Russian Adoption DVA

Trip One - part three

Wednesday, May 03, 2006

Saturday, March 4 -

We were getting ready to meet our agency's Russian Director for lunch at 11:00. D had just getten her coat, scarf and hat on when hubby picked her up for a hug and she lost her breakfast on him and her pretty white "fur" scarf. Her poor tummy was so upset. But, after she threw up she said she felt better, so we decided to ahead and meet them for lunch - there was no way to contact them anyhow as they were certainly already on their way to the hotel to get us.

Since it wasn't far from our hotel, we decided to walk. It was a little more than a mile I would guess. D enjoyed walking under the street like an ant! We had lunch at an Azerbaijani restaurant called Shesh-Besh. I was shaslik (kabobs) with no stick. We got to the table and ordered our drinks - D had to go to the bathroom, feeling sick again :o/. We came back, I looked at the menu and back to the bathroom we go. I told hubby to just order me something with chicken. Back at the table - they had ordered an appetizer of really thin bread with buttery sauce (it was good and I was hungry!). I got one bite of it and back to the bathroom we went. When we got back everyone had finished the good bread!! The food was there. I got about 3 bites and back to the bathroom we went!! When I got back everyone was done eating and now D's tummy was all better! I just had my lunch wrapped up and carried it back to the hotel. I didn't get hardly any visiting done with the director and her husband and I didn't eat but a few bites!

We rested a bit in the afternoon and our

translator, Nadia, came and picked us up for the circus at 6 p.m. D was very excited! We arrived at the snow covered circus complex and saw outdoor amusement rides. D rode the ferris wheel and the kiddie carousel. Next we went into the very crowded circus building and stood in the line to check our coats, I was so glad Nadia was there with us because we would not have had a clue what to do! We bought D a blinkie wand and Nadia bought them each a pink clown nose! The circus

was WONDERFUL! We were so impressed. There were acrobats, dogs, monkeys, bears, elephants, horses, ice skaters and of course clowns (but not like usual US clowns). D's favorite was the horses and the elephants. Mommy's favorite were the bears and the ice skaters. I was so glad the bears were muzzled though, because we were right there by them, maybe 10 feet away!

The circus was long , 7 - 10 p.m. But it was very good. We were all tired and headed back to the hotel. We went straight to bed.

Sunday, March 5 -

We woke up about 9 a.m. and started getting our things packed and ready for the train trip to our region. Nadia and Igor picked us up at 11 and we went to the Izmailov (sp?) market to do some souvenir shopping. It was snowing like crazy! We decided just to shop for one hour because it was so snowy and c-o-l-d! We did really well, though and bought lots of stuff in one hour :o)

We left the market and went to exchange some dollars for rubles and then we headed to the Starlight Diner where we had hamburgers and D got a "girl cheese sandwich". After our late lunch, we went to the train station to catch our 5:20 train to the region. By this point putting all the snow paraphenalia on and off D was beginning to become very tiresome! It was soooo cold outside but soooo hot inside!

We arrived at the train with our loads and loads of luggage and with the help of our drivers and the coordinator's husband, we got it all loaded in our little compartment. The car attendant was named Nadezhda and she lives in our children's region. She spent a good amount of time hanging out at our compartment practicing her English and talking with D. She was very nice and we were so happy to have her for our car attendant! We had a whole compartment to ourselves so imagine our surprise when a Russian man comes right in and plops his suitcase on one of the upper bunks! We started hollering for our coordinator in the next compartment!! It is very common for strangers to share compartments on the trains and he just had the wrong compartment but didn't think twice about the need to just join our little family!!! Whew, we were so glad we had our coordinator right in the next compartment!! The bathrooms on the train are still pretty yucky, just as they were 4 1/2 years ago. D liked everything about the train (especially riding in the upper bunk playing with her toys) but she didn't much like the bathroom! She slept on the bottom bunk and I slept on the top bunk above hubby. She slept all night like a trooper, of course Mommy had to get down off the top bunk twice to go potty in the stinky bathroom! Also, we must have had some heavy duty smokers in our train car because when I was trying to go to sleep the smoke was so heavy I just couldn't breathe! I am very sensitive to cig smoke. So, I improvised and put my bra cup over my nose and the strap around my head and made me a little mask! It worked :o). Off I went to sleep!

Monday, March 6 -

We came into the region about 9 a.m. We were surprised to see that the roads here were not cleared nearly as well as Moscow! The main streets are fairly well cleared, but the side streets not at all! When we turned into the side street to our hotel we got stuck and ended up having to get out and push the car! Then we ended up just parking and having to walk up to the hotel and dragging our luggage behind us in the snow.

We had only one hour to freshen up and meet back in the lobby for our MOE appointment (ministry of education - where we get the official referral of our daughter!). We hit the hotel room like a tornado trying to get ready. I just washed up and curled my hair a bit and got into fresh clothes. Hubby took a shower and the works - Men! I also had to spiff D up since she would be going into the meeting with us.

At 10:30 we met in the lobby to go to the MOE office for our appointment. We waiting in the hallway and piled our coats, gloves, hats etc. on the chairs out there. We went into a very tiny office & hubby and I sat in two chairs facing the MOE representative and D sat on hubby's lap. Our translator/coordinator and region coordinator were in the tiny office as well. The MOE Rep stated that she had received our request to adopt and it had been approved. Then she officially presented us the referral of baby V and showed us her picture on the computer screen. Then we were finished.

We left the office and bundled back up in our snow gear while our two coordinators stayed inside a bit longer getting some paperwork. Next we were off to the Dom Rebyonka - baby house! As we neared the orphanage, the car got stuck again! So we walked a few blocks to get there. In that deep snow, a few block's walk is quite an effort for us Texas folks!

We entered the baby house and were immediately met by the Director, the Doctor and the Social Worker. We walked into a play roo

m and the Doctor began going over baby V's medical history and diagnoses. We asked a couple of questions and then the Social Worker began her explanation of baby V's social history. Things were going so fast! We did end up seeing a copy of the birth mother's passport though - we've never seen a pic of D's bm. Before we knew it - in walks a lady carrying baby V!!!!!! We recognized her right away - hubby took her first and then handed her to me. We were still in a little shock because one minute we're taking in all this important info and then wah-lah she was there! D was so excited to meet her baby sister, it was so sweet.

More to come!

Till later . . .

Written at 9:54 AM by Suz.

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