Saturday, October 4th

Our travelers arrived back in Ekat today and found that their internet access is not working.  Lori asked that I update her blog (this is Lynn again).  As mentioned earlier they are back at the flat in Ekat.  Tomorrow they'll visit a circus and they've scheduled sightseeing for Monday.  They plan on getting passport photos for Camryn and Courtney on Tuesday.  Tuesday is the Resolution Day (the day in which the formalities are over and the girls are for sure coming home)  so on Wednesday they'll pick them up and go to the hotel in Ekat.  They'll fly to Moscow on Thursday.  From there, they're just a few steps away from home.  They need to meet with the Embassy (probably on Monday), and then start their journey home.  They hope to leave Moscow and arrive in LA on Wednesday 10/15, but if things go super great, it could be a day earlier.  Just knowing they'll be home some day that week is exciting!  

Lori will update with all their exciting news and adventures when she can.  We're hoping for photos when they arrive to the hotel with the girls on Wednesday (10/8).  

Thursday 3PM

Another great day in Chelyabinsk. Today we took the bus to Katy's orphanage and it was such a good thing to do. The chief doctor greated us and then the caretakers came in to see Valeeva Katya. They all rememeber her and you could just see the love and pride in their faces. At first it was a little intimadating for Katy but then she seemed to loosen up a bit and enjoy the attention. I'm really glad we were able to do that as I didn't realize how important it would be to all of her caregivers.

Other than that we've just been walking the City and been seeing all the great sites. Megan and Angela are keeping me entertained and are a great help with Katy. We'll be here Friday and leaving Saturday to get back to Ekat and then we'll have email again.

From Chelyabinsk

We don't have email but Sasha is letting us use her internet card for just a few minutes. I wanted to just quickly say that we are really have a great time in Chelyabinsk. I miss the girls but it is great to be here and Sasha is really showing us the City in a way that I didn't see it before. We've ridden the train from Ekat, the bus and trolley here and walked what seems to be the whole city. It's come a long way in the 3 years since I've been here. Stacy - you would be shocked at the additions! Katy did very well with only a couple of issues. I really miss the girls but we will be back in Ekat soon.

Gotta go - Sasha's making us a great vegetable dinner right now!

Monday 9/29 - 12:30 PM

Yeah - Mimi's here and so is Sasha. We have a full house which is really nice. Katy, Angela and I went to pick Mimi up at the airport (Ekat) and we were allowed into the baggage claim area. When Katy saw Mimi she took off running into her arms. She was so excited to see her! It was very cute - I was actually a little envious of Mimi!

This morning Sasha took me to the train station to purchase tickets for our trip to Chelyabinsk. We leave around 3:30 today (accompanied by Sasha) and then will stay in Chelyabinsk until late October 4th. Viktor will be picking us up and driving us back so we can see the Ural mountains from train and from car. We're going to visit Katy's orphanage and all of the people who helped with her adoption. Should be a nice trip.

We probably will not have internet access while there so the blog and email will probably be quiet for a while. If there is a way to get it then we'll be active again.

When we get back we're off to the circus and then sightseeing. Looking forward to that too.

Megan is walking around the flat saying it looks totally like Ikea - all the furniture here and the other flat is from Ikea . . . they arrived here about 3 years ago and are now all the rage since it's such good quality in comparison to Russian furniture - according to Olga anyway.

We had a long afternoon waiting for Megan but we'll go into details later. Aeroflot decided to help out those who had short layovers between flights and then wouldn't give any information to those waiting. Got her here on time but we had to trust in her savvy to find her way to Ekat which, of course she did. But, It was a little while before I could breath again but all's good now. Even the agency didn't know that Aeroflot would do that so they were there waiting for a long time (3 hours I think!) - something new learned each time.

Off to pack for our little trans-siberian train ride . . . I've wanted to do that for years and years but all across siberia - not just 4 hours. These days, 4 hours is enough!

Angela's Thoughts . . .

Megan arrived last night as scheduled thankfully. We got a call form Olga that she never showed at the Moscow airport. Lori and I were slightly freaking out considering that Lori gave her specific directions about where to go. It was two hours after her flight had landed and they still didn’t know where she was. The only person that they release information to about a passenger is the police. So we had no way of finding out if Megan got on her second airplane. We were so worried because when you arrive in Moscow you have to go to a different airport to get on a flight to Ekat. We sat for two hours thinking of all the ways that she could have found her way to the second airport.

Maybe….. she had been talking to someone on the flight from New York and he/she had told her about the bus that you can take.

Maybe… she never got on her flight at JFK… but wouldn’t someone have called us to tell us she didn’t make it?

Maybe . . . she was still stuck in passport control…. Nope, Jane (the translator in Moscow) went to check and no one was in passport control.

Maybe . . . she couldn’t find Jane and she is just sitting somewhere in the airport….. again no- Jane had them page her multiple times.

Maybe….. because, she is travel savvy she just found her own way.


But why would she have not followed Lori’s directions…..

Ahhhh what are we going to do?????

Do we call the police?… Do we call Megan’s parents?…. Is it really necessary to have her parents completely freaked out because we don’t know where she is? Especially because there is a good chance she just found her own way and is on her flight to Ekat.

Well, what ended up happening is that because Megan had only a two and a half hour lay over the airline had an area for people that had less than four hours to go thru passport control quickly. When Megan went thru they kept everyone together and took them on a bus to the next airport. Nothing that Lori had described to her was the same. Megan kept looking for Jane but didn’t see people with signs to pick people up anywhere. It was not the same area that the other passengers go thru. She didn’t even have to get her luggage, the airport people just did it all for her.

During her flight she had made a friend that spoke both English and Russian and she was taking the same flight to Ekat that Megan needed to be on. So Megan figured if she stayed with her that was her best bet. Especially since nothing was as Lori described because of her short layover and having to go thru a different area then we had arrived at. Lori was extremely relived that Megan made it okay. I think Lori’s exact words when we finally saw her were “OMG I think I’m going to faint”.

Also, yesterday, Sasha (the coordinator that helped Lori with Katy’s adoption) came to Ekat to visit and travel to Chelyabinsk with us. We went out for dinner at this little Italian place that is just a block away form where we are staying. We really got lucky when they had a server that spoke a little English. We ended up getting pizza again and it was also really good. They make their pizza very different here. It is very thin and has almost no grease on it, we like it. Sasha doesn’t speak any English so it is kind of interesting to watch her and Katy interact. Katy speaks to her in English and Sasha speaks Russian to Katy. It is actually a little amusing to watch because most of the time, somehow, (I think mainly thru body language) they understand each other. Lori and Sasha communicate thru computer that translates everything. So it has been pretty quite, well except for Katy playing.

