Tuesday Nov 30: long awaited day

Today was a big day. Well, ok it was a big morning. The rest of the day involved a lot of napping and rechecking my internet connection thingy.

One of the COCI members picked me up at 10:30 and drove me to the orphanage so I could meet up with my facilitator and the Breen Family.

My mission was two-fold 1) take updated pictures of kids who are already listed with an adoption organization, along with pictures of new kids and 2) see Ianna!

I arrived right on time, and we went up to the facilitator's office to drop off my bag and jacket. As I was getting my camera ready I took out the list of kids I was to get pictures of, and said, "Of course, I'd like to see Ianna too!"

That is when I got the devastating news that Ianna is no longer there. She has been transferred.

She had been moved just days before.

Go ahead and let that sink in for a minute before I continue.....

I cannot go into any more details than that, but you have to know it was all I could do to hold myself together. I turned away so my facilitator could not see my tears, and the deep breaths I was taking to prevent myself from loosing it. There were other things I needed to do, and other people waiting on me. My tears would have to wait until later, in privacy of my hotel room.

Next we went through the orphanage, a special event for the Breen family since this is where their new son had spent his first several years. They were even able to meet one of the caregivers who had been in charge of him before being sent to a foster home.

There was one little girl who remembered him from 3 years ago. A beautiful little girl, by they way, who will never be available for adoption because her social worker doesn't feel she is adoption material. There are 30+ stories like that. Wanna let that sink in too?

I took all the pictures I was able to take, then went back to my place. I cried for Ianna, then took a nap for a bit until I was woken by the doorbell. It was the landlord bringing me a new modem with minutes on it!

I looked at the clock, did the math, and realized Angela would still be getting ready for school! I could hardly get it in my computer fast enough so I could talk to Dean, and Angela before she left for school! I'm SO GLAD I did that, because the modem had TEN whole minutes of service on it, and THAT'S IT!!! Poor Dean had been left thinking he'd drop Angela off at school then come back for me to tell him the details about Ianna. I was so mad and disappointed when it disconnected. For the next 21 hours I kept checking to make sure it was *really* out of minutes or maybe my computer was just acting up.

So I was stuck in this city with no phone, and no internet, so no way for *anyone* to get in touch with me to let me know where I should be and when. The only thing I DID know was that my appointment with the Ministry officials to start the process for Axel was to be tomorrow at 10:00 a.m.