Day #3 at the Orphanage

We drove up to the orphanage yesterday, to our surprise not at the crack of dawn!  Adam and I were thankful for the opportunity to sleep in, unfortunately we woke up around 5:30 in the morning anyway.  :)  Breakfast at our hotel wasn't until 7:30 but it was a perfect time to call my mom and our boys.  They got such a kick out of the fact that they were in their jammies ready for bed, while mommy and daddy were just waking up and eating breakfast.  They were really excited to hear we were on our way to see their baby sister!

I thought it would packed with snow here in December, but it actually reminds me of Seattle... cold and wet.  The sun doesn't come up until 9:00 or so and it goes back down by 3:00.  I couldn't help but smile when I saw that the televisions at breakfast were playing 80's music from the United States.  Guns and Roses, Blind Melon, U2, and Abba.  It was like a stroll down memory lane!  Actually pretty much all of the music here is American 80's music... which is strange to me because they don't seem to know much English here?   I'm loving it though!  ;)

Thankfully I was able to sleep most of the way to the orphanage!  The rain turned to snow, as it usually does when we drive north.  This time, we switched rooms with our friends.  The room they have been in is more like an exercise room for babies and toddlers.  It has an entire wall with full-length mirrors, a ball pit (not the same one from her referral pictures though), a tiny treadmill and eliptical (when I say tiny, I mean like for a one year-old tiny), and long beams that are barely above the ground to walk across.  It was such a fun room, we just had to make sure our little girl didn't trip over anything since she was just learning to walk!

The babies were taking their afternoon naps so our interpreter went over some questions that would be asked in court.  Every so often, she would hint at a few things to say and a few things not to say.  She mentioned that the judges are a little sore at Americans, given a recent court date where a child (who was adopted from Russia) was killed at his home in the United States.  Especially after dealing with the woman who sent her adoptive son back to Russia in 2010, the Russian regulations are becoming more and more strict.  Russian adoptions in the United States are dwindling from all time high of 5,862 in 2004 to around 1,600 last year.  This is highly due to cases such as these and it makes me so nervous!

I think I underestimated how much our little girl's comfort level had to do with the fact that her caregivers stayed for several minutes last time.   This time they brought her to us and immediately left.  She had just woken up, and I could tell she was very unsure of us and her new surroundings.  At one point, her lower lip began to quiver and I just held her for awhile.  She definitely liked being held and seemed very secure and calm in my arms.  She took a long time to warm up to the point where she was smiling and playing with us, but she eventually did!  The puffs definitely helped.  Adam was cracking me up because he would say, "If you want to come home and have us be your mommy and daddy, then eat a puff."  And she would carefully pick up the puff and put it in her mouth!  ;)  So it's meant to be!  Eventually, we remembered all of the things that made her giggle before and had her smiling and laughing in no time.

I asked our interpreter if we would get to see our little girl again tomorrow.  She stated very matter-of-factly that we would if we did well in court.  No pressure.  We have an 11:00 appointment tomorrow (11:00 pm back home) and covet your prayers for our nerves and that the judge would find favor in us.  Thank you!!