Hello from Ekat!

We finally have internet! The email doesn't work very well - at least Yahoo doesn't but this seems to be okay.

Things here are great! As Lynn posted, we have a court date of 9/24. I know from receiving other emails that it is still possible that the judge can and, is likely to, postpone that date for any reason. But, I'm hopeful that everything will go well and we can be done with all of this.

Our travels, thankfully, were uneventful. Katy did great and has been a real trooper. We arrived around 5AM on Wednesday morning (9/10) and were taken to our first flat. It had no heat, no hot water, no internet and, no keys which made it impossible for us to leave unless accompanied by the agency. But, it was clean and brand new. We stayed there 2 nights and then moved to another flat just down the street. This is also a new building but has two rooms, a great kitchen, washer (no dryer) and, a grocery store on the ground floor. We're still waiting for heat but it's not that bad. Apparently, the whole area is on central heating and the City starts turning it on 9/15 with schools being the priority. Hopefully, they'll be getting to the flats soon as it seems to be getting colder and colder. The flat has worked out really well though except for the internet. The agency reps worked hard on getting a computer and internet for us as my Mac won't work so we are grateful for that.

We've been to see the girls 5 times already. We're taking a break tomorrow, planning to go on Friday and then again on Monday to meet with the social worker. The drive is 2 1/2 hours each way and Katy has done really well - until today when she was a little cranky. Our visits have been cut down from 3&4 hours to about 1 1/2 which is so much better for all of us.

Lynn mentioned in one of her posts that Courtney was a mini-Katy which was the opposite of my first visits. Well, it turns out that Courtney is actually Camryn! The first two days we had the girls mixed up and now that it has been corrected the personalities fit the names. Camryn (Polina) was the more dominate, outgoing one on my first visit and is still although Courtney (Vasilina) is holding her own. It's easy to tell them apart now because Courtney has a few whispy bangs and the rest of her head is pretty much shaved. Even without the different hair styles, the girls are easy to tell apart now. They look similar but also very different. They're about a head shorter than Katy but their hands are bigger (no surprise to Lynn!).

We've adjusted to the time difference here and have become used to the late hours. The sun doesn't set until 8:30 or so. We're having dinner around 9:30 or 10 and going to bed probably around 11:30 or 12. Katy is sleeping until 10 AM everyday which isn't a problem since nothing seems to happen before noon around here. We're going a little stir crazy though and are going to need to find something entertaining for Katy to do soon.
Speaking of Katy, she is now wandering around the flat looking for something to do so I'd better go attend to her. It's only 11PM so we have another hour before bedtime!

More later . . .

Lori