Rewind...meeting the man!

We drove from the capital city to the region where our boy lives now...it was almost a 6 hour car ride. Yulia, our facilitator, and her husband, Yuri, drove us. I, of course, got car sick (happens all the time). So, I had not eaten breakfast and only ate some crackers and a granola bar all day with about 1/2 bottle of water. I was feeling like crap, but trying to not show it. We finally arrive and pick up the regional inspector (cannot remember her official title) and then we head to the orphanage. We met with the orphanage director, who was a larger woman with a tight silk nurse's outfit on...interesting. We were asked a couple of questions and then they asked if we wanted to meet Andrey. We, of course, said yes. We walked up some stairs and there he was, sitting on a rocking horse. I was expecting me to be little, but he is TINY!!!! Probably wears a 18 month-24 months old in clothes (he is 5 years old). The very first thing I noticed was how distended his stomach is...I am a nurse practitioner and I have seen a lot of distended tummies, but his is impressive. I was actually kind of afraid to touch him for fear of hurting him. Then the smell hit me...his mouth is filled with yellow/grey teeth and he kept burping and the smell almost made me throw up. I guess combined with my car sickness it was not a good thing. Anyway, he is just too precious (yes, a little stinky-but we can fix that). I was a little shell shocked after meeting him (which is perfectly normal). His eyes cross badly, his teeth are rotten, he cannot bear his own weight, he smelled horrible.....BUT he is PERFECT!!! He melted right into me, held my hand, grabbed my glasses and let me just hold and love on him. It hurts my heart to see how badly he has been neglected. He will need immediate medical care...like straight from the airport to the hospital. I hope his tummy is just full of gas, but I think it is something much more. Please pray for him that remains stable until we can get him home.