St. Petersburg Day 4-Thursday

Well, here we are, in lovely St. Petersburg, Day 4, Thursday. Yes, as I already stated in my header... sorry for the redundancy. Anyway, if you didn't get the absolute privilege of reading my husbands account of the medicals from yesterday, my apologies. There are many people still crying with laughter over his account. You really can't make up stuff this good. We paid a small fortune for the opportunity to be naked together (really only topless, don't panic too much) in a room with three Russian doctors and our translator. As my husband reported, I never envisioned myself being topless in a room with my husband and spectators, but if I had, this would definitely have not been the setting I pictured! :) If you're coming to St. Pete for your adoption, you can contact me and I will give you the full play by play to prepare you.

But on to today. We had a fantastic visit with the little angel. She is positively precious, bright, and "with it". At her baby home, we are allowed to go and collect her from her group. I have never been given this privilege before, so it seems wonderful that we would be allowed to go and see where she plays and where she sleeps. We have only ever been allowed to go into the "back" of the orphanage after a court decision, so this is new. It's wonderful! Anyway, when we went to get her, she cried when she first saw us again. But she quickly forgot her fear when we pulled out the stacking cups. She is particularly fond of the stickers I stole from our reward drawer at home. The boys could care less about them anyway, so now I've found someone who will appreciate the snoopy and smiley stickers that have been hanging around there for years. :) Anyway, she loved sticking stickers all over me and she even gave a few to Brian. She liked playing with the stacking cups again and was very quick about turning them over to the right direction when I would hand them to her upside down (we're sure she's a genius.) Anyway, all good stuff. At one point, she pulled the tape measure out of my bag and immediately tried to put it around her head. Do you think she has had her head circumference measured a time or two? Her waist is 19 inches around, in case you're wondering. :) I had to know so that I could put in the elastic for the things I have sewn for her.

She also ended up finding a plastic bag in our backpack, which she found quite entertaining. Typical for a child, the bag the toy comes in is often more interesting than the toy itself. Her favorite thing of the day, however, were the Gerber Graduates. Our translator forbid me to give her very many of them (I wanted to spoil her with the whole bag), but she accepted it well when I put them away and told her "f-sho" (finished.) When it was time to return to her room, I gave her the bag and she carried it with her back to the room. I asked the caregiver to give some to the whole group. I will tell myself they distributed them and didn't toss them in the trash. I am not sure.

But I do have to make record of the absolute most heart breaking thing that has happened to me in an orphanage to date. Warning, get your tissues! When we were waiting for the caregivers to get her ready for our visit, we were standing in the entrance to her room. These two little ones were walking out with another caregiver, headed to their physical therapy. As soon as they rounded the corner, the little girl of the group got very excited and said, "Mama and Papa! Mama and Papa have come!" The caregiver replied, "A's Mama and Papa!" She craned her neck to watch us as long as she could see us. The image of this little angel going down the steps with her head turned looking back at us is burned in my brain forever. I wanted to grab her and tell her that she would have a mama and papa too, but of course, I don't know this. For some reason, it's very tense for me when I am in the orphanage and I see other children. There is this chasm between me and them and I want to run over to them all, hold them, hug them, give them candy and blow bubbles for them. I want to do something to give them some delight. But for some reason, it's all very stiff and it's not generally encouraged that you would interact with the other children. I think part of this might be because our translator doesn't seem very comfortable with it. I want to be respectful because obviously, she has to maintain a reputation and working relationship with these women. But on the other hand, I just want to give the kids a little bit of the love I have for all of them. I wish I could change all of their lives for the better.

So, that was our day with MM. We came back to the room and spent two hours being debriefed on what to expect from our court experience. I am feeling a little nervous about it because they say it will be about two hours long. In Moscow, it was always around 30 minutes and the judge was very kind. I don't know what to expect this time, but two hours seems like a long time. I just want everything to go well so we can get our daughter home to complete our family and start our life with her.

Tomorrow is our last day and I dread leaving our daughter, but I look forward to seeing my boys. So that will make Saturday a happy occassion for us.

Thank you for your continued prayers and e-mails!