So all is fine - Megan is here and we are off to Chelyabinsk with Sasha today. We have a 4 hour train ride that should be interesting and I am excited to see a different city. We also may be able to go see Katy’s orphanage. :o)

Sat 4:00 PM -

The day after - a very relaxing, worry free day. Well, almost. Getting Megan here is a little trickly only because of communication. She's currently planning on arriving in Ekat 9PM Sunday but it's unlikely that she'll actually be here then. She's only got a 2 1/2 layover in Moscow which is questionable . . . getting through passport control, getting her bags and making it to the next airport in that amount of time will be extremely difficult. I'm keeping my fingers crossed though.

Today was a fun day. We keep hearing about an indoor play area in a shopping mall so we decided to venture out today. It's been snowing off and on all day so it's pretty cold out - but really nice. At first it was just snow flurries but then we had a full on downfall in the afternoon. It's blue sky and sunny again right now though.

Viktor picked us up around 11 and it was probably a 30 minute drive to the shopping mall. One of the things I've always noticed about the various places I've been in Russia is that there really are no recognizable storefronts - all the buildings are pretty closed in and you can't window shop or anything because they're all hidden. We drove up to a smallish looking grey building with hardly any cars parked outside of it. We walked through the entry doors and found lots of shops inside. You never would have known it from the parking lot. Then there was an arcade type area with a couple of rides and various games for Katy.

We spent a lot of money and a lot of time trying to figure out the games and the money but it was fun. The most fun were the bumper cars because everyone was trying to give us direction on how to get the cars turned around but, of course, we couldn't understand. Angela couldn't get her car started because she was facing the wall and just crashing into it. There was a woman spectator who was yelling instructions at her and also the ride operator but she couldn't understand. I don't think they knew that because she was trying to turn the wheel and looking like she was listening but just like she was incapable of doing anything! It was really funny until I ended up in the same position and they came to me. Angela had since figured it out and then started telling me in English how to get myself out of there and saved me. Katy actually laughed pretty hard everytime we bumped into Angela. Things are too tame for her here but she enjoyed that.

After some rides and games, we found their version of the food court which provided 3 or 4 choices of places to eat. We ate at the "American Hot Pizza" place. We pointed and put the number of fingers up for what we wanted and did pretty good except for the 4 boxes of french fries that we ended up with! We'd asked for 4 pieces of pizza which we got and 1 french fry but, we almost ate all 4 boxes anyway! I have a great picture of Angela with her one little piece of pizza and 4 boxes of french fries.

Then back to the flat - the dreaded flat. It was snowing and cold so we just came back up and Katy is bouncing off the walls. I really hope nobody is living below us but we'll be gone soon.

Tomorrow Sasha is supposed to be coming but she's sick so now I'm not sure. Tomorrow night - Megan. We may have a houseful. On Monday after everyone is together we'll head off to Chelyabinsk with Sasha. I'm thinking we're taking a bus for the 4 hour drive but am unsure. We're planning to keep the flat and return to it on the 4th via Viktor. It's a long way and I don't intend on trying to navigate the public transportion by ourselves to get back so I've asked for Viktor's help. I'm really hoping we have internet there but it's possible we won't. These little worries are so nice after all the big worries over the girls.

We don't plan on heading back to the orphanage until around Oct 5th - it is so tiring for the girls and for Katy that I've decided to take some time to do some other things while we're here. We'll visit them on the 5th and then do some more sight seeing. I think on the 7th we will pick the girls up to take them out for their passport photos and then, once the passports are done we'll pick them up for good. That should only take 1 or 2 days I hope.

We're doing fine here but I for one am starting to get homesick. The brown rice and pasta are getting really old but the restaurants are too difficult to figure out and the food is too unpredicable for me - and, more importantly, for Katy. And, I miss everyone at home and know Katy does too. She's ready to get back into her house with her family and friends and play in her back yard and her playroom and her bedroom . . . even though it will be completely different now with her sisters, I know she'll be extremely happy to be home. I can't wait either - I'm constantly thinking of all the things Camryn & Courtney are going to be getting into and will have to work quickly after we get home to remove them. After watching them over the last two weeks I know that I do not have the house toddler proofed nearly enough for those two!

Angela's Thoughts . . .

So today was Lori's court date and everything went well. Wooo Hooooo!!!!!! :o)

We are now trying to figure out when we will be returning home. I think we should be coming home on October 16th. We are just waiting to see how things go in Moscow.

Katy and I stayed at the flat when Lori went to court. She was not happy that her mom was leaving her today and screamed when Lori left. This made it a little harder on Lori. I am sure that she knew she would be fine, which she was - she only cried for a minute.

Other than Lori having court we didn't do anything today except go to the grocery store.
Tomorrow we are going to take Katy to this little indoor play area that they have. It should be nice. I think that Katy will be happy to be out and be able to run around. We have been inside all day for the past few days since Lori has been preparing for court. We are very thankful that that all is over with. We will have lots more free time now. We plan to leave for Chelyabinsk as soon as Megan gets here. After a few days there we will return to Ekaterinburg and do some sight seeing before we pick up Camryn & Courtney. After that we will be off to Moscow for about 5 days and then home.

On a side note-
The other day when we were at the grocery store we were walking thru the frozen food section and I turned to where all the meat was. Looking right back at me was a whole pig wrapped up in saran wrap. I know disgusting!!!!! It makes me like pork and other types of meat even less. As I looked more I saw that all the meat is like that. Nothing is really cut up they just sell the whole thing. So I when we went to get groceries today I took my camera to take a picture of it. Lori thought it was weird that I wanted to take a picture, but I thought it was a little interesting. I have never seen something sold like that in a regular grocery store.

One more thing, we have ice cold water again, even colder than last time. We also don't have any heat. We are thinking that maybe they didn't do something right when they turned on the heat the first time. So they must be fixing it. Hopefully it won't last too long. I don't know how people actually live like this!

Today (9/27) we took Katy to that indoor play area that we have been hearing about. When we pulled up to the place it looked like it was an abandoned building. But when we went inside there was a whole shopping center. It had a grocery store, some little shops, lots of home furnishing stores (which they actually have every where here), a theater and a food court area. Everything here is kind of like that you can not tell what is inside a building just by looking at the outside.

So when we got to the indoor “play area” that was really just an arcade type thing, Katy was very excited to start playing games. First we had to figure out how to get tokens which took us a little bit of time, but luckily we figured it out without having to try and ask for help.

We found some bumper cars to ride. It was really funny because Lori and I could not figure out how to get them to go forward. Every time you pressed on the gas pedal the car would go backwards. I was kind of by the side where people were standing in line to go after us and this lady started yelling at me in Russian about how to make it work. At that point all I could do was laugh because once again we looked like “idiots”. As the lady was telling me what to do in a language I can not understand I just kept trying on my own to get it to work and finally did after a few minutes. I think that she thought that I could understand Russian though because when I finally figured it out she was saying “da” “da” (which is yes in Russian) and then keep on talking like I could understand her. It was really funny and we all had a good laugh about it. Katy enjoyed bumping into my car too - she thought it was just about the funniest thing ever!

