Our current status Day 31

We were not expecting much news today as it is now Saturday and the embassy is not open and there was nothing we could do with the medical clinic either till Monday. We got a phone call earlier to discuss our next plan of attack. Basically we are hoping that my congressman got our email forwarded to the embassy and will work on helping first thing Monday morning. I am having little confidence in our embassy since the woman who I spoke with made it clear that they can't take any other doctor's recommendation. Even if I get 50 doctors to say he does not have pneumonia we still have the only one doctor that matters saying it is. So first thing we do is head back to that clinic on Monday morning with all the medical records and letters we have gotten from other doctors disagreeing with her finding. The most important letter is from the Children's hospital in Kiev where we were told to go to get treatment. Again they told us he did not have it and would not treat him for it.

I found out that it seems other doctors within the group may not agree with her findings but apparently office politics prevents them from stating so on the record. It seems as though even if there is an error they all gather up the troops and maintain a united front. I also realized that while in the United States you are encouraged to get second opinions however in this country it is an obvious no-no. Again this is uncharted territory for our facilitators here because in all the adoptions this is the first time this has happened. Our facilitator politely asked for the x rays to get another opinion and the doctor became upset and basically said in her broken English that she would give them to us but that she would not accept any new x rays from any other facility. Then she shoved the x ray in my hands and said.. now no crying. So that could be what set her off by asking for another opinion. I can't say for sure but it appears as if it did. And from that point on the troops rallied. Even when we spoke to two other doctors there after we got our second opinion one of them yelled at me and said they were all in agreement and again said she could not understand anything I was saying because it was blubbery. The only sympathetic doctor just asked us to go to the Children's hospital where they were more equipped to handle children's issues and told us to come back on Monday and he would issue us a new x ray appointment there in the future. Future meaning about 2 weeks.

I ask that you pray for us and keep praying. We are now on 4 weeks no pay for Dave, our cancelled flights have cost us 350.00. We will get a refund of about 1500 of our flights but it will be at least a week for that. So even if we can leave on Tuesday it will now cost $2000 and without that refund available we are stretching and begging family for money to get home. Luckily we have enough money for a few more days of apartment but if they drag it out 10 days that will not be the case. I keep thinking I will run out of tears soon.. hoping to become numb to it all but they still keep coming as I think about it. I blog about it to release these emotions because I have to maintain a strong front when Joshua is awake. I can break down in the bathroom or late at night while he is sleeping but I will be damned if I fall apart with him. As I watch him sleep peacefully and every once in a while I see a smile creep on his face while sleeping I see a little boy who never had a mom or a dad to provide stability for him. He deserves that and when he legally became our son and even before that I vowed to be that mom for him. He was left at a hospital and let down by one set of parents he will not have that again. Never again... Now I am off to go to bed and sleep next to my sleeping son and kiss his little red head and cross of another day here.