Goodbye Petropavlovsk...

Robin here. It is eleven o’clock Friday evening as I sit in the darkness of the living room with only the glow from this computer screen and some outside lights to help me see beyond my nose. My mind is racing with thoughts of tomorrow and our flight to Almaty where we will spend six nights at the Hyatt with our new daughter. Still, there is so much sadness in my heart as Greg and I prepare to say goodbye to Petropavlovsk. We have truly come to love this place.

I’m remembering our last trip to the Poludino orphanage when we went to pick up Kristina and bring her to our temporary home. Watching her say goodbye to her group mates and to the mama’s was so emotional for us. Yet, I was compelled to ask Greg and Kristina to please come with me to the playroom one last time before we left for good. I remember walking into that room and scanning each and every inch of it in the hope that I could somehow file it away in my mind forever. Kristina was so cute the way she ran through the obstacle course and jumped on the mini trampoline one last frenzied time. She didn’t do it for herself. She did it for us. She saw the tears in my eyes and she understood that I was sad to leave the room where we bonded together almost every day for over a month.

Now, we are ready to leave behind our memories of this apartment. Not just the memories of the time we have spent here with Kristina, but also the memories that Greg and I shared as a couple -- just the two of us, before Kristina came to stay. We shared the same special time together as a couple in Ust, prior to Julia leaving the orphanage, too. And, as much as we loved having our daughters leave the orphanage to be with us, there was a certain sadness in losing that connection once it was no longer just about us.

These two adoption experiences have filled our hearts to the brim and our emotions are overflowing as we prepare to close the chapter here in Petro.
The trips have been long and the stresses immense at times, but making it to the end of the rainbow (not once -- but twice) has reaped rewards beyond anything we might ever have imagined for ourselves.

So now it is time to say goodbye and take the remaining steps necessary to get us home. We’ll no doubt shed some tears tomorrow when we say goodbye to Igor at the airport. And, we’ll probably think about the orphanage and the apartment with the merchants selling produce five floors down outside our window. But, those feelings will be replaced with the excitement and anticipation of being just a week away from landing in Chicago with Kristina and bringing her to our home --.her home. And I guess that’s where the next story begins…