So after we played games and did the bumper cars we went and had lunch at a pizza place. Lori did the ordering, she pointed to the cheese pizza and put up four fingers and then pointed to the fries and held up one finger. The girl working there got four pieces of pizza put them on a tray and then gave us one… two…. three…. four things of fries! We couldn’t tell them that we didn’t want all of them so we just took the food and sat down. I was the one that suggested getting fries so Lori thought it would be funny to take a picture with me and all the fries… ha ha ha! We ended up eating almost all of the fries anyway. The pizza and the fries where both really good. Our brown rice with cheese and noodles with an attempted cheese sauce are getting a little old. It was nice to have something different again.

All in all it was a good day! Katy had a really good time playing all the games and riding some of the rides.

It also snowed today. At first it was light little flurries and then about an hour later it was full on snowing!!! The snowing stopped about a half hour later but all the cars and ground were lightly covered in it. It has all stopped and melted now and is sunny out. We are hoping that it doesn’t snow anymore because we are so not prepared for that.

We also have hot water and a little bit of heat again. :o)

The Day Has Finally Arrived!

3:30 PM

It is with great relief and happiness that I get to report today that after 2 hours of being grilled by the judge and by the prosecutor, they both felt that it was in the best interest of the girls to allow me to adopt them! Yeah - it is finally over and I can sleep at night - at least until October 8th or 9th when we go to pick them up!

It was worse then expected and better then expected. So many details of the proceeding are lost already as it was constant question and answer - I felt that I was defending myself throughout the entire proceeding but, once the official hearing was over, everyone was very nice and complimentary.

I'll write more later but, for now - the last 10 months of waiting, worrying and wondering is over!!! I can't describe what a relief it is and, I'm not even sorry that the judge did not waive the 10 day wait. I can try to regroup now and put the last 10 months behind me prior to picking the girls up and starting a brand new chapter! I can now truly make plans and get excited about the girls joining our family without the fear that it might not actually ever happen. It is a great day!

Megan- I don't know if my email has made it through yet but I wanted to let you know that we're ready for you as soon as you and Adrienne can get you on a plane! Just let me know details and we'll coordinate with the agency.

Angela's Notes . . .

Nizhny Tagil

Nizhny Tagil (NT) is where the orphanage it that Camryn & Courtney are at. The trip from Ekat to NT is about a two and a half hours thru a forest. We had hoped that there was somewhere to stay that was closer to NT but there isn’t. The drive is so long for Katy. It has been starting to get to her a little bit. We don’t leave Ekat until 1:30 and by the time we get there we don’t get to spend much more than two hours with Camryn and Courtney. Then we don’t end up getting back home until almost 8:00 at night. The drive is not bad once we get out of the city traffic. The trees are already turning colors of yellow and red. When we took our first drive there most all the trees were still very green. I am sure that they will change much more during our time here. I think we have about 22 days left if everything runs smoothly and no more dates change.

I really haven’t seen too much of the city but what we have seen looks very poor. All the buildings are old and you don’t see development every where like we see in Ekat. They do have a nice grocery store that seems pretty new. The houses there are kind of interesting to see. I was telling Lori that they kind of remind me of the houses on Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory but she has never seen the movie. I can not believe she has never seen it! When we get home I told her I am going to find it somewhere so she and all the girls can watch it.

As I was looking up how to spell the name of the city I found some thing that I thought was interesting about the city on the Wikipedia web sight. They say that the copper on the Statue of Liberty may have been mined there.

Lori had some meetings the past few days so Katy and I have been staying in Ekat. On her trips without Katy and me she has driven around more of the city and says there is lots more to Nizhny Tagil then we had seen. She says that it seems to be a really interesting city - just not very developed.

CAMRYN & COURTNEY

It was so nice to finally meet the girls. They both really have good personalities. They seem to be strong willed (but I hear that most kids from orphanages are like that). They are both really sweet, they have big brown eyes and adorable little smiles.

Camryn I think is the more dominate twin. She likes to have us chase her around the room and starts hysterically laughing when we do. When we are feeding them snacks she wants to be the one holding the bag, and if she gets a hold of it, it is almost impossible to get it away from her without everything in the bag flying everywhere. Camryn is very strong. That is a good thing though because hopefully she will have a better time catching up developmentally with her gross motor skills. She also seems to be the more stubborn one, possibly even more stubborn than Katy is. I keep telling Lori that I think they might even each other’s stubbornness out once she gets them home.

Courtney seems to be a little calmer. She has a stubborn personality too but seems to be persuaded to do things easer. She seems to like being held, or sat with. Although neither of them are quite sure what to do with their bodies when you do pick them up. They don’t really grasp on to you - they just kind of hang there - the carriers we brought for the trip home should be a big help with that. I think that is just from lack of being held by someone.

Both of the girls seem to really enjoy playing with Katy. She is very sweet with them and all she talks about are things that she is going to teach her sisters when she gets home. She wants to teach them specifically how to swim and dance.


SOME THINGS LORI WANTED ME TO WRITE ABOUT

The nice guy at the airport in Moscow: So during our two hour wait at the airport we sat in our seats and did not really talk to anyone. We really couldn’t have even if we had wanted to seeing as we don’t speak Russian. Plus, every one we did try to talk to laughed at us so we were kind of over even trying. We had a lot of bags as I talked about in my other blog and it was kind of hard to get them all to where we were trying to go. Lori had warned me about Russian people being kind of serious people and you don’t get any help from anyone. So we really were not excepting anyone to help us when this man that had been sitting across from us during our wait walked up and tried to take one of the bags when we were reorganizing them on our way. I shook my head and said no thank you and pointed to where we were going to show it wasn’t that much further. I didn’t want someone running off with our bags. But he insisted on helping us or he just didn’t understand what I was trying to say. Lori was completely shocked that there was some one nice enough to help us. We were very thankful for his help.

