(I’ve posted a bunch right together so if you missed them, go check out day 1 and 2 below!)
Vita and Ilya picked us up at 9:45 this morning so we could try to the orphanage by 10. The weather here is rainy and cold for August (55-65*) so we haven’t spent too much time outside.
When we got there, Vita went and looked for you in your room, but they told us you were upstairs playing. When we got to the top of the stairs, you were in the peach room. You quickly came out to us. The peach room is a special room to me. When I found out what orphanage you were in, I spent hours searching for pictures of you. Your orphanage has a big peach ballroom type space where you have plays, host visitors, and have celebrations. I found you in a picture in the peach room and when I’d find other pictures of the same room I knew I was on the right track to find more pictures of you!
Speaking of pictures of you, about a month ago, I found out that a local photographer had come to your orphanage to take pictures of all the kids for a display he was doing on Children. I found a news story with a video about it and saw the most adorable picture of you! I couldn’t share it here because there were too many identifying details and I didn’t want to get in trouble.
But yesterday, the director of your orphanage brought us a picture book. She explained about the art exhibit. She said that they blew the picture of you up very large and it was the centerpiece of the show and everyone thought you were so beautiful! We already knew that of course 🙂 In this photo album were lots of other pictures of you from your time at this orphanage. There were lots we hadn’t seen! I asked if we could have copies and they explained that this book would be given to us when we take custody – yay! It’s still not a baby picture, but it’s some of the youngest pictures we’ll probably every get of you!
The first thing you went for in the bag this morning was the playdoh. Mama and Papa may have been too ambitious with the ice cream set though. It’s becoming clear that you aren’t given too many chances to “pretend”. It seems like you prefer to pick one task and do it over and over rather than try out new things. Or maybe, the ice cream set was just a little too old for you.
When you went back to get something else, you found your juicebox we brought! If we get the little juices from the market here we are allowed to give them to you so we take every chance we can get to get you a little more hydrated and get a few extra vitamins in you!
We brought this balloon set with a pump and long balloons like for balloon animals. You weren’t interested in pretending anything (hence the hat on my head and not yours) but you enjoyed blowing up the balloons and then letting them go to watch them fly.
Here you said something very close to “Papa, I do it!”
And here you said something like “Papa help!” It’s a big thing as far as getting comfortable with us. On our first trip, you would sit for a long time and try yourself. Slowly, the time it takes you to realize we won’t steal your toy or take it away and ask for help is decreasing.
And surprise, we made our way back to the bubbles. Today you went to the animals set up at this little table and blew bubbles on them. You were especially thrilled when they would land on the animals without popping.
We finally convinced you to sit still long enough to take a new family picture! Soon we will get the other two girls in one too so we can have everyone together!
We came back to the hotel and ate a can of soup we brought for lunch and watched tv. There are no english stations, but it’s still something. Then we took a little nap because we’re still so tired from no sleep the day before.
We made our way back to the orphanage at 3:30 today for our next visit! You said you ate a good lunch and took a good rest. This afternoon, you also said that you were excited to ride in the car and on the airplane with mama and papa. You said you were excited to go home with us to your new house! I don’t think you know what that means, but I’m happy that it seems they are talking about it with you and at least you don’t appear to be scared yet!
This is a video of you going through the photo album of all your pictures from the orphanage. I hope it works for everyone!
You found your new afternoon toy (sidewalk chalk) and we got your first drawing. You made lines and shapes very well, but weren’t interested in changing colors or drawing too long. We asked Vita to ask you what you drew, but you wouldn’t tell her. I’m voting for “cow”. If so, you and your cousin Benjamin will get along great since cows are his favorite too!
Here are some other things we did to fill the afternoon.
We heard from a friend who adopted from this region earlier this year that this pizza place, “To-To” had good pizza. I asked Vita when we were leaving the orphanage if we could call a pizza in and pick it up on the way by. That created lots of trouble so we ended up just stopping to put the order in and paying to have it delivered to our room rather than wait 30 minutes for it.
We ended up with the “Margherita” pizza which was about an 80% match to an American pizza.
Now we are just hanging out until it’s a respectable hour to go to sleep. I can’t believe day 4 is tomorrow already! I hope the weather is nice for one of our visits tomorrow so we can go outside!
soholdfast 
Wearing my Matryoshka Name Necklace and praying for all of you!
I'm glad your visits are going well! I hope you can go outside with her tomorrow. I loved the video–her little voice is so sweet!
Wow! She's quite the talker!! Super cute video.
the book!!!!!! do you bring that home before her? if so, i wanna see, if not, then i may get excited to see it in a few years 🙂
From your update, it seems like things are going smoothly so far! I love the pictures of you guys, especially together. Many prayers for the upcoming days!
I'm glad this trip seems to be going smoothly for you everyone. Many prayers for the upcoming days. The pictures of you guys together are beautiful!