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About soholdfast

CPA by trade. I dabble in real estate, quilting, crafting, painting and anything else creative as a way to use the other side of my brain. I'm a picky eater who likes to try new things.

On a wing and a prayer – Trip 3, Day 3

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:gasp: …that was a sigh of relief! This day has been more challenging than I ever could have imagined. When I said we were cutting it close by having to conduct all business we needed to do today, Friday, I only knew the half of it. I’m still decompressing and shaking as I’m typing this, let me explain…The morning started off normal. Vita called me down at 9:30 like previously planned. She already had the court decree and we were heading off to the ZAGS office. What we needed from them was an adoption certificate and updated birth certificate with our names to apply for the passport. We get there and go straight into to a large office room with modern office furniture. I sit on a couch in the corner of the room while Vita sits at the desk with the lady. They engage in some back and forth conversation for quite a while. I wasn’t sure, but the back and forth-ness seemed not to be a good sign. 40 minutes pass and she starts printing and stamping papers, so my nerves calm, we’ve got this. Though Vita still has not clued me into anything at this point. Then finally, just as we are about done, she turns around and tells me they will only be issuing the adoption certificate and NOT the updated birth certificate. Apparently a new law just went into effect in Sept where updated birth certificates may only be issued by the ZAGS office where the birth mother is registered at. Even though Sweet Girl was born in this city, her mother was from an outlying town and we would have to visit that ZAGS office. Vita isn’t from this area, so she had no idea how far that was away. But she and I had looked up her birth mother’s home town before on Google maps and I knew this was not a good sign. We return to the car and Ilya informs her where we need to go is over 100 km’s away. By this time, its 11:00am. I ask Vita how late the passport office is open, she tell me 4:00pm. I start doing the math in my head, this is not a good sign.

So we take off driving. We exit town over the river across a big bridge that she and I had seen before from standing at the Assumption Cathedral. If I’ve learned anything, I know due to road and traffic conditions, it takes far longer to cover distance than it does in the US. After getting outside of town, we have to stop for gas, but then the road turns into a quiet two lane highway. The country side is quite beautiful and we’re passing big fields, small shack towns, birch forests, and farms. There really isn’t much of anything except the occasional village or train tracks. The road is rough, but thankfully traffic isn’t too much of a concern being we’re in the middle of nowhere. After what seemed close to two hours of driving, a small little town square popped up in the middle of nowhere. Much nicer than anything I witnessed so far. We found the ZAGS office and as we were getting out of the car, Vita warned me it was lunch time. Sure enough, we go up and the door is locked. We return to the car where I play a couple of games of brick breaker on my blackberry and pass 30 mins until its 1:00. We go try again and its open! No one else is there but the counter lady. It takes us about 30 mins and we get the updated birth certificate with her and my names. Vita then informs me we need a “citizenship stamp” before going to the passport office and we would try to do that in this town. We drive to the other end of town square and she tells me to wait in the car and disappears for 30 mins. When she comes back, she says she should have known better, but the stamp must come from Sweet Girl’s town. So wasted 30mins and back we head.

checkpoint 2 – ZAGS office located!

Its 2:00pm by the time we start heading back. Now I know Ilya drove pretty aggressively on the way out because I could feel it in all the bumps in the road, but on the way back he took it to a whole new level. I felt like we were in the grand championship of the world rally federation and we were going for the cup! we were darting out and passing trucks and cars, sometimes 2-3 at a time, all along this wet 2 lane highway. One time I glanced over and his speedometer was touching 170kph, no joke (thats 105mph). We’re in a Ford S-Maxx… which i think amounts to a Focus and man that thing is flying over the rough asphalt, I’m just thinking keep 3 wheels in contact with the ground please. We’re running up on trucks going 30mph and he’s all over the binders, then we dart out into oncoming traffic to pass them. How that little car handles that sort of driving I’ll never know. There was no sleeping on this ride, it was hang on, grip tight! The rally adventure landed us back in town right at 3:30, and we still had to get the stamp before going to the passport office. I ask Vita if she thinks we’ll make it, she doesn’t want to hazard a guess. We pull over at an inconspicuous looking building I’ve passed many times, Vita hops out and tells me to stay put. 15 mins later she returns but I’m thinking, great the passport office must be across town, we’ll never make it. Thankfully, I didn’t know it was just down the muddy back alley a few hundred yards. So we get there and Vita and I jump out, its 3:45 by this time. We climb two flights of stairs and there’s the passport office. There was a hallway with four numbered rooms on it. Two younger people were already waiting outside. I’m thinking to myself, great, now we’re here, but there’s a line and they’ll probably cut us off while we’re standing outside the door! Vita sits down on the bench and organizes her papers, I go ahead and sign the application. One by one they get called in, now its our turn. Vita goes in and tells me to wait outside. 5 minutes later she calls me into the room. An older woman is sitting there going over all her papers, handing some back to her. 5 more minutes, she stamps things and hands Vita a piece of paper with a number on it, Vita says “lets go”. Just as we walk out of the office, Vita and I let out a collective sigh, we’ve done it with no time to spare! As we’re walking down the stairs, I hear Vita talking to herself and moving her hands in front of her… I’m thinking, is she saying a thank you prayer? We get back to the car and fill Ilya in on the good news, I thank him for his excellent driving.

So now is the first time all afternoon I can breathe. I’ve been hours in a car, all over the country side, at breakneck speeds… haven’t eaten a thing all day, haven’t stopped, and all I’ve been thinking in my head is what will be my plan B (change flights, extend stay over the weekend, what? as an FYI, Vita also has another family coming on Sun)… but it doesn’t matter now, we’ve accomplished it. I asked her about the less important bank work with Tatiana, and she said she had called earlier and Tatiana still hadn’t returned from vacation, so that was out anyway. We decided I would try to sign some blank forms for Tatiana in the hopes she could fill in the needed information, so we’ll see.  Then it was back to the hotel were we both celebrated and said our goodbyes. Vita will now be heading back home, she’s arranged for Ilya to pick me up at the hotel at a wonderful 5:30am to get me to the airport for my 11:50am flight. Just one more 3hr car ride in the morning and I’ll be on a plane starting my journey home, with almost everything I needed to get accomplished done.