The loud music: Our first two nights here in Russia we stayed in a flat that was brand new. I don’t even think that anyone else had stayed there yet. It was very nice but it had no hot water and no internet and didn’t have a call box either so we could not keep the keys because anyone coming to pick us up didn’t have a way to let us know they were there. The third night we moved almost across the street to another flat that is just a few years old. The very first night around 11:30 someone started playing this very annoying Russian music very loudly. At first we were just like "humm, it’s a Friday maybe they are having a party". The music went on and on until 2:00 in the afternoon the next day - it was horrible. Lori got no sleep at all. I heard it kind of sleeping on and off all night. Of course Katy slept right thru it. The worst part was that they would only play the songs with a fast beat and if a slow song came on it would come to a screeching stop and then either the same song that was on before would come back on or they would skip until they found another song with a fast beat. To say the least, Lori was not happy at all. So after unpacking everything the night before, we took everything and packed it right back up the next morning. Lori was insistent that we were going to leave and go to the Park Inn - a “westernized” hotel that she stayed in on her first trip. Lori called Olga and told her that we wanted to go to the Park Inn and that someone was playing horrible music all night long. Olga seemed shocked and said that she would see what she could do. Later that day we went to visit the girls and on our way home the translator that was with us said that Olga had called her and said that Lydia and Olga (the Olga that owns the flat we are staying in) were going to come over and go to see if they could find the person that was playing the music. They were going to tell them if they did it again they were going to call the cops! Apparently, they have a noise curfew here. Lori and I were not really thrilled with that idea. One because the music was not playing any more so they were going to accuse someone of playing their music very loudly and not even know for sure that it was really that person. But, most importantly, we didn’t want some angry Russian coming and yelling at us because we had complained. Olga (the owner of the flat) assured us that this has never happened before and that if the music did come on again we could call her anytime of night and she would come right over and take care of the problem. Lori and I really thought how they were dealing with the problem was a little silly but figured we would be better off in a flat then a hotel because we could cook our own food and ultimately it would be better for Katy. So we stayed another night and many more since, and there has not been any music. We secretly think it was really the owner of this flat playing her music really loud. The night that all the music was played she had asked for all the money upfront to pay for the flat for the whole time we were staying here. She said if we didn’t end up staying that long she would refund Lori her money. Lori only had enough rubles to pay for two nights because no one had warned us that she needed to pay all up front and we had only exchanged $300 at the airport. We had not found a bank to exchange any more money yet. But all said and done we are happy where we are and there has been no more music. :o)

The water and heat:

So I was talking about how they have central heating thru out the whole city by hot water (from factories apparently) that runs thru pipes in the flats. The pipes run above ground through the city and countryside. Driving down the two lane highway to NT, the pipes are above ground and they go straight up, across and down again over street turnoffs. Well, they finally turned on the heat in our building. Which is nice but they didn’t tell us that we would have no hot water for three days. I guess when they finally turn on the heat they have to pressurize the water and they turn off the hot water to do that. So, as nice as it is to have heat (that, might I say, is not even that warm) it was not very fun taking cold showers. But now we have a somewhat heated “house” and our hot water back so I guess I can’t really complain that much.

Last night we got to go to dinner at the Park Inn - after walking down 10 flights of stairs in an unlit stairway with uneven stairs since the elevator in our new building was not working. Lori had met some people on-line that live in LA who are on their first trip and just met their little girl. We went to dinner with them at the hotel restaurant. It was really nice to actually be able to talk to some other people that are from the states and speak English fluently. For dinner I had a Greek salad with chicken. Yes, I actually ate some chicken. I know I told every one that I wouldn’t be eating any type of meat here but it really was not bad. The only weird thing was that the “salad” didn’t actually have any lettuce. It was all vegetables but they were very tasty. Especially since pretty much all we have been eating is noodles and brown rice with cheese. Jon had a hamburger and french fries that looked good but he said it was "very seasoned" meat. I think everything else was okay. Lydia showed up to pick us up after a couple hours with papers for Lori to sign and then sat in her car until we were ready to go. Lori felt bad about that but it was a good evening anyway and, we were all relieved to find the elevator working when we got back.

9/25 11:00 AM - 24 hour count down . . .

Today will be filled with preparing for court. I met with the "court translator" yesterday who is suppose to be a "disinterested" party. None of the agency staff who have been working with me are allowed in court as they are considered "interested" parties. The translator came over at 11 AM yesterday to go over how the court proceedings will go and the things I should be prepared for. Nothing really unexpected here but I have been procrastinating or, possibly not wanting to jinx anything, and haven't completed all the information yet. I need to know exactly how many hours I have spent with the girls and the development of our relationship over each of those visits ! I also need to know exactly what my monthly income and monthly expenses are and, they need to match what the CPA compiled several months ago. Then, practice my Russian - the judge is interested in how much Russian parents are taking the time to learn since one of the problems with the French couple was they could not communicate with the boys. I know about 20 words and am comfortable with those but, it's a little ridiculous as the girls aren't really speaking yet. They understand their caregivers but they don't understand my little bits of broken words. But, I'll recite them when asked. Sadeesh (sit) (thanks Adoptamama for catching that!) is one word that came in handy but they now understand sit too so it's not necessary. A word they taught me without my knowing is Num-Num which is really a Russian word for food or treat! I thought they were saying Yum-Yum so that's what we've been using. Yum-Yum and then spassba and they sit and eat - very cute.

After that, Katy and I took a nap as we had plans to go see an LA couple who met their little girl yesterday. They're staying at the same hotel I stayed at during my first trip and are going through all the cultural shock that I went through - that we all go through. We met them at 6 and probably stayed for 3 hours or so. Katy did very well - which can't really be said about my meeting with the court translator unfortunately - she was excited to listen and talk to other Americans I think. It was a nice evening and I hope to see them again on Saturday before they leave on Sunday to start their paperwork marathon. Their blog is the Russian Angel link if anyone one wants to follow their journey - hopefully, it will be much quicker than mine has been.

11:00 AM tomorrow is when court is scheduled to start. I'm told to be prepared for 2 hours of standing and talking. I start with my introduction, motives for adopting and then go down a list and, at some point, the judge relieves me from this torture and begins asking questions so that discussions can begin. I will feel better during the questions and answers than I will during the monologue which I'm not very comfortable with. Even though I know she would not have invited me to court if she did not feel positive regarding the adoption, it is still very intimadating and I worry that I will not answer to her satisfaction. The court translator corrected many of my answers during our rehearsal as they would provoke more questions from the judge - which I don't want to do. Things like "why did I only visit the girls for two days on my first visit?". I answered incorrectly and was then given a more acceptable answer which is something along the lines of I knew instantly that I wanted to proceed with the adoption of the girls so I was anxious to get home and start the process.

Katy and Angela are in the kitchen playing Yahtzee so I can work for a while. Katy got a Yahtzee of fives on her first turn and had to come share that with me. She wanted me to go look at her five fives which I did. She was so excited that I got two high fives! Hopefully, that's a sign of luck to come our way tomorrow!

Tues 9/23 - 9:00 PM - A Really Good Day . . .

It seems that if I "over worry" things usually turn out much better than I anticipate. Today is a perfect example of that. I was pretty worried about being observed with the girls by the social worker and the psychologist today and, it turns out, I didn't have to do either. But, today would have been a great day to be observed because my visit with the girls went really well. It was the first day that we really connected and they actually seemed to be interested in the toys I brought and, even better, in me! I know it's a day by day thing but we really had a good time together. And, I even "connected" with Lydia today which hasn't really happened before and I actually enjoyed our little bits of conversation.

