as soon as we arrived in Bucharest.

It is important for me to note here that just shortly before Bob and I arrived in Romania, the Romanian Government made it impossible to adopt from orphanages, due to an outcry from the Romanian public. Apparently many stories were floating around that the Americans were adopting babies and taking them back to America for scientific experiments, and the people in Romania understandably reacted to that news, true or not.
So the miracle of having a child to adopt so soon was huge, sicne many other couples coming from Canada had to spend much time searching for children “up for adoption” that were not in the orphanages yet. Many, many sad stories of children sold are the result of this situation. Bob and I are so thankful that we did not have to consider the moral implications of these situations.

I should also note here that given the situation with the orphanages, Bob and I chose not to pursue adoption of any other children at this point.

Our next day in Bucharest was spent checking in at the Canadian Embassy. We spent much time in line, and while there overheard a couple talking about their experiences while adopting. They went on and on about all of the frustrations they were encountering because they were adopting from a certain district, in which, they assured all those listening, “every jerk in the world” lived. I remember thinking I was glad we weren’t adopting a child from that district, until I heard the district they were referring to and with a sinking, even queasy feeling, realized they were using the name “Ploiesti”, which sounded just a little too familiar. More on this to come as I continue with our story.
The following days were partly spent going to Ploiesti with our interpreter to meet the birth mom and grandmother (the mom was a minor so therefore needed a parent to sign for her) and to begin the legal process of adoption. Very interesting meeting your child’s birth mom but not being able to communicate other than through gestures, eye contact, and through an interpreter. It was a moving and humbling experience to pick her up at the maternity hospital at which she had given birth and to know that she was leaving it without her baby. I am so thankful we had the opportunity meet the both of them and hopefully show them that her baby’s new parents were honest, loving people.

Katy stayed in the hospital and through some connections of our interpreter (S), was transferred to a pediatric hospital in Bucharest. S felt it was best she stay there while we worked on the adoption, so we were free to do what we needed. This was at the point where we all still believed that the adoption would be processed at a reasonable rate, so the decision made some sense at the time. Looking back, I would give anything to have brought Katy home with us right away. It would have been best, from this perspective anyway, but I have to trust that there are things I didn’t see or know, or that God’s grace will cover this as well.

Our first meeting with Katy took place a couple of days after we arrived in Bucharest. I remember walking into her room and seeing this absolutely gorgeous baby girl with a MOP of black hair and amazing dark eyes blinking up at us. Was this going to be our daughter? More grace and blessing than I could ever have imagined. How incredible. I also remember holding her and promptly being peed on, but we just laughed out of the sheer joy of meeting our girl. What an experience.

Come back tomorrow for more of the story!