Our last visit with Nikita was this morning. The visit was a bit more low key than our others. He was less interested in the toys and just happy to sit in Ann-Marie's lap to play. He was more talkative today, and was really doing well repeating words in English.
It has become clear that Nikita is a very special boy. We continue to get a sense that he is very special to the orphanage staff. It is now coming into focus the unusual lengths that many people have taken in order to make sure that he has a home. The director of the orphanage spoke with me (Brent) for quite a while about her desire to come to Dallas next year. She asked if she could come and visit Nikita at our home. It was an amazing feeling to know that she cared so much for Nikita and felt so comfortable with us to ask to come and visit (especially since she knows about as much English as I do Russian)!
It was difficult to leave Nikita, knowing that it will be more than a month before we will return. He now clearly looks forward to seeing us. When we arrived today, you could see him light up and look at his caretaker pointing at us while patting his chest, his body language screaming "Look, they are coming for me!" At the end of our visit, our driver, Vitaliy, tried to explain to him that it would be a while before we could see him again. He just shook his and said "Nyet." He was not OK with waiting a while. He held tightly as we walked him to his quarters. As we handed him to his caretaker and turned to walk away, his cries of "MaMa, MaMa" echoed down the hall. As tears welled up in Ann-Marie's eyes, the orphanage director put reassuring arms around Ann-Marie and told us not to worry that he would be home before Christmas.
This whole experience has been so taxing. Away from Maddie and Dylan, away from our familiar surroundings, unable to just take Nik and go home and be together as a family. The unnerving drive back to the hotel just punctuated our discomfort with heat, traffic, choking diesel fumes, and nothing in view to orient us. Our disorientation got even worse when the police stopped us on the way back to the hotel and pulled our driver into the nearby police station with us just sitting in the back seat wondering what is going on. Vitaliy emerged from the station 5 minutes later. "Just checking" was the only explanation offered. This place, and this process, requires depths of patience and flexibility that is exhausting.
Please pray for our whole family as we try to finish well. Less than 3 months to go...
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