Victor picked me up today around 1:20 - again, 20 minutes late. We then went to the same school that we picked Lydia up a few days ago. That day we sat in the car for 40 minutes waiting for her but, today, she came right out. I saw that she came out of the school office area so I asked her if she worked there. Interestingly, she is a teacher! I had no idea. She teaches English and Country Studies to 12 year olds and to 16 & 17 year olds. And, I didn't think she really liked kids but, apparently, she does.

After picking Lydia up, we went to the photo shop and picked up the photos for court. There are some really cute ones of all 3 girls together and individually. I wish I could post some but I can't on this computer. I will when I get home or if we find an internet cafe or something.

After that was the long drive but my IPOD tv shows keep me entertained when I'm not looking at the trees. When I finally looked up, I noticed we were in NT but not heading toward the orphanage. I feel like I'm experiencing a little of what the girls will experience when I pick them up. I have no idea what is going on, where I am going, I can't understand anyone who is speaking to me and, everything I see is mysterious and new to me. I don't even bother asking questions most of the time because I don't understand the answers. I just sit and wait to see what is next and "go with the flow" as is the slogan for international adoption.

We ended up at a large office building in a really interesting part of NT. Lots of strollers being pushed everywhere, statues, large concrete squares, and apartments everywhere. It was really nice. After walking about 7 flights of stairs (I fared much better than Lydia with this - she could hardly breath by the time we reached the top) we entered a small office and met Vera, the social worker. She asked several questions, took notes and then explained through Lydia that she was trying to think of questions the judge might ask on Friday so that I was prepared. She will be at court also to give her opinion but she mentioned that since the couple returned the boys, the judge will really be grilling me. Great! But, the questions were pretty easy - what will I do IF they ever have a tantrum! Are you kidding?? IF? I'm sure I'll see the first one before even getting out of Ekaterinburg! I give the basic answers and everyone seems happy.

After that we went to the orphanage. The girls group was outside again but they weren't with them. The caregivers told Lydia that the girls were inside waiting for us. We went in and it turns out the psychologist can't make it today. There seems to be a lot of "emergencies" around here. So, now she (the psychologist) will just talk to the orphanage staff and gather information to base her report on from them. I was then able to collect the girls from their room and play with them for about 1 hour with no one around.

Both girls loved the new toys I brought - especially two little buckets. They hardly set them down the whole time I was there. They especially liked eating their "yum yums" out of their buckets. Vasilina is so funny in her copying of Polina and, I noticed today, if Vasilina does something first than Polina copies her too. It just depends on who thinks of what first which usually seems to be Polina. At one point Polina handed her cracker to Vasilina who then traded her cracker with her. They are so cute together and it is really fun to watch them interact. They know where the other is at all times and what she is doing.

We sat a lot today -Polina made a run for the door a couple of times and, I'm sorry to admit, outsmarted me one time. She went to one side of the large room and threw her bucket over my makeshift barricade. I went over there to get the bucket and she made a run for the other side. She made it through the opening before I caught her. She isn't the most coordinated runner around and, it's pretty scary watching her run at top speed toward a stairway. She's not trying to escape - she's laughing the whole time wanting to be chased which, you can't not do! I made progress today though and by the end of the visit we were sitting quietly in the middle of the room rocking, dancing, playing "bumble bee", etc. Then Lydia came in and told them in Russian that it was time to put the toys away and they both got up and started putting the toys in their buckets. They seem to mind pretty well when they understand the request!

Then a long drive home and my happy reunion with Katy. She enjoyed looking at the left over picture of herself with her sisters. I haven't told her that I'm visiting them without her because it would upset her so much. She thinks I'm going to work when I leave here although she probably is catching on. But, today is the last day of leaving her behind with the exception of my court visit.

Tomorrow the court translator will be here at 11:00 AM to go over the things I need to be prepared to answer in court. After that we may get together with a couple from LA who are staying at the Park Inn. They're here for their first visit and I've been corresponding a little with them.
Thursday, hopefully, will just be a day of relaxing and preparing for the big day on Friday. Hopefully - NO MORE CHANGES!!!!

Tuesday 9/23 - 11 AM - Email & Comments . . .

My email isn't working very well - incredibly slow and painful to use. So, I wanted to let the "commenters" know how much I enjoy getting your comments - it's hard to respond to them but don't let that discourage you from sending them!

Carla - I think the psychologist visits are new since the French family changed their minds. I believe Olga mentioned something about this when we first arrived but all of that is kind of a blur. I know she said they added some requirements due to that fiasco - I'm hoping this is it and, the only new thing.

Kristine S. - I lost all of my email addresses when trying to get this up and running. If you're reading the blog, please send an email so I have your address! I don't know if we'll have internet in Chelyabinsk or Moscow since this computer stays here, but I'll need to get in touch with you from Moscow. So, if you can, send an email with your cell number again - not sure what I did with that piece of paper either!

Everyone else - keep writing!

Sunday & Monday

Yesterday, with the help of the stroller, we were able to walk a little further and actually found the street vendors we had seen on our trip to Olga's house on Saturday. We spent the afternoon on a crowded sidewalk looking at little nesting dolls, wooden plates, lots of red spoons & bowls and old military medals. It was a fun afternoon and we actually were able to take another route home and walked through some pretty nice areas. This City seems to have many more affluent people in it then Chelyabinsk did 3 years ago. There are Toyota Land Cruisers, Lexus, BMW's and Mercedez everywhere you look. The billboards advertise the low end cars for around 340,000 and the nicer cars around 740,000 but I have no idea what the high end cars go for here - but, they're everywhere. The buildings are so old and run down on the outside - I'm sure because of the whether, but are actually pretty nice inside - also different then Chelyabinsk. There are banks everywhere here and, I even found a Western Union which is nice to know about.

The last couple of days have been much warmer and the weather and the Urals remind me so much of New England in the Fall that I'm really enjoying that part of this trip. I'm anxious to see how much the trees change between now and the two weeks or so before picking the girls up - assuming everything goes well.

I was told to be ready to go at 8AM today which meant getting up at 7AM! That's like me getting up at 4AM at home because of the late hours we've been keeping here. But, I was up and ready and then sat at the door for about 25 minutes waiting. Driving out of the city at 8:30 is very different than at 12 or 1 - the traffic was crazy - grid lock in some areas. Lydia experienced a little road rage when she started yelling at a woman trying to cut in front of us. She didn't bother rolling down the window and I don't think the woman saw her but I certainly heard it all - have no idea what she was saying though! It took a good hour at least to get out of the City but the rest of the drive was nice.