No business, just play! – Trip 3, Day 2

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Since we had no official business for me to conduct, today would just be about visiting with Sweet Girl. As such, Vita decide we would meet at a later 10:00am to get going. This suited me fine as it gave me a chance to catch up on sleep and normalize my schedule… I think i barely made it to 9pm last night before crashing. When I got downstairs, Vita and Ilya had yet to show up so I waited for them in front of the hotel. They were here quickly and off to the orphanage we went. When we got there, Vita signed in. I’m not sure if we’ve mentioned, but you enter the orphanage through a small door in the back and right where you come in, there is a little desk with video monitors and a log book, always staffed by a strict looking lady. After signing in, Vita went to Sweet Girl’s groupa to get her (consequently her groupa’s entrance is right beside the security check-in desk). Vita quickly came back out and said she wasn’t here, they were out getting her passport photo’s taken and would be back soon. So we proceeded upstairs to wait in the conference room.Soon the social worker (also named Vita) returned with Sweet Girl. I’m not sure where the passport photo place is, but I got the impression they walked because our Vita mentioned something about offering our taxi. Social worker Vita explained Sweet Girl was very upset and crying about having her photo taken. The photo place gave her a picture of a cat that calmed her down (the orphanage has several stray cats that all the kids like), but you can see in her passport photo she was not a happy camper. I’m not sure why this was, if it was because field trips scare her and remind her of the doctor, or what. But she quickly came over and gave me a hug and all was fine.

sad passport photo 😦
the cat photo that made the passport pictures possible (photo courtesy of Sweet Girl herself)

She proceeded to jump into the bag of toys to see what I had brought today. She first got out a puzzle where I had to assume mama’s role in lining up the pieces and pointing to which one goes where. After that, she found a little sponge bob water shooter that i found in my box of cheerio’s this morning. For some reason, she though it was a telephone and kept holding it to her hear saying “ello”. She would then carry it around in the little pocket of her dress. The rest of the toys we burned through maybe giving 5 minutes to each. She found the bubbles, which still remains on of her favorites. She would blow them onto the dining room table where they would leave marks and she would go get a handwipe to clean them up. Then Vita asked me if it was ok for her to leave us alone to which I said sure. Vita said she needed to go to the Organ of Custody to get some paperwork done. After Vita left, Sweet Girl went to retrieving some existing toys off the shelf. One particular wooden ball stringing kit that we played with last time, so we sat on the floor and did that. Then she remembered her interest in the camera, this time learning how to turn it off and on (makes the lens retract) and how to work the zoom.

Sweet Girl’s SpongeBob “phone”

I don’t know how we got started on this, but she discovered if she climbed in papa’s lap, he would toss her up into the air and flip her upside down. This all of a sudden became our most favorite activity… to the point papa was getting a workout. She kept saying something that I believe amounted to “more, more!”. Then she would throw her head back and I would flip her upside down and give her lots of tickles. In my head I was thinking this is a milestone to see her excited and comfortable with so much physical contact. Our first visit, any touch would make her wince away. Second visit, we were getting hello and goodbye hugs, but otherwise still shying away. Now, she’s letting me pick her up and tickle her and asking for more… something I was really happy to see. After my arms were getting tired of tossing and flipping her, I showed her how she could ride on papa’s shoulders. We took some laps around the room, running and bouncing, she really loved it. I wish the weather was more favorable outside because I started to feel couped up doing laps in the room. Then somehow she managed to get the point across to me that she needed to use the bathroom. Vita still wasn’t back, so I let her lead me downstairs and back to her groupa. She waved goodbye and disappeared into her groupa (presumably to use the bathroom). This left me a bit confused… since it was 12:00 and her lunch time, I wasn’t sure if she was coming back. So I decided to head back upstairs and start cleaning up. Then a few seconds later, she found her way back upstairs and came barreling into the room, nope, guess we’re not done! She took a few more laps on daddy’s shoulders before Vita appeared and it was time to go.

riding on papa’s shoulders

Vita said the line at the Organ of Custody was very long, she did not get to conduct any business before leaving and would have to try again after lunch. So she would arrange of Ilya to take me back to the orphanage alone at 3:45 and she would meet me there as soon as possible. If not before 5:00, I was to return Sweet Girl to her groupa and come out and meet Ilya.

During my lunch break, I decided to walk up to the Assumption Cathedral, the town’s most historic site. She and I had been there before and walked all around the outside, but didn’t venture inside as we know head coverings are required for women to enter an Orthodox churches and wasn’t sure the protocol (did they give them out? did we have to go buy one? etc). So I decided to venture in following a large group of guided teenagers. When I got inside, I learned there was an 80 ruble admission (after briefly being confused as part of the group). The cathedral was smaller than I imagined, but quiet magnificent. It was set up in an H sort of configuration with four wings and a very splendid center alter. One wing seemed to be under renovation. Ceilings were quite literally a hundred feet high, very ornate, lots of gold leaf and writings on the walls all the way up.

For a brief bit of history, the Grand Prince used to be crowned here in the 1300’s before moving to Moscow’s Kremlin and the Assumption Cathedral there (which was modeled after this one). It was dimly light and there were these little stations of candles, each with a different number, that the ladies would come blow one out one every now and then… not sure what that signify, but I’m sure it signifies something. As I was leaving, there were lots of beggars lined up outside. From what I understand, its accepted for the old/ill to beg for money, but not the other people. And from my trip inside, I learned its more of a tourist site than a site of active worship, I did see several younger women visiting without head coverings. I think they carry on active worships in addition on the front of the cathedral that I didn’t go in.

After lunch I met Ilya downstairs, no Vita. We drove over the orphanage as planned, but this was the first time I’d be walking in alone. When I saw the lady sitting at the security desk, I said Sweet Girl’s name and pointed at her groupa’s door. She nodded and I proceeded to her groupa. Once you walk in, there is a mud room of sorts where all the kids put on their shoes and keep their coats tucked away. I peered around the corner from there and saw several kids running around in their underwear, clearly just having awoke from their naps not long ago. They saw me and were intrigued by this stranger in their domain. The lady from outside passed around me and went to let her caretakers know i was here (i suppose). Soon Sweet Girl came running out with all her toys in hand. She still had on her same dress and sandals from the past two days, but much to my surprise had nothing in her hair. I think this was the first time I had seen her with no bow. Again, likely because they had just woken up she slipped out without one, but it quite endearing to see her this new way.

