Signed the papers...

I signed the papers yesterday to accept my referral. I will be posting pictures only after court. She is a little camera shy anyway and I haven't gotten many good ones. But here is a sneak peak.

We have been meeting in the nurses office. It is hot and there is boiling water at all times on the hotplate behind her. The orphanage is undergoing renovations so they don't have a lot of space for me to go to.

The bad news is that she hates me! - no, but I definitely am not someone she knows and I'm trying to take that has a good sign. She cries everytime they hand her to me and then holds onto me and cries into my shoulder as if she will die if she looks at me.

She definitely knows Russian better than English and everytime I talk to her in English she gets this little sniffle. So, I am pulling out all of the stops trying to learn simple words in Russian. I didn't feel like I had to do this with the other ones, but she definitely responds to my attempts.

Today she only cried for about 20 minutes and then spent the next hour playing with me so it was better. Of course, I had asked if I could take her outside and walk around and when they came to take her at 11:30 I thought that was it. But they got her dressed for outside and brought her to me...of course, she hated me again!! How dare they make her spend time with this stranger. We found a little plastic see saw and she liked the rocking motion so we were friends again.

I can imagine that it will be a loooooonnnnnnngggggg plane ride home when I finally take her home.

Gotta go, this is the only computer with internet access in the business center so don't want to hog it. the good news it is $8 dollars an hour - compared to the $20 an hour in Moscow. Oh well, the $20 was worth it to have access on my laptop in my room.

One more day to visit tomorrow and then back to Moscow at night. Home on Saturday. Hopefully I will be able to have a better flight.

Made it...

Well, after what was one of the longest days, I made it to Moscow. Got into work on Saturday at 9:00 am. Wendy was at our house to pick me up at 7:25. I thought I would be waiting for her, but my packing was interrupted by Riley and Logan trying to "help". I had bought some toys to bring to the baby for me to play with her with. Unfortunately, they needed to be opened and examined. Meanwhile I was packing (and trying to pack light). Don't know if I am going to have to be present at the Minister of Education's office for the referral or not and so...needed to pack something nice. Then, packed two pairs of jeans and 4 shirts -so far so good. Then put my winter coat into a space bag with my scarf and mittens and squeezed out as much air as possible. Then had to put my boots in because I will be ridiculed in Russia if I wear my good shoes all of the time - maybe even thought of as crazy - cant have that!! All of this with some electronic gear (camera, camcorder, charger and the little suitcase is full to the rim. Remembered a brush at the last minute and had to put that it...oh yeah and the cheerios and M&M's that I am bringing to bribe the baby into liking me! - don't let anyone from the orphanage hear that!

So, we are speeding down the road to the daycare when we get to the 65/95 split and I realize that I have forgotten all of those crisp bills I picked up at the bank the day before. Probably the one thing I can't go without! So, we turn around and drive home...Luckily while there, I remembered my First Season of "24" CD's which I had also forgotten. (Let me tell you that my time zone difference waking at 3 am today here would have killed me if I didn't have that!)

Anyway, made it to the office and dropped off the suitcases and went to round with Dave. Saw one new patient and then he drove me to the airport. I had 2 hours to wait till the plane to Atlanta took off. When I booked the flight, I thought it was wierd that Orbitz let me choose my seat - they usually don't on the international flights - so I didn't think anything of it. Well, silly me, should have looked at it, because (of course) when we got on the plane in Atlanta, I am in the last row smack in the middle of the 3 seats in the middle of the plane. Between two guys (one Russian, one American) and there is no where to move!

Thank god there was about a 95 mile per hour tailwind the whole flight so it only took the 10 hours. Unfortunately, I was awake the whole time. The two movies were the Bee movie (seen it - hated it) and Ratatouie (seen it - liked it but didn't want to see it again). I was never so happy to see us land in Moscow - even though it was snowing! The landing was smooth and you could tell that there was no ice /snow on the runway even though it was snowing out!

Finally arrived here at 11:15 am Moscow time. At least the people from the Cradle were here to meet me and had a cell phone for me to use and brought me to the hotel. So, here I have stayed. Watched 4 episodes of "24", listened to half of "Bel Canto" and melted a water bottle! that is a story for another day.

Breakfast was good with good coffee so I am refreshed. I leave for Rostov this afternoon. Close with a picture outside my window. There are 3 hotels right out of the airport. The one across the street has this outside of it...their version of a billboard I guess!

Really good cause...

For the last month, I have been voting daily for a friend of mine on the America's Favorite Mom website.

This is a contest where moms are nominated and for the month of February, March and April the mom with the most votes wins a cash prize. In May, 15 women will be named semi-finalists and will be seen on the NBC Today show to highlight their causes. My friend Keith nominated his wife, Donna because of the work that she does in caring for their two very special needs children. Donna is a neat woman who is a lawyer by training but has devoted herself to make life better for her son who has Autism and her daughter who has developmental delay. She has pledged to donate any money to the wonderful school program that her children attend.

You can read about her here...

http://www.americasfavoritemom.com/mothers-day-2008/mom/Donna-A-648

I think it is really neat that Keith felt this strongly about his wife and what a great lady she is despite all odds. Please consider signing up and voting for her. You can vote once a day so...vote!

Yeehaw!

So, the week started with a healthy dose of remembering that this is RUSSIAN adoption and that I was definitely not in control. Called my agency yesterday to see if they had any news and they said that they expected something either Tuesday or Wednesday...hopefully.

I was really nervous that it was because the medical information was horrible and little expectations for today. But, lo and behold, at 11:30 I got a phone call that the info was being sent to me via email. One of my colleagues made me finish seeing the patient I was working on before I got on the computer.

The info was all very normal and encouraging. Therefore, I have the happy privilege of announcing that I accepted the referral of a 2 year (today) old girl and hope to go travel a week from Saturday to meet her.

I won't post a picture until after the first trip but...just know that she is a cutie.

Still waiting...

Sad puppy...no news...weekend is here.

Still waiting...

...no news yet...emailed my agency yesterday and they responded..."we hope to get something by the end of the week." I'm not sure I can go into the weekend without anything...I'm going crazy.

Waiting

I hate waiting. Hate it, hate it, hate it. So, got some preliminary info about a possible referral last week...supposed to be getting more info this week. Well, that could be anytime between this morning and Friday...Tell me--- Exactly how is someone supposed to get any work done when you have that hanging over your head??? My computer is not my friend right about now.

News...

Might have some news on the adoption front. Got a picture and a very short medical excerpt on Wednesday. Supposed to get more info next week. The problem is that the short excerpt just raises more questions than answering any and I don't want to fall in love with this picture...but everyone who looks at it immediately says..."she looks just like L." - okay this is hard!