I was to meet the social worker today but she had an "emergency". When we got to the orphanage, the girls' group was outside with all of their winter gear on. I was allowed to take the girls for a walk by myself which was really nice. When we got to the other side of the orphanage and met back up with their group, Polina wanted to go play so we joined all the kids. My two ran off to play on the slides, etc., but the others were all flocking around me saying "mama" and grabbing my hands. One named Elina kept hugging my legs. They were all smiling and saying mama but my two could care a less where I was - and, so it begins!

Lydia then joined me and the two of us took the girls back inside and took all their snow clothes off. I played with them in the music room for what seemed like an eternity . . . this is a big room in the center of the 2nd floor between two stair ways with openings on each side that can't be closed off. We try barricading but that doesn't work because the room is a major thoroughfare for the staff. The girls run in different directions so I was constantly running after them trying to catch one and get to the other in time. I tried a smaller room but it was filled with a crib, ladder, table and chair that they kept climbing. I tried "yum-yums" and to make them "sadeesh" (sit) and that worked for about 2 minutes before Polina was able to grab the bag of crackers and swing them all over the room. Trying to pick the crackers up and keep both girls in the room at the same time probably would have been pretty hilarious for someone outside to be watching. Thankfully, the social worker was not there to see all of that.

I was then told that we were taking the girls out of the orphanage to go to the psychologist's office. That was a surprise but today Katy and Angela didn't make the trip with me so there was room in the car to get this done. We put the boots, snow pants, parka, hat and gloves back on both girls and walked out to the car. Polina sat on my lap while Vasilina sat on Lydia's lap. The orphanage caregiver said that many kids cry during the trip as they are scared and are not taken out often. Well, I have at least one more daughter as adventurous as Katy and, possibly two. Polina laughed and giggled with every bump, turn and jerky start. She loved it - Vasilina was fine too but maybe not enjoying the rough ride quite as much. She was more curious and was trying to touch the ceiling and watching outside. Once we got to the clinic where the psychologist's office was, it was off with all the gear again, up one long flight of stairs, down another and then up another. All this for about 3 questions . . . what will I do if they don't sleep when I bring them home; what are their personalities and the difference between them; can I entertain the girls and keep their attention. That was it. Then back down the stairs, up the stairs, down the stairs, hats, pants, jackets, gloves, car . . . That was it for today.

Tomorrow I go back to the orphanage and the psychologist is coming to observe me play with the girls - YIKES - I hope it's not like today! I'm hoping to be able to play outside and am planning to bring some new outside toys to try out. If it's raining, it's back inside which is never easy.
I'm also to meet the social worker tomorrow at the orphanage so it will be a long day I think. It doesn't start until 1 when Victor is to pick me up so hopefully, the psychologist and the social worker won't want to stay that late once we get to the orphanage.

Angela's writing lots more interesting things about our trials here . . . will post those soon. She remembers all the fun little things that I'm forgetting about.

Angela's Thoughts . . .

THE ORPHANAGE

Most of the days we have been here we have gone to visit with Camryn and Courtney.

The orphanage is just an old building, not in the best condition but better than I had anticipated. There were children playing outside. They have many little outside play areas and things for them to play on. They divide the children up by age at the orphanage it ranges from infant to about 3 or 4. They can have children that are as young as about a month and a half. All the children that I have seen appear to be happy. But they don’t know any different then living in an orphanage so I really wouldn’t expect them to be unhappy.

The first day we spent about four hours with the girls. Katy really enjoyed finally meeting her sisters. She was very sad when they left and cried because she wanted to play with them more. She didn’t want them to take her sisters away.

On the second day (if I remember correctly) we were getting things ready to leave and say goodbye to the girls when Lydia (a translator) asked if they had shown us what room the girls group was in. The day before one of the caretakers came and took them to go back so we did not know where to take them. After we were all cleaned up and ready to go we followed Lydia to their room. When we walked in the room Lori and I just kind of looked at each other. I am sure that we were thinking the same thing. I wish we could just take them all home with us and I think that it almost made it harder that day to leave the girls there for another time. I cannot image what Lori was really feeling. There were many children that looked sick. Almost every one of them had cuts, scrapes, bumps and bruises on there faces (the only part of their bodies we could see, they keep many layers of clothing on them). There is this blue and green ointment (if that is even what it is) that they put on the children’s cuts and every one of them had some blue or green on them, It was really sad to see.

EKATERINBURG

I think the best way for me to describe this city is poor but in the process of big development. There are lots and lots of old buildings but they are building new ones every where you look. There are some really nice looking buildings that are all windows but it’s kind of weird - almost all the buildings look old, even the new ones. The only way you can tell a new building is new is because it is at least a 12 stories high or they are still in the process of building it. I think that it is because of the weather - they must not put a lot of time into making them look nice.
They have lots of tall buildings that are made out of little red bricks. It must take them a really long time to actually finish.

Other than a grocery store, this part of the city that we are staying in doesn’t really have anything for us to do. We have to walk pretty far to get to anything. It was really hard the first few times we went walking because Katy would get tired quickly and we couldn’t get very far. Luckily, Olga (the adoption agency coordinator) let us borrow a stroller so, the other day we got to go for a long walk.

We have found this outside shopping mall area that has a lot of high end shops. Lots of clothing and shoe stores (specifically boots). Not really anything that we were looking for. Although I think it is interesting to know that they are so in to fashion here. Just about all the girls wear stiletto boots with jeans or short or knee length skirts. I still cannot figure out why so many of them wear skirts because it is so FREEZING COLD out. I guess that they just really do not care about being cold. Guys just kind of dress normal except almost all the guys seam to wear dress shoes. You don’t see very many people casually dressed.

Since we finally got a stroller we walked all the way to the end of the outside shopping mall and found this area that we had driven by on a previous day that we wanted to go to. It is a sidewalk right down the middle of the road that has all kinds of vendors selling stuff. They had lots of nesting dolls, baskets, decorative wooden bowls and spoons, lots of carvings made out of some kind of stone, and many other souvenir things. It was neat to walk thru all of that. I think Katy was a little bored - we still haven’t found anything for her to do. After we were done with that we were going to go eat pizza at this place we found but it was way too packed inside. We would have had to wait forever so we made our way back “home”. We did find a different way we could walk though.

When we were driving around the other day we did drive by a zoo that we want to take Katy to. For those that don’t know Ekaterinburg is right on the boarder of Asia and Europe. So I would also like to go and see the monument that they have. You can be in both continents at the same time. We might go do some sight seeing after court. This week is a little busy for Lori – she has lots of preparing to do.