We made our way upstairs to our usual play place and she jumped right into the bag of toys. She quickly found her 2nd round of juice box and fruit snacks. This time she wanted to savor them and eat them slower. I tried to show her some stringing beads and shoelaces we thought we be a big hit, but what do you know, they weren’t interesting. Then she found her harmonica, the hit toy of the day. She wasn’t quite sure what to do with it at first, but then papa showed her and she thought it was the best. We even performed some duets with both of us playing back and forth. Then it was time for more tossing, upside down-ness, and riding on papa’s shoulders. She liked the harmonica so much, she was even playing it riding papa’s shoulders. Then I wanted to see how she’d react to the iPad, so I got that out. She and I have been looking for kid friendly games, especially in her language, for the plane ride home, so this would be a trial run. She sorta understood the touch screen, but it was hard to get her to focus on a particular app. She just wanted to swipe, press, and constantly touch the home button as it was the only real button on the thing. We did have mild success and focused on a kid’s counting app (though in English). Despite seeming at times frustrated with it, she didn’t want me to take it away.

 

Then 5:00 came, still no Vita. So I had to put an end to play and start cleaning up though I’m sure this confused her as it came with no warning. Knowing this would be my last visit, I assembled all her toys into a plastic bag she could take back to her groupa, including her favorite harmonica. She grabbed the bag and her balloons and I lead her downstairs. On the way, we passed the director who said something to me I didn’t understand and pointed at her chest. I nodded and kept walking. Once back in the “mud room” of her groupa, I hugged her, did my best pronunciation of “i love you” and waved goodbye. This was tough, I knew without Vita there I wouldn’t be able to say a proper goodbye, let alone be able to explain I won’t be coming back tomorrow however mama and I will be back in just a few short weeks to finally take you home with us… hang in there little one. Instead, she looked into my face and repeated something back at me several times then said “da” or “nyet”? I wish I knew what she was asking and I hope I had the right answer. A couple more hugs, kisses, and waves goodbye and I walked out the door… hardly the goodbye I wanted. Right outside, I ran into the director again with her coat and purse. Now it made sense, she had asked if we would give her a lift home again (it has been common to make use of our driver). She said “Vita?” and I said “Nyet”… we both hopped in the car and off we went.

I last spoke to Vita before being dropped off for lunch. I have no idea if she accomplished her business at the Organ of Custody or not. Tomorrow is the big day when we’ll hopefully knock out all the important business I’m here for, so cross your fingers. Vita had told me she would run by the court and pickup our decree before coming to the hotel and paging me, that way I wouldn’t have to get up so early. From there, we’d go to the ZAGS office for her birth certificate and then to the passport office, the reason for this trip. With the leftover time, we’ll try to find Tatiana to discuss the handover of her bank account. Hope it all works out because there won’t be any extra days.

Hurry up to wait! – Trip 3, Day 0/1

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Almost 30 hrs ago, I stared my day… my first solo trip to Eastern Europe to visit our Sweet Girl. This trip is just a short formality to apply for her passport and only required one of us to be present. We figured we’d just send one of us and save on money as well as disruption to the twins. Since she has already taken considerable time off within her first year of a new job, we figured it was time to cut them a break and send me, leaving her behind to take care for the girls.The commuter flight from Charlotte to JFK was more interesting than normal. There was horrible weather in Charlotte, so much so a water curtain welcomed our entrance onto the plane and the vents were blowing mist – looking like an odd hollywood special effect. I sat in front of a mother from Turkey traveling alone with her newborn who didn’t speak English (the mother) and also didn’t seem to understand that gate checking her diaper bag meant you can’t keep going into it once the plane leaves the jetway. The excitement culminated in a creepy older guy that kept insisting her could help out by holding her baby. As if the drama and the weather wasn’t bad enough, apparently Vice President Biden has just flown into Charlotte behind schedule and had the runway all tied up. Nothing like hearing the pilot say the tower isn’t being forthcoming as there’s a VIP on the ground and a line of 20 planes in front of us. Between the weather and Biden, we sat on the tarmac for over an hour after our departure time.

I was slightly worried the delay would effect me, but I knew I had close to a 3 hour layover in JFK. In actuality it provided me just enough time to grab lunch before heading to my gate and loading up for the 10 hour flight. Dare I say I’m used to it, because I don’t think you can ever get used to it, but it was pretty uneventful. There seemed to be more time in darkness, but still, I cannot sleep on that flight. We arrived on time and heading through passport control and customs was pretty routine. When I got outside, I immediately saw Vita waiting for me and she called Ilya and we scurried off to the car. Now, here’s where things got a bit different. I’ve never arrived before on a middle of the week weekday, but the traffic was far worse than I could have imagined. What was supposed to be a 3hr car ride to her town turned into 5hrs. I think we literally spent 3hrs crawling out of the city. But the extra time allowed me to catch up on my sleep, so it wasn’t too bothersome.

We arrived at my hotel about 3:00pm for a speedy check-in. I got a room on the 3rd floor (elevator only services up to the 2nd) and in the corner of the rafters. Its not so bad, but wifi is much more sporadic than its ever been. The room has two small double beds and is laid out similar to what I’m familiar with just compressed. Vita quickly summoned me back downstairs and said she had called the adoption center and they hadn’t received the court decree yet so we would get in the car and head over to court to check with the court secretary. We traveled to the same building we had court in last month. Vita told me to wait in the car and she returned very quickly. The secretary had the decree but the judge needed to sign it and he was on vacation til Friday and no other judge could sign it.  Since we had expected to have this today or tomorrow, Vita had made an early 9am appointment at the ZAGS (registry) office to get her birth certificate. She said we would now head over there and make sure it was ok to come as soon as we received the decree rather than 9am. Once again I waited in the car.

ZAGS office

Then she asked if I wanted to go to the orphanage… of course!

We got to the orphanage about 4:00 and went immediately upstairs to the directors office where we were invited in to sit down. Vita and the Director proceeded to have conversation for what must have been 15mins with me awkwardly sitting there not understanding a thing. Then Vita finally filled me in they were discussing the paperwork and signatures needed turn over control of Sweet Girl’s bank account to us, a previous inquiry we had made. See, in Sweet Girl’s county, the government gives a stipend of sorts to every orphan, a “safety net” of sorts for when they age out of the system. This account is controlled by the orphanage director until the child becomes of age. However, what they were discussing is she can’t turn this over even though she manages it, only the city’s Organ of Custody, Tatiana (who we’ve met before), can… but Tatiana is also on vacation until Fri. To our knowledge, no adoptive parent has successfully claimed their child’s account in our region and in many cases, it may not be worth the amount of effort, but we wanted to give it a try. If we were successful, whatever funds could be transferred over to a college fund for her in the US vs being lost back to the government she’s leaving behind.

Thank goodness both Tatiana and the judge are expected back on Friday or I would have to wait here through the weekend until Monday!

