From Yaroslavl

Sorry we didn't post yesterday, but we were far too emotionally drained. It was a very long day. We travelled to one orphanage in Tolbuhino in the morning (about 1.5 hours outside of Yaroslavl) over very bumpy roads in a crowded car. Our translator, a social worker, our hired doctor, the driver and Ken and I. It was a very dismal day weather wise. Not only was the visit to the orphanage emotionally draining, but so was seeing all the poverty. Once you get out of the bigger cities, poverty becomes much more evident. We then returned to Yaroslavl and headed in another direction to Rybinsk, where we visited another orphanage. It is hard to post or explain next the result of our visits. The great news is that we did find our forever son in Rybinsk. His name is Ruslan. We formally accepted his referral and are very excited about it. Unfortunately, he will be an only son. We had a very difficult night trying to decide what to do about the other boy we visited. It was with a very heavy heart that we had to turn down his referral. This second boy had just too many problems. We were very scared that he was just too fragile to make the transition. We spent the rest of the day today trying to regain our emotions over that decision and to focus on the positive with our new son. We will see him again tommorrow. He is so cute and clever. His personality is very infectious. We could tell right away that he was meant for us. He seemed also very excited to see us. We hope to try to forge a bond with him before we leave. This afternoon we did some sightseeing in Yaroslavl. There is much history here as this town has been around for 1000 years. It is actually very beautiful. We had all kinds of different weather today, cloudy, rainy, snowy and sunny all in one day. Now it is time to have dinner. We will try to post again tommorrow or Sunday. Thank you all for your prayers, they are holding us up right now.