Our day started with Igor picking us up at 9 AM for the hour ride to Poludino. The orphanage is located in this small village about 60 kilometers east of Petropavlovsk. Igor and our coordinator, a woman named (phonetically, at least) Shobahn, rode in the front seats while Robin and I sat in back.

Traffic lanes and laws are on the endangered species list in Kazakhstan. We were doing 150 kmh (about 90 mph) for most of the ride. And we were on whatever part of the road was the least bumpy, left right or center. Visually stunning in the morning light were the many stands of tall birch trees, their white bark nearly glowing.

As we neared our destination, Igor turned onto a road and we slowed to cross some railroad tracks. Igor pointed out that these were a part of the trans-Siberian railroad. Yep, we're pretty far north. A little further on stood the orphanage, home to some 90 children. Igor wound his way among several massive piles of coal already positioned for winter heating needs.

Pulling up to the door we were greeted by Yuri, the orphanage director. A handsome man in his fifties, we exchanged greetings and then Robin and I went inside to wait while he, Igor and Shobahn conferred outside. After about ten minutes, the three of them joined us in his office and Igor said "He would like you to talk about yourself and why you're here." With the
practice from the previous day's Ministry of Education encounter, I once again launched into who we were, where we lived, what our occupations were and a description of our family life.

Shortly before leaving on this adoption trip, I'd scoured all our photos from the last couple of years to produce a 24 page photoessay of Julia and how she has adapted to becoming our daughter and living in America. Each page has both Russian and English titles of words such as school, skills, friends, trust, happiness, etc. Then there are 4 or 5 pictures showing learning, playing, and just generally enjoying life.

It seemed like an opportune time to introduce this material so I asked Yuri if he would like to see how Yulia (again, using the Russian pronounciation) was doing since our trip in 2004 to adopt her in Ust-Kamenogorsk. Yuri nodded and then began paging carefully through the entire book, asking some questions and commenting favorably on almost every page. He seemed particularly interested to see the page titled "heritage" showing the Kazakh flag that Julia and I attached to our front door as well as the ethnic horse painting that stands over our
fireplace.

As he finished examining the last page titled "family," Yuri looked at us and said that it was evident that Julia is a happy child and enjoying her new life in America. He wanted us to confirm what sex child we were looking for and we replied "A girl." We explained that "Julia would like a sister." Yuri looked thoughtful for a few moments and then told us that he had a "very special" girl who was beloved by the caretakers. It was pretty clear that it was the highest trust to allow us to consider adopting her. Her name is Kristina and she will be 6 years old on October 13th.

Robin and I eagerly agreed and Yuri called an assistant to bring Kristina from her group's room into his office. After a brief wait, the door opened and a little peanut of a girl strode into the room and said "Strav-voh-tyee" ('Hello' in Russian). Robin and I were all smiles as we retuned her greeting and admired this sweet little girl wearing a red dress and a big white bow in her hair.

Kristina was eager to see who would be her sister, so Yuri took her through Julia's photoessay. Then Kristina came over by us for a first hug and kiss. I presented her with the Russian-speaking doll, Anna, and she was very happy to hear her English and Russian phrases. With a solid start on our introduction to Kristina, we headed for the playroom for a chance to play and bond.