We want to apologize to all of you who have supported our adoption effort, for the absence of updates during the past month.  We truly appreciate your help and will try to keep everyone better informed moving forward!  Since our last update, Nadia has been visiting Nicole at the orphanage every weekday, and I've continued to focus on work and spend time with the kids.  There is some important news to share, and I am trying to learn how I can upload photos to this site.

Friday, November 13, 2020

We were really looking forward to this day as it was to be the date of our adoption court hearing, but things did not go quite as planned.

Nadia and I started the morning by visiting Nicole at the orphanage, where Nadia continued efforts to teach her to eat through her mouth. Sadly, although she is nearly 2 years and 5 months old, Nicole has never been fed orally, and instead has only been fed by a feeding tube that runs through her nose down to her stomach. Nadia is researching how to approach this and Nicole’s other health issues, and is consulting with a doctor in Moscow. I was glad to see that Nicole was receptive to bits of pear that Nadia scraped with a spoon and placed gently in her mouth. It was clear that she didn’t know how to chew, but she swallowed the small amount of food that was given to her. This will continue to be an important focus in the coming weeks.

From the orphanage, we drove to the courthouse for the hearing. Unfortunately, soon after it began, the judge announced that the hearing would be postponed, as a government representative who needed to be in attendance was not there. We were disappointed by the delay, but relieved that it was rescheduled for only three days later.