SOME OTHER STUFF

After court and Megan has arrived we will be traveling to Chelyabinsk (where Katy was adopted from). It is about 4 hours away from Ekaterinburg. Lori has kept in contact with the coordinator from Katy’s adoption and she wants us to come and visit there. Although I have heard things from Lori, I am curious to see how different the two cities are.

I would post pictures of some of the things that I am talking about but, we had to borrow a computer to be able to use the internet and it’s an old one. We cannot figure out how to get pictures on the computer to post. Plus, it doesn’t help that all the programs are written in Russian !

Time Stamp

Somehow our computer has the dates all wrong so the posts are not correct. Angela's notes is actually posted at 1:00 PM Sunday, September 21st!

Angela's Notes

While I've been updating this blog, Angela has been posting to her "myspace" and she's included all the travel trials, etc. Here are her postings regarding the trip so far . . .

10:08 PM - RUSSIA TRIP Current mood: adventurous
Okay this is for everyone that has been asking how it is here in Russia & about how the trip has been so far.
I am going to subtitle stuff so that if you only want to know about some things you don't have to read it all……
Oh, and for those of you that don't know, I am here helping a friend bring home twins that she is adopting.

THE FLIGHT, AIRPORT IN MOSCOW & ARRIVING IN EKATERINBURG

We left LA at 6:30pm Monday the 8th. Entering the gate area we had to present passports so Lori gave the guy Katy's Russian and US passports. He stared at Katy's Russian passport for a long time comparing it to the US one and finally said that something was wrong with it. There was a K or something missing! The Russian passport is written in the Russian alphabet so there was a lot more than a missing K - once we explained that to him he let us through. The first flight went well Katy did really well especially for being 3 years old. Our flight from LAX to Moscow was 12 hours and then we had a 6 hour layover (not as bad as it sounds), we only spent about an hour and a half actually waiting.

First we got to Moscow and had to go thru some passport thing to be signed into the county. we stood in line (well if that's what you would call it as there are no actual lines for anything here in Russia. People just kind of herd around and push and shove to get to wherever they need to go. Standing there for like an hour we got no where. It was getting a little frustrating and Katy was getting a restless. There was another area that was just for Russian citizens to go thru and a man behind us suggested that we go there to see if they would let us thru because we had a child. Luckily they did let us thru (who knows how long we would have had to wait). So we got our luggage, met up with our translator (Jane) who drove us to a different airport.

At the next airport we found some seats and Lori and Katy sat. Jane took me to exchange some money and explain how we check into out flight and how we can tell if it is our turn to go thru security (it is very different in Russia then in the US). Jane left after everything was explained. Lori, Katy and I just sat and waited for about an hour and a half.

Finally it was our turn to go thru security. It took about 5 minutes for the security lady to figure out our tickets and we moved on to the next step - actually getting thru security with 5 checked bags and about 4 carry-on bags and a kid (we don't travel light). Not knowing exactly what to do, Lori and I are trying to get everything on this belt to be x-rayed and no one was helping. They just looked at us and smiled as we looked like "idiots" (and we probably did) because we don't speak Russian. Finally we get thru there and move on to actually checking our luggage and getting our boarding passes. Not an easy task because one, we don't speak Russian and two, Katy has dual citizenship. We don't know what passport to show the lady to check us into our flight, so we just show both. She started looking around for a fourth person to be with us. Although I am pretty sure that when I handed them to her I showed her both US and Russian passports of Katy's and pointed to Katy. Then I showed her mine pointing to me and Lori's pointing to her. Once the lady figured all that out, I told her we were checking 6 bags (we decided to check one of our carry-ons). She looked at me like I had four heads and put up six fingers and then counted all the bags to make sure she had it right. So all in all it took us about 30- 45 min just to get thru security and check in our bags even though there was no line or wait. Good thing we had a red eye and the airport was pretty empty.

All checked in finally we found our gate and sat and waited for our flight to board. Katy fell asleep when we were waiting for our boarding passes and I was getting really tired. I had not slept any of the flight and had at that point been awake well over 24 hours and we still had a two and a half hour flight to Ekaterinburg (Ekat). Even though Katy was awake all of that flight, I got to sleep most of it :o). We got to Ekat at 5:30 am Wednesday the 10th, came to our flat at about 7ish, ate (airplane food is horrible not that you already didn't know that) and slept until two in the afternoon. :o)

BEING COLD


Mostly it is cold. We really were not thinking it was going to be this cold but we have enough layers to keep ourselves warm enough to not be freezing. There is no heat in our building. We are told that each building has its own central heating for the whole building and the government controls when it is turned on. Yeah, kind of weird. One of our translators said that they start turning on heat in different parts of the city on the 15th of September. Different parts have different priority and we must be in the part with not a very high priority. We have been to quite a few shops in different areas of the city that are heated (maybe they're just trying to get people to shop, who knows).

LORI'S COURT DATE AND COMING BACK HOME

Originally I had been telling people that the court date would be 9/24. Yesterday we found out that the judge moved it to 9/26 because of meetings that she has on 9/24. She doesn't want to be tired and cranky for Lori's hearing so that is why she moved the date. Good and bad. Good because hopefully she will be easier on Lori about why a single parent with one child is adopting twins (Courtney & Camryn), however , this is also bad because it prolongs the knowing if we get to bring the girls home with us or not. There is a 10 day wait after court between getting the go ahead and actually taking the girls from the orphanage.
With court on 9/24 we would get to pick them up on 10/7 so with court on 9/26 we should not be able to pick up the twins until 10/9. More good news, they do assure us that we will still get to pick the girls up on the same day as if court had been on the 24th. But who really knows if that will be the case until it actually happens. So as scheduled we should be home by October 15th, if all goes according to plan.

….More to come later - it's about 12 at night here and I am tired

An early day . . .

Today Victor picked us up at 12:30 as Lydia had said he would. We were told that we needed to go order pictures from our visits for the court appearance and that we would then go back to the orphanage on Monday. I thought it would be a quick trip out so we didn't pack any of Katy's necessities for a long day. We first went to Olga's to pick up a stroller she is letting us borrow. She lives in a really nice neighborhood. Very New Yorkish - lots of people everywhere, street vendors, great shops, etc. Really nice. We quickly drove through and then picked Angie up somewhere else in the City and went to a camera store. After choosing all of the pictures to print we got back in the car and sat in traffic for a long time. When we really started moving again, Angela and I both noticed at the same time that it looked as if we were heading out of the City! I asked Angie if we were going back to the flat and she said that we were going to the orphanage! I told her that we weren't planning on that again until Monday so we had to turn around and fight our way back through traffic.