After our conversation was over, we went to the conference/play room and Sweet Girl was brought in. She looked like she was doing very well, still a bit hesitant at first, but perhaps less so than last time. I quickly pulled her onto my lap and she said she remembered papa. We did our best to explain mama was at home watching her sisters but wanted to be here and missed her very much. It seems as though the orphanage has been talking to her some and trying to prep for her departure. She still claims she is willing to “leave with mama and papa”. After that, we tore into some toys I had brought… a couple old happy meal toys including an airplane with decal kit and some spring loaded little ball, play dough, and some inflatable punching balloons. So we played for about 40 minutes. When 5:00 hit, she wanted to gather up all 3 balloons and her happy meal toys and take them down to her groupa… it was quite funny seeing her try to carry a big armful of toys downstairs. I asked her if she wanted me to come back and play tomorrow and she said yes!

Papa and his Sweet Girl
She wanted all the punching balloons to herself!

So tomorrow we’ll have our only full length play session in the morning. Then Vita mentioned needing the afternoon to complete a bunch of paperwork, so I’m not sure I’ll get to see her twice. And of course Friday is now completely filled with all the official business we must accomplish on this trip because of everyone’s vacations. But hey, I’m used to things coming down to the wire now!

A rock and a hard place… preparing for Trip 3

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So 10/3 is just right around the corner, the 30-day mark from court when the court’s decree is finalized in writing, which consequently means trip #3 is just around the corner. Before I get into that, I thought it important to fill everyone in with all the happens of the last month as the process hasn’t let up just because we’ve had court.One thing that I should put out there is Sweet Girl’s region is unique among other regions in Eastern Europe as it requires 4 trips, not 3. The extra trip comes about from the passport application process which falls squarely between the courts decision and us being able to bring her home. See, Sweet Girl will travel to the United States as a foreign national and as such requires a passport from her country to travel on. In most regions, the task of applying for a passport can be delegated to your adoption facilitator through power of attorney so they may start the process while you’re in the US and all you have to do is arrive to pick up the passport and your child, then return home. Not so in Sweet Girl’s region, they require one of the parent’s passports to start the application, thus requiring one of the parents to be there. The turn around time for a passport in her region is also much longer than other regions, several weeks instead of several days, making it difficult to wait in country and splitting up what would normally be 3 trips into 3rd and 4th trips.On top of this, there is a secondary complicating factor, and that is visa’s we use to travel on. Up to this point, we have been using 30-day, single entry, tourist visas which are pretty trivial to get through any travel agent, we happen to use one based out of Seattle. In Sweet Girl’s country, visa’s cannot be issued without first an invitation from inside her country, so that’s the primary purpose of the travel agent, to facilitate the invitation from, for example, a foreign hotel, and to process the request through the consulate. However, we knew that in order to pick up her passport, we had to travel on an entirely different style visa, an adoption (aka business) visa. In order to get one of these, the invitation had to come from the adoption ministry in Sweet Girl’s region and the travel agent could not help us here. So knowing all this, after we finished up court last trip, we had asked Vita to formally request our business visa invitation (something thats normally done later). The other thing about business visa’s is they can be issued for multiple-entry across a longer than 30-day span. We had figured, if we got the invitation soon enough, we could travel on a single multiple-entry business visa for trips 3 and 4 and save about $500 over a single tourist for trip 3 and a single business for trip 4.

But there was also an alternative motive for going ahead and requesting our adoption visa invitations… we had full intentions of attempting to work the system, look for a loophole in the process, and combine the 3rd and 4th trips into one take-home trip. If we could get the passport process down to a few days, we could apply for it, wait, and pick it up, then bring her home all in a single trip. So, thanks to the Translate feature of Google Chrome, we spent a lot of time reading the information on the passport office’s website and found a small chink in the armor. A clause that states passports could be expedited within 3-days with a letter from a foreign doctor stating emergency medical treatment in another country is necessary. Because of Sweet Girl’s special needs classification, immediately when we got home, we worked with our pediatrician to craft a letter stating she needed to see our Sweet Girl as soon as possible. We then notarized and apostilled this letter and sent it on to Vita. Now something you should know about the passport offices in her country. Each region is more or less autonomous and is subject to its own interpretations of the laws (just like laws vary between states here). Because of this, we knew it was still a long shot, but it was only avenue to try to get her home sooner. We had discussed this idea with Vita, who agreed to call the passport office and ask so we said we would go ahead and prepare the doctor’s letter for her to have. On the off chance this ploy worked, it was even more important to go ahead and get the visa invitation early so we could travel on the correct adoption visa if we were successful at combining the 3rd and 4th trips.

Now fast forward to the last week or so. Vita had previously called the passport office, but the supervisor was on vacation for several weeks so we had no answers there. As for the visa invitation, Vita had been calling every day and was told it was promised on 9/12, but we were almost two weeks after that date and still no invitations and nobody knew why. So now we were faced with a dilemma, 10/3 was fast approaching, the date we would be ready to apply for her passport, but still had no answers on expediting the passport or getting a business visa. Plane flights were getting more expensive by the hour and we knew we didn’t want to delay trip 3 all all to apply for her passport later unless we were absolutely sure we could combine the trips and bring her home on that trip. All along, we said we wouldn’t make her wait longer than necessary because of money or paperwork, we’d find a way. Also, due to the timing of this work trip and Her work schedule, it was not a great week for her to travel unless we would be picking her up. And since the passport office only requires one parent to apply for the passport, we decided that I would go solo unless we were combining the trips. So we made a judgement call and went ahead and booked my flight for 10/2 – 10/6 with no idea about visa’s or whether the passport office would honor our doctors letter and request to expedite.

Because the travel dates had already been set, this gave us a hard deadline for when we must apply for a visa… even with paying expedite fees, our travel agent in Seattle had to have all information in hand by 9:00am Thurs morning in order to pick up the visa Fri and have it overnighted for Sat delivery back to us. But we still didn’t know what type of visa. So we filled out two applications, one for tourist and one for business and packaged them up along with my passport and mailed them to Seattle with instructions that we would provide at the last possible moment which application to submit to the consulate. Then Wed we received good news, our business invitations had been granted and Vita sent us scanned copies. But along with this came a bit of bad news, the passport office had rejected our request to expedite the passport so there would be no combining the trips, but having me travel on a multiple entry business visa would still save us money and give me the option of remaining in country if for some reason they said the passport would only take a few days when I dropped it off. We thought we were set with the visa. However, the consulate uses an online computer system to look up the invitations, and even though they had been issued, it hadn’t yet appeared in the computer system so we were still without luck… we had til 9:00am the following day to hope the computer system would get updated. We went ahead and started the process to get a tourist invitation as a backup plan. Then Thurs and our 9:00am deadline comes and its still not in the system, we make the call to go with a traditional tourist visa. A couple hours pass and I get a call from our travel agent, there has been a computer glitch and our tourist  invitation is also not in the system, the consulate (in Seattle) won’t be able to have the visa processed until Mon morning (the day before I leave) and its too late to re-process on our business invitation that did end up showing in the computer system about lunch time. :frustrating:

So we’ve come up with the following hail-mary play… I will stick to my original plan of flying out from Charlotte-Douglas airport tomorrow at 11:00am. I will be going solo to apply for our Sweet Girl’s passport while she remains behind to watch the twins and work. My visa should be ready this morning in Seattle where our travel agent will FedEx it priority overnight to the Charlotte-Douglas airport to arrive tomorrow (the day I leave). So I will leave my house tomorrow, heading to the airport with no passport. I need to find the FedEx terminal there, attempt to pick up my priority package held there before heading over to the passenger terminal. If all goes well, I should make it out of the country on time, crisis averted… but we have basically lost all margin for error now.

Since this is a short solo trip, pretty much for the sole purpose of going is to the passport office to apply for her passport before turning around and coming home, I won’t have much opportunity to see our Sweet Girl, though I hope to at least see her once or twice… look for the short blog entries for trip 3 in the coming days. If all goes well, she and I will be returning in late October one last time to pick up our Sweet Girl and bring her home…. for good!

(him)

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Sometimes I think of things or take a picture and mean to post it somewhere and never do.Or maybe, something in itself isn’t enough for a blog post or I just don’t have time so it hides on my phone. Here are 10 tidbits, inspired by the pictures on my phone.10. This morning it was raining and I hit traffic again. I have no clue why in the middle of this road, traffic always stops. I wanted to share this picture with the quote, “At least it’s not Monday anymore!”

9. For LAOKV’s birthday the other week, we went and saw Sister Hazel at Ziggy’s. I knew I was old for 4 reasons. 1) By the time we were done with dinner, I was ready for bed 2) I had a glass of wine with dinner and said that was enough for the whole night. 3) I wore flats and my feet were still killing me after standing on concrete for 3 hours. 4) The old guy dancing behind us was more endearing than embarrassing.

8. I’m addicted to shopping at Goodwill for sweet girl. I have such a hard time paying full or even half price for kids clothes. For the twins I buy a lot of their stuff used from a multiples resale group because the prices are so good. And I still match them and that’s hard to do at Goodwill. But for Sweet Girl, I can find awesome things in singles at Goodwill and I don’t feel bad about it. Yes, she has 11 Christmas shirts, but when you consider I paid $2 each for them so the whole lot is retail for one, who cares! And of course a 4 year old needs 3 bathing suits when she’s coming home in October! I posted this on my facebook, but here’s a recent Goodwill steal – RL Polo Sweater (maybe slightly big, but we’ll roll the sleeves back, Cream Cherokee LS top, Children’s Place Jeans and Target brown boots in excellent condition. $9.50!

7. Cranky loves shoes. She wants them on and off and on and off and on and off all day. Or socks. She can easily get them off herself, but can just now, get her sandals back on again. The other day, she saw her shoes on the floor in the living room on the way to the kitchen for dinner. She insisted (when she insists, we usually say ok, it’s a matter of picking battles) that the shoes come with her. Then she proceeded to use them as bowls for the pretzels she didn’t get to yet.

6. I saw this picture on my phone and didn’t recall what it was or why I took it. Then I remembered – this is the Delta terminal at JFK. There was a pigeon just walking around. Why not! Welcome to America!

5. Also in Eastern Europe, I found Nascar on the TV one day, but the announcers were speaking Russian. It was better than the alternative TV choices!

4.The twins LOVE to eat cereal in a bowl with milk and a spoon. They are SUPRISINGLY accurate with the milk filled spoons for 18 months!

3. The twins have developed in unison, a love for baby dolls. They have two sweet babies they keep in their cribs that Gregory gave them – sometimes they can’t stand to leave baby alone all day and have to go grab her through the rails. They also have two bigger babies that G-ma gave them for their birthday they drag around by the hair. We are practicing loving the babies, being gentle to the babies, feeding the babies, putting diapers on the babies, etc. Just when I think they understand gentle, they decide it’s hilarious to whack the baby over the head.

2. My big girls can now climb up stairs to go down big slides all by themselves. Cranky usually is too lazy to go up the stairs and instead asks that you just put her at the top of the slide.

1.You didn’t think I could go an entire post without discussing adoption or advocacy did you?!? I read this blog post this morning and was in tears. Everyone we have directly spoken to about adoption has been completely supportive, and I haven’t gotten rude comments yet, but I know they are out there, especially for my friends as they willingly adopt children with more severe special needs. This blog post summed it up PERFECTLY.  Click here: Into the Flames. I know it’s another link, but please read it. And then know.. I’m not asking you to go into the building the first time, much less go back into the building. I’m the one going into the building and I just might go back into that building again one day. What I ask you to do, is hold me up when I get out of the building and help me polish the treasure I’ve just drug out of the building who may be covered in soot and grime and be burned in a few places. Can I do it without you? Yup. But, it’s certainly nice to see everyone when we get out!

[T]heir mumbling grows to shouting. They say that they could understand you feeling like you needed to save one -as they glance cautiously at the little one that you just risked your life for….that you were willing to GIVE your life for……but they really can’t understand why you would go for another. Haven’t you sacrificed enough? Some are even saying that you are selfish! They are saying that when you race into that house, it makes them uncomfortable. It distracts them from the things that they have to think about that day. You try to reason with them, but their faces are full of pity for you! Pity that you have obviously lost all common sense. That you have stepped out of where God would want you to be….

Bonus: While I was wrapping up this post, I went to Goodwill for my lunch break. I found this coat for $3. Baby Gap 3T. I previously bought sweet girl a coat, but it’s a 5/6. I was nervous it wouldn’t fit and I was nervous about the weather in October in Eastern Europe if the coat didn’t fit. I hear we might see lots of snow. For the price, it’s worth the risk. I need to borrow my favorite 4 year old soon so I can try it out to see whether to pack it or pass it on to someone else’s littler sweet girl.

COURT

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Long overdue I know.

As much as it’s adjustment to go to a foreign country for a week, it’s a big adjustment to come back home too. We have family visits to try to get in, two girls who missed Mama and Papa, laundry, more laundry, housework, chores, jobs to catch up on, etc.

