Day 17: We Want to Go Home!

I know in yesterday's post I was feeling sad about Alyona leaving behind all that she knows, but after today I can't wait to get her home and the sooner the better!

Today was a hard day. We arrived at the baby home only to find the doors locked. Funny, they were open last Sunday and nobody told us that there would be no visits allowed today. We were walking around to the back when we were approached by a worker. Brian was calling our facilitator to translate for us, while I was pulling out our photo album so she knew we were here to visit our daughter! She said she would need to ask permission from the doctor for us to visit, which we eventually got. While we were waiting in the hallway, we could hear a lot of commotion (yelling and crying) going on in their groupa. I assumed the children were getting their snow clothes on, but several of the children were crying (very unlike when we visit during the week). When they finally opened the doors, we could see that several of the kids were crying. Once we were outside, Aly had one tear fall down on her cheek. It was so sad to not know what was troubling my poor girl. I don't know if she got yelled at, or if she is sensitive to the yelling and the other children crying, but it was heart breaking. Needless to say she was out of sorts all morning. Who wouldn't be with that going on, but we tried hard to make the best of it.

Well, once we were finally going back inside, Aly fell on the steps. Her cheekbone hit the corner of the steps and her little hands or arms did not break her fall. She landed straight on her face. Well of course she started crying immediately (who wouldn't) and I started to comfort her. Well, Miss Thing-in-Charge, whom we had never seen before today, took Aly from me and apparently told her to stop crying, because Aly stopped crying immediately. I couldn't believe it. It was heart breaking! I knew she had to be hurting and I was trying to comfort her. I don't know who this gal was, but so help me...




While all the children were on their potties, one of the regular caretakers noticed Aly's bruise and scrape on her face and applied some ointment onto it. Brian typed on his iPhone translation app that Alyona had fallen on the stairs outside. I appreciated her noticing and doing something for her, but deep down inside my blood was still boiling.

When our visit was over, we called our facilitator to call for a taxi. Well for over the next 30 minutes there was no answer. We were outside, it was freezing, and we were on the opposite side of town, definitely not withing walking distance back to the apartment. We decided to walk two blocks to a market to see if a taxi was nearby, but no such luck. Finally, our facilitator called us back. Brian and I had been talking about our other options like taking the bus when our facilitator called. It seems that he had accidentally left his phone in the car. We were saved!

No afternoon visit, I've been in a funk the rest of the day, and the only thing keeping me going is that I can't wait to see Alyona again in the morning!