Update: We'll get the answer tomorrow

So, today didn't seem to go so well, and I need to get to bed, so I don't have time to post the rest that I wanted to from yesterday. I'll just post today's photos and enough info to keep everyone praying for us.

Tomorrow at 8am our time we meet with the inspector's office and then he will send someone with us to the orphanage to get the answer from the children. Snezhana agreed to give it tomorrow. She can also give permission for Denis to go without her, but we hope it won't come to that. "S" and Brian both agree that she is most likely to say no. We can only pray that God will move in her heart towards her loyalty to Denis to come with us rather than let him go without her.

Denis being silly with Papa!

We found out this morning that the SDA might be closing next week (see previous post), so we had "S" tell Snezhana this today and tell her that if she wants to say yes she needs to do is sooner rather than later, in hopes that her response can be logged before they close. She said she wanted to go for another visit, but not forever. We tried to tell her, for like the 5th time, that she can come back later if she wants. We even told her that when she's done with school, if she still want to come back, that we will help her (i.e. pay for airfare, etc.). She seemed to not want to listen to anything we had to say and kept saying she didn't want to go forever.

Playing Chinese checkers

Today was different than the others in that we had to sit in a very cramped social worker's office with the kids and the social worker and "S." It was noisy outside the room with kids practicing for the St. Nicholas celebration on Friday. But inside the room it was very tense and quite. We tried to start up a game of Chinese checkers, but Snezhana kept finding excuses to leave the room to run off and chat with a friend, or get her phone, or whatever else she could come up with to leave, so we turned most of our attention to Denis.



He did some puzzles and colored and munched on an extra large Snickers bar we'd brought. He didn't seem to notice the tension between the rest of us. Finally she'd run out of excuses to not be in the room, so we settled down to the game of Chinese checkers. I'm not sure what time it was, but the social work had to leave, and she said we could sit out in the hall and leave when it was time for the kids to go to dinner. So, we moved out into the hall and sat in our usual places on the sofa and carpet to do puzzles and we made snowflakes for Snezhana to hang in the classroom.

We tried to talk during this time, but it was basically the same story as before, and then some new "excuses" (that's the only word I can think of to explain it) about why she didn't want to "come forever" ... everything she already tried we could refute so she came up with new ones ... the most entertaining was friends who don't live at the orphanage! We asked how she knew them and she said from other schools when they go for marching competitions. I asked if those friends were more important than her siblings (hoping to give her some perspective, which didn't work) ... she said no, but made no further comments.



She asked Denis several times in various ways if he would go without her. We also had "S" ask Denis a variety of similar questions, but he says yes to everything, so if you phrase it right he will say yes to conflicting questions. She said she would miss him and said she might change her mind ... seems like her mind was made up then, rather than undecided. I heard from several other sources that she told friends she would say yes, as late as last night, but still today saying she didn't know for sure. She did repeat to me several times that she does not have a boyfriend, despite several reports that she does.

She didn't want to stick around after she took Denis to dinner. Last night she took him and came back and that's when we finally broke through and got her to talk (through tears and clear anxiety). Tonight when she came back to us, she picked up the rest of the snowflakes and then said she had to go clean her room! Really??? What teenager wants to go clean her room?


After she left, "S" told us that it seems like she's made up her mind to be NO. We can only pray that God will move her heart and mind towards her loyalty to Denis ... she knows he needs to come ... we pray she will make the right decision for both of them.

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