After getting back to the flat, we put Katy in the stroller and walked around our own neighborhood. We've pretty much gone in every direction now as far as we can comfortably walk (with a 3 year old) and there's nothing for us here. We found no parks or play areas for Katy, no other grocery stores - pretty much nothing. We plan to take a day next week and spend it in Olga's neighborhood - there's even a zoo and pony rides for Katy over there. Where we are it's tons of construction. High rise buildings are going up everywhere and cranes all over the place - there's one building with a steel frame and tiny little bricks are being placed one by one all the way up. It's amazing to see high rises built out of tiny little bricks. We got a few pictures of the high rises right in front of the old wooden houses with the bright colored shutters. The "suburbs" are all the old log houses too - we'll have to get some pictures of those. They look to be hundreds of years old and to be falling down - I don't know for sure how old they are. I'd love to learn the history of the little houses and who built them. They're so tiny but seem to house entire families.

That's it for today. We're in for the night and planning an easy day tomorrow. We're not even in the dreaded 10 day waiting period yet and we're bored stiff. There is nothing to do hence the long posts! We're planning to go to Chelyabinsk on October 2nd if court goes well and then Sasha can take us to a few more places - hopefully, that will break up the long wait a little.

We're missing everyone and can't wait to finally pick the girls up and head home! It seems like it's so far away but I'm happy to be here and to be so close to finally completing this ordeal. I'm anxious to get the girls home and start living our lives again!

Postponement #1

Today we had a good visit with the girls. Victor and Lydia picked us up around 1:30 and we got to the orphanage around 4 PM. The girls were snacking so we had to wait about 20 minutes for our visit to begin. Katy did not sleep on the way so she was pretty tired (and cranky) during our visit. She fell asleep as soon as we got back in the car to leave and slept for about 1 hour. Right now it's 9:30 PM and we just got done with dinner. It will be a late night - these 7:30 PM naps for Katy don't make for short evenings.

Vasilina had obvious signs of a cold coming on and I'm sure Polina will also be getting it. I'm really hoping Katy doesn't catch it too. Polina has a very strong personality and held her own with Katy today. At one point, Katy was asking her to get out of a stroller she was playing with and when Katy became a little forceful, Polina really yelled at her. Katy started crying right away - I think it really shocked her. But, Katy was so tired to begin with that she was pretty sensitive about everything during the visit. We were in a large music room today with two exits that the girls are constantly running toward. It's really difficult to keep them in there and we find that we're chasing them around more than actually getting to play with them. There's a smaller room that works better but today it was filled up with things so there wasn't room to play in there.

We're taking the next few days off from visiting although Monday I'm to meet the social worker and someone else - both at the orphanage. That will be challenging with Katy so we're working on options for handling that.

Once we got in the car tonight for our return trip, Lydia advised us that the court date has been postponed from Wednesday to Friday the 26th. However, she says that it won't prolong the 10 day wait and we'll be able to pick the girls up at the same time as if it would have been Wednesday - not quite sure how that works out but, I'm hoping it's true. Apparently, there are 3 election related hearings the judge will be holding on Tuesday and then she will have meetings all day Wednesday regarding those cases. She explained that she would be too tired and that she did not want us to have to suffer due to her being tired - Lydia said she apologized for the delay. I suppose I would rather have her in a good mood on Friday then tired and cranky on Wednesday but I was disappointed. I am anxious to get the court appearance over.

Lydia described the kind of questions, etc. that the judge normally asks and told me that I will really be drilled on being single with 3 children. She gave me a few other areas that the judge will "torture" me over but, when I asked if anyone had ever been denied at that point, the answer was no. So, that was good and hopefully will help with the nerves when I go in. 2 hours of questioning is a long time but if I'm not feeling "threatened" then I should do okay - I hope anyway.

Tomorrow we're off to print pictures of the visits to take to court. Olga is bringing a stroller by so that we can take Katy for longer walks around the City. Apparently, there is a shopping mall fairly close with a cafe and play area - looking forward to finding that for Katy. It's pretty cold out and I need to get some warmer gear for Katy and for me so we can stay out comfortably. Sunday is a day off and then Monday it all starts up again, hopefully with resolution on Friday - that would be very nice!

Another quiet day in Ekat

Nothing new to report today. Yesterday was a quiet day - probably too quiet for Katy. I think she's going a little stir crazy sitting around so much. Her only play time is with the girls. We did go for a very long walk yesterday and found the Arbot here . . . not sure what it is called in Ekat but that's what they call it in Moscow and Chelyabinsk. Just an open shopping area shut off to cars. The shops seem to be pretty high end but we did find a good bakery and a little gift shop with cute Russian puzzles. That took up a few hours yesterday but then, back to the flat.

I downloaded all the pictures yesterday of the girls - they are so cute and their big brown eyes just pull you right in. They both look so happy & healthy and, they both seem so smart. My favorites are of the 3 girls together - the way they look at each other and communicate. I'm really going to enjoy watching their relationships grow too.

While I'm struggling with a few Russian words, they're already saying a few English words themselves. Mainly cracker - it's so cute when they say it. Also a big one for them is "yum-yum". We're having a little trouble with the name changes - right now we're using their Russian names while trying to teach them their English names. I know it will come in time.

Both girls seem very attentive although certainly not attached. I don't anticipate even working on that until we're home but, it's nice that they like to be held, look you straight in the eye and are eager to communicate. All healthy signs I think although they don't seem to know how to be held. They don't latch on when you pick them up which I remember was an issue with Katy at first too. The carriers will really help in getting them home and getting them used to being carried. They're definitely attached to their home however, and we're constantly having to stop them from running back to their little group room. They point to the outside a lot and I think our visits make them miss their outdoor time which isn't good.

This orphanage is so different then Katy's was. At Katy's I wasn't allowed to bring anyone in with me until after court, I wasn't allowed to wander the orphanage at all, I was required to wear booties at all times and, I was never left alone with Katy - there was always someone from the orphanage with us. We've been able to see lots of different areas of this orphanage which has been both good and bad. Some of the sights have been pretty sad but others are of happy kids playing inside and out. It's been nice that we're left alone because I don't feel like we're being watched all the time. Also, during Katy's adjustment, it's not always pretty! She's had a few little outbursts and mopes around a bit while there but, then as soon as we start leaving she talks about missing her sisters. I know it's going to be a tough adjustment but it will be so good for her. Angela's a huge help while there because all 3 are going through different things and "containing" them all at the same time would be extremely difficult!

So, we off to see them again today . . . I hope Katy does well on this drive - it's getting harder and harder on her. 5 hours in the car is way too long for her but we don't really have options. Thank God for my little IPod with all her favorite Scooby-doos on it. The novelty of that may be wearing off though and I'm running out of distractions for her.

On another note - some emails seem to be taking a couple of days to get here. We're thinking maybe it's when responding with the reply button but we haven't figured it out. If someone isn't getting answers to emails that's why! You can always post a comment on here and Angela and I will both be able to get those consistently - but, don't give up on email - we both really like getting them and look forward to them!

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