Add into the “funk” that we keep finding ourselves in once we’re home and it’s a disaster around here. Add to it, the girls are both cutting teeth and got flu shots on Thursday. And then, I managed to catch a cold Sunday too. Anyway, I want to document all the emotions that encircled the COURT experience before I forget.

The night before court we went to bed a little late. Once we recover from the jetlagged induced coma’s of the first 24 hours, our bedtime in region falls at about 7am EST so it’s hard to make yourself sleep. We woke up in the morning and our nerves were a wreck. I checked the weather and saw that it was about 45* out. Not great news for my summer dress/sweater and bare legs. I at least was rational enough to know our adoption wouldn’t be denied based on non-weather appropriate clothing. I couldn’t force myself to eat, but I did manage a glass of coke. I threw a honey bun and OJ in my bag as well in case I had a minute of calm. Court was at 9:30am and Vita was picking us up at 9am. We walked downstairs early and were surprised to see Vita waiting for us. She’s very punctual but usually waits outside in the car. She was dressier than she’s been. You could feel the tension in the air from Vita as well. We hopped in the car and jetted off to the adoption center. We were picking up the lawyer from the adoption center on our way.

At the adoption center, Vita hopped out and about 10 minutes later came out with a piece of paper we had to sign. So at 9:15am on the morning of court, we were still signing important court documents. Then Vita tells me I need to basically memorize what’s on this sheet (in a different language!) as the judge will expect me to know it! Um.. no one told me I had to memorize!

Finally at 9:22 or so, the lawyer comes out. She was very young and dressed fashionably. Definitely a shock. I’m too worried about being late to absorb much.

We cram into the car and head over to the court house. We had seen this building before since Thursday Vita had to file some more paperwork with the court secretary. We went through “security”. Someone let me know if you can explain this. You put your bags on a table, walk through a metal detector and then get your bags. But you don’t have to take anything out of your pockets for the metal detector so it keeps going off and the guards don’t seem to care. And your bags don’t have to go through the metal detector at all? So what’s the point of the metal detector?

Anyway, after some more “come here”, “sit here” and “wait here” from Vita we went into the court room. They had the window open. It was no more than 60* degrees in the room. It was probably a 15’x25’ room. There was a raised portion at the front with 3 nice chairs and there were tables lined up perpendicular to this. Then in between the perpendicular tables there were probably 8 rows of benches – very uncomfortable wooden benches.

Vita gave me some more last minute pointers and all the other people chatted like they all knew each other. Eventually at what I’d estimate to be 9:45, the judge came in. He was 50-ish, smaller stature, gray hair, and blue eyes. He was serious, professional with a slight hint of don’t mess with me.

Everyone in the court room was introduced. Some of these translations missed us because we thought the guy sitting off to the side in the odd uniform that doodled the whole time was the security guard. Nope, he was the prosecutor! So we had him, Vita and I on the front row. The orphanage director and the adoption center attorney on the 2nd row and the child advocate on the 3rd row. To the right of us was the court secretary at a table and to our left was the security guard turned prosecutor. Basically, everyone was positioned to stare at me. He and I elected me to be our family spokesperson which meant that Vita and I had to stand the entire time we were questioned. My feet started to hurt even though my heels weren’t that high. He complained that sitting in the bench for that 2 hours was harder. Who knows. Anyway, for two hours, I was questioned about EVERYTHING.

If you are adopting from this region email me and I will give you details of some questions I skipped here. Without further ado, here’s the list of things I had to answer:
1 .     Tell me about yourself.
2.      Why did you decide to adopt?
3.      Why this country?
4.      Why Sweet Girl?
5.      Family history of adoption.
6.      What was the date of your marriage?
7.      He noted that I had a divorce while I was in college and then I was grilled on that. What was the date of marriage and divorce of your first marriage? Why did this marriage fail? Are you sure you won’t get divorced again?
8.      Tell me about your financial situation, your jobs and how much do you make?
9.      How much is left over at the end of the month?
10.    Can you afford another child?
11.    Did you have medical exams in the US and in this country?
12.    Are you healthy?
13.    Tell me about your biological children.
14.    How long are they in daycare?
15.    Why do you want one more child? But your children are so young?
16.    Wouldn’t you like to wait to have another child?
17.    Tell me about your living conditions.
18.    Do you own your house?
19.    Tell me about the neighborhood.
20.    Tell me about your religion.
21.    Did you know Sweet Girl was baptized?
22.    Was your homestudy authorized? What was the outcome?
23.    Do you have experience with older children?
24.    What training did you do?
25.    Your homestudy says you attended school at a Baptist Day School. Are you Baptist? Is this prodestant? Please explain this.
26.    Do you know about the legal consequences of adopting?
27.    Do you know what makes international adoption different?
28.    Do you know you have to register Sweet Girl at the consulate?
29.    Do you know you have to do post placement reports?

So at this point, I’m clipping along. These are all questions we’d discussed except the Baptist one since I forgot that was in my home study. I’m thinking he’s wrapping up. Nope.

30.    Will you be able to support your family if one of you loses your job?
31.    Do you know about the Russia/US Treaty that was just signed?
32.    You know that after September 1st you would have been required to have more training?
33.    Are you aware that if the laws change again, you could be required to comply?
34.    Do you know why the treaty was signed? (Trick question! Got this one right though!)
35.    Have you heard about the news stories of mistreatment of Russian children?
36.    Would that happen to Sweet Girl?
37.    Tell me about meeting Sweet Girl.
38.    Tell me about this trip.
39.    How do you plan to communicate with her?
40.    Do you know about her character?
41.    What do you know about her medical conditions? (this was the sheet I memorized in the car!)
42.    In spite of what the reports say about her, you still want to adopt her?
43.    Are you prepared to treat her current and any future medical needs?
44.    Did you have meetings with Sweet Girl in the presence of the orphanage staff?
45.    Did you get all necessary info from them?
46.    Did they mistreat you?
47.    Did they demand anything from you?
48.    Do you know about Sweet Girls biological family?
49.    (Detailed questions here about her bio family)
50.    Is your home ready for her?
51.    Will you put her in daycare?

At this point, I could care less what my extended/emotional answers should be. I’m just answering as succinctly as possible.

52.    How long will she be in daycare?
53.    Will you parent her or will someone else? (?? Huh?)
54.    Will you keep the adoption a secret from her or anyone else? (she’s 4???)
55.    Does NC allow you to adopt a child?
56.    What do you plan for her activities? ( I said ballet, gymnastics and soccer – excellent Eastern European passtimes)
57.    Do you receive any financial assistance for her?

