Day 5 - Meet the New Horbs

Terinopol Train Station

This morning we arrived in at the Terinopol train station at 7:15am. After sleeping – or at least trying to – since the train rocked all night – we pulled into the train station to sunny and blue skies. Our driver met us and we (Valery – our attorney, Karen – our facilitator, Maxim – her friend, and our driver, Oleh) walked around until we found some breakfast. It was a little difficult to find breakfast; it’s not common to go out for breakfast here. You can buy hats and purses at 7:30am, but there was no coffee to be found. Finally, at the Terinopol hotel, we found a breakfast buffet. After eating, we went to the apartment and got cleaned up. We then went to the Inspectors office, and he was not in. So, we went to a grassy area overlooking a lake. I took a much needed nap and Zenon went exploring. Pretty soon, Valery got the phone call that we could meet the Inspector. We went to a different office, and were able to meet with the lady directly under the Inspector, her name was Maria. She was very helpful, and immediately arranged for us to go to the orphanage and meet the children.

We drove about 15 minutes to a small private orphanage run by the Greek Catholic Church. We met the Director, Natalya, and soon the children. They hadn’t been told that we were coming, and were not aware of the situation. They showed us their rooms, where they ate, where they played, and were completely taken with our cameras. They began to take photos of us and each other. Soon the director first spoke with the oldest, Ruslan, and explained why we were there. He seemed cautious at first at which time we showed him the small photo albums that we brought of the house and our kids. Also at this time, the director took the younger two children aside and began to explain to them what was happening. We showed them the pictures also, and Alena wanted to know if she could play with the toys in the girl’s bedroom. Ruslan asked if he could run with Mazie. Yuri was all smiles with a lot of questions. We told them that we would come back tomorrow, and Alena told us that she is done with school at 1pm and told us to “please come quickly”.

Here are some photos:


Ruslan, Alena, Yuri


Zenon & Ruslan


Zenon & Yuri


Alena wanted a picture taken with her new house!


Alena & Yuri looking at a picture of Elyse, Alex, & Addie


By the way, it took me 20 minutes to upload these pictures! We were only able to use the dial-up at our "taxi" drivers apartment. Tomorrow we will need to find a Wi-Fi connection somewhere!