Last Visit with Danielle

Today is the last visit with Danielle. David has full blown cold symptoms. We told Irina and asked if we can stop to purchase a face mask and cold medicine. Irina stoped about a block away from the baby house, ran into the pharmacy and brought back two medical paper masks and a Russian version of Theraflu. We are very grateful, this will allow us to visit Danielle and not be afraid of passing on the cold. We arrived in the morning and Danielle was very happy to see us. We again spread out the toys and snacks. She ran to us and gave us big bear hugs. The medical mask David was wearing did not scare her at all. We did notice that several of the care takers wore them from time to time, so whenever there is a cold this must be common practice.

We were able to play with her for about a half hour alone while Irina left to get Danielle's social worker(sw). The sw will appear in court to represent Danielle's best interst. We sat on the floor and continued to play with Danielle during our interview. We reviewed the family history, the medical history and were asked if we were ready to accept a child with the family history and medical issues as presented. We told her we were very happy to accept Danielle and would love her. God had whispered a thought to me and I shared it with the sw and will share it now. "Danielle has been our daughter since conception, it just took us a little while to find her." Only God knows the reason for the amount of time it has taken for us to be together.

During our visit, Danielle continued to play back and forth between David and me. David and my attention became split between the sw and Danielle. So Danielle occupied herself and was now so comfortable with us, she had begun to go to the duffle bag and pull out the toys and snacks she wanted. The sw commented about how pleased she was with Danielle's comfort and attachment to us. The sw said it is very rare to see a child of her age become this attached/comfortable in such a small amount of time. She also commented on how prepared we were to test her development and could see we would provide Danielle with the necessary love and teaching toys to help her fully develop and grow. With a big sigh and thank-you we said bye to the sw. Irina left again to drop the sw back at her office, we only had about a half an hour before we would have to say good-bye to our Danielle.

This had been a big week for all three of us. We had spent eight hours over four days with Danielle. She became very tired and decided to sit down in papa's lap, wiggle herself into a comfortable position, layed her head back on papa's chest and went to sleep. Wow!!!! This little girl could not have said I LOVE YOU any louder than in her quiet trust of papa. I slipped over to take a picture and then we woke her up. We did not want her schedule to become messed up, her nap was coming up in about a half an hour. We laughed and got really playful with her to help her wake up. Then it was time to say Good-Bye, she had to go eat lunch. My comfort is knowing that God has known her from the foundations of the earth and the fact that she is being well cared for. She seems happy at the baby house and for now it is her home. I know God's timing is perfect and I must trust in Him.

Thank you all for your prayers,

David II, Debbie, David III, and Danielle Metzger