We got moving this morning at 8:30.  I think I got at most 2 hrs sleep.  We called the inspector and made arrangements to meet her to get the letter of invitation so we could visit the orphanage in Gvarvdyeiskoye.  The orphanage is out in a rural farming community.  Its difficult to find because its tucked behind a subdivision.  It took about 20 minutes to drive here - keep in mind that Simferopol is a small town itself.

We arrived and went to the director's office to give her the letter.  Roman was there waiting for us.  He is smaller than I expected and they had him dressed up for me.  We spent a lot of time talking with the director and Roman.  I showed him photos of the family, told him what to expect when he gets to the USA, tried to explain to him about adoption process.  I assured him that I didn't care about any health problems he may have and that he didn't have to be on his good behavior with me.  I was going to adopt him no matter what and to just be himself.  I told him to expect to be frustrated with the communication problem but that I would help him to learn English and it all would eventually get easier.  I felt sorry for Roman.  He looked like a deer caught in head lights.  He was only told about us coming 15 minutes prior.  He was very overwhelmed.  The director told us that he was very excited about being adopted.  So I asked him that if after hearing all of the things that would happen and some of the obstacles he would encounter if he still wanted to be adopted.  He said "yes".   So then we talked about the name changing process and gave him the opportunity to change his first and 2nd name if he wanted.  He decided to keep them the same.  He also agreed to let me name him Thornton as a 3rd name.  So his name will be Roman Yuryevech Thornton Nolley.

We let roman go with his teacher, Natasha while we started paperwork.  We found out that Roman was born in Yalta so that means 2 cities that we will have to process papers in.  He also had been at another orphanage from age 5 to 7, so that's an additional orphanage we will have to deal with on papers too.  The orphanage was missing some original papers.  They had a copy of the court decree terminating parental rights.  We will have to travel to Yalta to get a new original for the Judge in Simferopol.  We expressed to the director our urgency in getting the paperwork processed.  So the director was going to call the doctor, assistant director, and secretary into work tomorrow.  They usually have weekends off like we do in the USA.  We had to get the paper work from this orphanage done before we could head to Yalta.

I think Norma's girls must have been the first adoption that this orphanage has had because they are pretty clueless on what they have to do.  The NAC changes the process weekly and these folks haven't kept up because people just don't want to adopt older children and especially children in an orphanage for the mentally delayed.  The director was saying that another couple from Spain is trying to adopt a girl here and has already spent 2 months just trying to get the paperwork done.  So she was pessimistic that we would be able to get it done in 1-2 days.  Luda tried to assure her that she has been doing adoptions for 5 years and that it could be done.

When we finished going over the papers, I met with Roman and he took us on a tour of the orphanage.  He said there are 16 children in his class - mostly girls.  I asked him who his best friend was and he said he didn't have one because all the children in his class are his good friends.  He wanted to take the chocolate that I brought him back to the class to share with the kids.  I also brought him a book written in Russian & English that teaches him English along with the CD lessons & player.  The director said I should take the player back with me because the older kids would just take it from Roman.  I asked Roman what sports he liked to play and he said soccer.  He has never played football, basketball, baseball, or volleyball.  He also said that his class doesn't have any toys to play with.  They just play outside.

After visiting with Roman we left for Simferopol.  Luda had to meet with the inspector to talk about the paperwork.  When we finished with that, we grabbed dinner and met with Yonna.  We finally made it back to the apartment about 8:00 p.m. and went to bed early.