From Russia, with Love and ADHD

The day we have waited so many months for had finally arrived. Galina had made an awesome breakfast, but of course we could not eat since we had so many emotions happening at once. Marina came about 9am to pick us up and I am thinking we would go straight to his orphanage. I was very wrong, there are many official things you must do before meeting your potential child. We had to hand our passports over to someone we had just met about 12 hours ago, so that she could register us with the region. Next stop was the adoption center, they handle all adoptions in this region both by foreigners and Russian citizens. We were left in a hallway for what seemed hours, kept watching the same women walking in and out of offices giving us strange looks every time they walked by. Finally it was time to leave, we were thinking it was another business stop. We drive down this area that reminded me of our low income areas, to a run down building that has a fence around the property. This was the Vladimir city orphanage, hidden away from everyone almost like they were keeping it a secret. We walk in and were greeted by several children in mismatched clothing, they asked Marina who we were there to see. The children all know Marina and when she has "Americans" with her they are taking someone to America. This is both exciting and sad for them, excited for their friend but sad for themselves.
We were taken into a room that looked like a living room and were left there alone. Marina is going to bring "our son" to meet us. I heard his little voice about a minute before we saw him. The first time I saw Max he looked so tiny compared to what I expected. The pictures we had seen made him look like he was the size of a healthy 4 year old. He was very tiny and his skin was almost translucent, almost sickly looking. He came in holding Marina's hand and she asked if he should call us Momma and Papa, What do you say? We said sure, So he comes over and gives us both a big hug and turns to Marina and in Russian says I am going to America with them on an Airplane. To my knowledge, neither America or Airplanes were ever mentioned to him. We spent about 2 hours with him, we had brought him some special toys that we played with. The orphanage director and assistant went over what details about his life that they had, over an afternoon tea. We were so busy spending time with Max that we forgot to take pictures, Thank goodness Marina said something and we did get some. After the director told us about Max she asked if we still wanted him, I don't like to compare this to the animal shelter but that is what it felt like. This was a very crazy question, we had spent months looking at his picture and fixing up his room and she was asking if we still wanted him. Over the next few days we were able to spend a few hours a day with him and even were able to take him away from the orphanage. He really warmed up to us quickly, and we were all crying the day we said goodbye for 2 weeks. Russia required 2 trips, first one is for 4 days to meet the child so the officials can watch you and see that the child bonds with the family. The second trip can be anywhere from 2 to 6 weeks later, so you must leave your child there. Ours was just 2 weeks but we had to come home and take care of things before returning to Russia.