Finally, he was done with me. Whew. Remember that he asks in his language, Vita translates to me, I answer in English and she translates back to him.

He asked Him to stand and asked if He had anything to add. He said no. Vita told him he must say something so he said a couple sentences about caring greatly for Sweet Girl and wanting her to be a part of our family. He then asked the court for permission to adopt her.

Then, the security guard stood up and we realized he wasn’t the security guard. Oops. The prosecutor asked:
1.      Do you have any bad habits?
2.      How do you plan to maintain her heritage and culture?
3.      Are there resources available to you?
4.      (some specific questions on her history)

Then the orphanage director was introduced and she said her bit. She stated she was in support of the adoption.

Then the child advocate spoke and said her bit. She stated she was in support of the adoption. We didn’t think anything of it as we had no reason to believe someone might disagree, but then the judge said, “This is the first time the administration of the Vladimir region has ever supported an adoption to an international family. Are you aware of that?” She stated that she was, but in this case, the region felt as if we were truly the best family for her. It was a great sign.

Then the adoption center lawyer said her bit. She stated she was in support of the adoption.

The judge then started at the top of our pile of documents and read what each one was and summarized it. Then he got to our document that we had to do at the last minute back in the US that we thought would hold up court. He read it, set it down and moved on. Vita, Heand I audibly exhaled and relaxed on the bench.

Then everyone in order had to again go through their permissions/declarations. He and I had to ask permission to adopt and the others had to confirm that the adoption was in the best interests of the child.

The judge left and then we waited for about 15 minutes. The others sat and chatted. They attempted to make conversation and asked us how much plane tickets to Russia cost and how many times we had to come. We explained we had to come 4 times and that plane tickets were $1500-$2000 per person each time. Vita said that was about 50,000 rubles per ticket or 400,000 in rubles just for plane tickets and they all seemed shocked. I think they are confused why we do this. I’m not confused. I do it for her. From the moment I saw her picture with her little red curls I knew she was mine.

After 15 minutes, the judge came back in and said she was ours too. Sweet relief it was over!

Here’s everyone but the prosecutor and judge. Vita is taking the picture.

Court secretary, orphanage director, attorney and us.
Friday afternoon we were asked not to see Sweet Girl. The Director has an inspection happenning and she thought it would be confusing and crazy. We were sad, but we respected her wishes.
So instead of a visit, we walked around her town some and took some pictures for her to see later. Here are a couple.
On Saturday we got up at 5am to drive to the airport. We got there in more than enough time and while in line to check in, met another family who was on their gotcha trip with their two new daughters. It was nice to meet then and talk to people who understood English. We bumped into them again before boarding our flight and then learned they were sitting 3 rows behind us and then we saw them again at customs in JFK. Watching them navigate the airport with the little ones helped us greatly as we are planning our own gotcha trip.
You better know what gate you are supposed to be at because unless you speak this language, there is no way to confirm the city is right!

The flight home was uneventful. The flight from JFK to CLT had issues, but we ended up in Charlotte about 11:30pm on Saturday – about 24 hours straight of travel.

So now we wait for 30 days. At the end of the 30 days, the adoption is final and she’s ours. But, in our region, the passport takes 3 weeks, so we will have to go back and apply for the passport and then go back again 3 weeks after that to pick her up.

“I will not leave you as orphans.  I will come for you!”  John 14:18 

Cookies (Trip 2, Day 5)

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Today, Thursday, was our last full day of visits. Vita had to take a paper to the court, so she left us with you this morning. For some reason, you are wearing the same dress from Monday and Tuesday and not the dress from Wednesday. Maybe you got it dirty last night.

You dug right into the bag and found our craft of the day – headbands!

I had perfect images in my head of creating them and then leaving them in the corner to dry. I should have known better by now 🙂 Before we even got to Step 1, you had glitter glue all over your hands.

So, in less than 5 minutes we were looking for the next activity. The rain this week has really been a dampener on our time together. We all love to be outside, but when it’s this cold and rainy we can’t go outside.
You found your juice box and after offerring mama and papa a glass settled in to multi task. You like puzzles and could probably do it yourself, but right now you get more enjoyment out of asking Mama where the pieces go and having me help you. 

We had kept this a secret from you for all our visits, but desperate rainy times in one small room call for desperate measures. We uncovered the sand table. You tried to be very careful, but you are 4 years old so a little sand ended up on the floor. Nothing we couldn’t sweep under the curtains though. You spend a long time scooping sand through the waterwheel.

Soon enough Vita came back and it was time for lunch.
We went with Vita back to Globus this afternoon. We ate at their lunch buffet and talked some business with Vita. There was lots to discuss regarding court, what happens next and other matters.  Then we walked around and shopped a little. We bought Mama a bottle of nail polish for 17 rubles so she could fix her toes before court (open toed shoes). We also bought Sweet Girl a 99 ruble DVD of a local cartoon. We are employing every possible tactic to entertain a spunky 4 year old on a plane for 9+ hours!
When we got back to the orphanage, there was a meeting in our room so we waited in the peach room for you. We hadn’t been allowed in here yet, so we took a look around. 
Vita had MORE paperwork to run around town, so she left us here by ourselves. We were to wait for the meeting to end and then wait for you to come up. Vita also told us that the director had asked for us not to come tomorrow afternoon. They were having an inspection and she did not want to cause more commotion with our visit. We were bummed, but we understood. This means though, that the last of the items we brought you were still at the hotel.
Finally, you arrived! I think they told you we were here and you hurried through lunch because the first 30 minutes of our visit were consumed with you eating!
First a banana…

And then the animal crackers!

We knew these last few minutes would have to tide us over for weeks so we tried to make the most of them. We took lots of pictures of you and tried to get lots of cuddles in. 

I thought this video of you stacking these rings was cute. It was obviously easy for you, but your little personality came out so much!

We once again explained that Mama and Papa had to leave for a few weeks, but we’d be back, just like before to see you. I promise baby girl, we will take you home soon!

A Field Trip (Trip 2, Day 4)

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Same routine again on Day 4 – we were picked up about 9:45 to head to the orphanage. You might wonder, “My goodness what do they do with their mornings if they don’t leave that late!” Well, 9:45am here feels like 1:45am to our bodies. That means, no matter what time we go to bed, it takes lots of effort to drag us up at 8am. We turn on TV and somehow try to get the gist of an American program dubbed in this language. This morning we watched “Dual Survivor.” Other choices have been Fear Factor, Back to the Future, etc. We have a mini fridge in the room so we buy milk at the market. We brought cereal from home because we are cereal snobs and couldn’t find one here we liked. This week it is Frosted Flakes. He usually hops in the shower while I pretend I’m awake. We also have to have me shower, check emails from home, repack our toy bag for Sweet Girl, list out any questions we have for the day, prepare any gifts for new people that day (adoption center worker, etc) and then make sure our valuables are locked up and get out the door. It’s tight every morning.
Anyway, on to what you care about. This morning we got a new outfit out of sweet girl! She looked adorable with her pigtails and denim jumper. She found her little air rockets in her toy bag and pretty much knew right what to do. That held her attention for oh, 3 minutes.
On the next pass through the bag she found her morning juice box. She used the ice cream dishes from the Playdoh set and poured Mama and Papa a glass. I have issue with drinking juice from something Playdoh touched, so when I said nyet, Sweet Girl drank it.
Vita had to take a paper to the court so she left us alone for most of this visit. Poor Sweet Girl tried so hard to talk to us. She’d ask us questions and He would repeat the “words” back to her. She would get exasperated that she was asking a question and he was asking it back.
When Vita got back she talked to the director and we heard some interesting news – we were being invited to go see the art exhibit the kids were in! It’s pretty unheard of as far as all my research goes for the director, facilitator, adoptive parents and child to get in the same car and go somewhere! We left the morning visit excited about the afternoon.
After Kraft Mac n Cheese in the room for lunch,  we headed back to the orphanage. It was raining and pretty chilly so we weren’t sure if the offer still stood or not. But when they brought Sweet Girl to us it was clear she was ready for a fieldtrip! We looked through our pictures again while we waited for the director.
And then we were off into the rain!
Here’s the exhibit. I think it’s sort of a gallery for amateur or independent type exhibits. The hardest part was trying to act interested, trying to keep Sweet Girl from touching all the toys set up and trying to show the director we knew what we were doing (because court is on Friday and the director has to give her consent!
Mama and the star of the show!

Looking very confused as to where she is and where the doctor or airplane are (she only leaves the orphanage to go to the doctor and we’ve also talked with her about leaving with Mama and Papa to go on the airplane)

This doll that she’s clinging too is a baby we brought her.

Spying some of her friends from the orphanage.

On the way out the door we tried to continue our displays of excellent parenting. I was carrying sweet girl (apparently her shoes couldn’t get wet) and also holding my purse and an umbrella over our heads. All went well the whole block to the car waiting on the corner except I thought my arm was going to fall off. We got to the corner and I got the car door open, but couldn’t figure out how to get her in, the umbrella down and all the logistics without a drop of water on anyone. Well, I decided to set her down on the pavement in front of me while I opened the door and shuffled her in. Except.. I set her down in the most massive torrential river of water that immediately washed over both our feet. She immediately started crying that her feet her wet. Oops. So then I had to get a crying wet child and me and the wet umbrella in the car. It was traumatic for me 🙂 And where was everyone else in this? Waiting on the curb watching it all because there was no where else for them to go. A+ parent here!

We left and dropped the director off at home. Poor Sweet Girl started crying when the director got out. She thought we were taking her then. We explained that we were going back to the orphanage and we’d see her tomorrow. Might be a good preview of what’s to come in several weeks!

On the way back to the orphanage she continued to be very unengaged and didn’t say a word or move.  We just looked out the window and watched the buildings pass in the rain.

That night He and I braved the rain and we walked around the mall and went to a souvenir shop we’d been to last time. The prices were pretty good and I had a couple things I wanted to pick up. We then did dinner at good old faithful, McDonald’s and stopped by the Market before heading back to the room.

Rain, Rain Go Away (Trip 2, day 3)

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(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!

Bubbles! (Trip 2, Day 2)

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The rest of Day 1-

I attempted to finish this last night, but after being up for 24 hours with just cat naps on the plane and in the car, I just couldn’t do it, so here’s the rest of Day 1.
We got on the plane and settled in. We felt like we had just finished our Chili’s dinner, but within about 90 minutes of taking off, they started serving dinner. We had heard that the Delta food wasn’t as good as the Aeroflot food, but it seemed about the same to us. Our choices were cheese tortolini or a baked chicken and vegetables. Here’s his chicken:

The flight was uneventful. The in-seat entertainment was better on the Aeroflot flight, but this was fine. It felt like there were a few more movie choices, but they also had some pay movies. When it got dark outside, we attempted to nap.

Fast forward some sore bottoms and tired hours later, we got to Day 2!

Day 2:

About 90 minutes before we landed they served breakfast. It was a banana, orange juice and some sort of hot pocket breakfast burrito with egg and sausage. Meh.

We arrived at the big airport at about 9:30am, 30 minutes ahead of schedule. We knew where we were going and what line to get in to go through passport control this time. We quickly made it to baggage claim and then waited, and waited, and waited. Finally our bags showed up and we went through customs. He knew this time to not make eye contact and keep walking so he wasn’t pulled aside this time.

As soon as we went out, there was Vita waiting for us! Such a welcome sight!

We went out and were excited to see Ilya was our driver again. We had requested him, but never got confirmation of if he was available. They all drive like crazy people, but we had grown attached to Ilya and his broken English and talk of cars and technology. We are also learning that Ilya can understand almost everything we say.

We got into the town with the orphanage in under 3 hours this time (it was over 4 on the first trip because of traffic). We checked into the hotel and unpacked a little until it was 3:15 and time to go visit our Sweet Girl. Not the most perfect first picture, but after hugs, she went straight for the bag of toys.

We had a brief diversion with the markers, but very quickly we settled on bubbles. We initially told her we couldn’t play with the bubbles inside, but the weather is cold and rainy here this week so we weren’t sure we’d get to use them. The director of the orphanage stayed for our visit this time and chatted with Vita and at some point she allowed us to use the bubbles inside. After she saw the floor, she might have regretted that decision!

We tried markers again, but she was more interested in cutting the paper up into strips and squares. We were a little nervous she’d cut herself or try to cut her hair/clothes, but she was pretty good. Made us nervous though! We haven’t had court yet we can’t injure her!

When Papa started taking more pictures, she remembered the camera too and took about 30 pictures of her surroundings. She’d frame it in the viewfinder and then while she tried to push the shutter, she’d always lower the camera. So, we have lots of shots like this:

It was sooo good to feel her again. She’s still a little skiddish on touches and affection, she can’t tolerate it for long, but I try to get some snuggles in real fast. I think that once we take custody of her we are going to find out that she’s learned to be so independent as a defense. I think our attachment is going to be a hard fought battle. We’re ready though and we certainly won’t give up.