Busy Day....

Irina called the front desk at 12:30 to let us know she was on her way. I got ready and headed out the door when her second call came saying she had arrived. I thought we were going to the orphanage, but instead we were going downtown to get airline tickets for the courier. We did that, made some other stops regarding documents and then headed back to the hotel to pick up the Overstreets. I was able to talk to Irina and get a better feel for how our visit would go this afternoon. Everything really was fine.

The Overstreets visited with Blake in the visiting room, also changing him and preparing for him to leave. The visit with Victoria was in the orphanage gym. When I first went to get her from her living area, there were adults in the doorway between us. I bent down so she could see me between legs. She did catch view of me and worked her way through, giving me a giant hug!

We played in the gym. Initially, I did sense that she knew something was up. After a bit she seemed fine and began to play. Of course she wanted to look out every window. Her tights no longer had elastic in the top, so she was pulling them up every couple of seconds. Mom finally took them off of her, which was fine. We needed to kind of look her over because two of the kids at the hotel have scabies, which they brought with them from a different baby home. Just wanted to make sure she did not have anything going on like that. Looks Ok for now! She loved running around and playing barefoot. It was also very cute to watch. Of course she drank lots of water again. She brushed her hair a bit and then she brushed mine. It was very sweet. We had a nice visit, but shorter than usual. Irina came up to let us know it was time to go and the Overstreet’s were already in the car. Irina talked to Victoria to let her know that we would be back again tomorrow and she will leave. Tomorrow is the day!!! Finally!!!!

We came back to the hotel and I had to work on some paperwork with Irina and Lana for immigration. Also, we went over the schedule that Victoria normally follows and the diet she is used to. I am looking forward to tomorrow. It will be exciting to finally get her in the car and bring her with me! We plan to have dessert tomorrow with Blake and his family. We will see how the evening unfolds. Blake was having a great time here tonight. He will be excited to see Victoria here tomorrow. I will be excited to finally have her here!!!

Tomorrow is another busy day. Justin and I will go downtown to take care of documents, I think passports. I will go to the orphanage at about 2:00 pm, not to PLAY, to change her clothes and GO!!!! Final trip to the orphanage….Woo Hoo!!!!!!

Barefoot Baby Girl!!!!!

Vladivostok Harbor

Change of Plans...

Change of plans this morning. I think all of us here have really learned to go with this flow regarding the entire adoption process!! Irina came to pick up the Martins to handle paper work downtown and told us we will leave at about 2:30, instead of noon, to go to the orphanage. She also said that she visited the orphanage on Saturday to take Victoria and Blake’s passport photo. Victoria cried when Irina was leaving because she thought that Irina was there to take her to the hotel. Irina promised her that I will be back and she will leave the orphanage soon, just not that day……=( poor sweetie. I know this has to be so confusing for her.

I spoke with Irina about my concerns with visiting Victoria today. Irina said we will for sure explain to her as best we can. I did know we would explain to Victoria, I suppose I was looking for more of an idea as to how this will all play out. Sandy and Heather both heard me talking to Irina and came over to comfort me. I was really ok, until I saw they were both teary eyed, so sweet of them. It will all be ok though. I am excited for Heather and Justin; soon they will have Blake here.

Half Way to Home!

Well, I have 13 days down and 13 to go until I return home. Half way there! Today Heather, Justin Sandy, Amy, Mom and I went to the children’s store and then the market. We shopped knowing that Victoria will be joining us in just a couple of days. Besides grocery items, I bought a couple of coloring books at the children’s store and mom bought a doll that speaks Russian and a stroller for the doll. We have a suitcase filled with just toys that we are calling her toy box! We learned this suitcase/toy box conversion from looking at the other parents’ suites. We all toured each other’s rooms a few days ago, no two are alike.

Me, Heather, Justin, Ryan, Sandy, Bodi, Mom

Sandy and Ryan True are here from Colorado. They have recently adopted Bodi. They are both involved in the Air Force, so are veterans at traveling and exploring new places, though they say they are not veterans of Russia. Anyway, they invited us to join in a game tonight that they play when they are in a new place. They call it “Menu Roulette”. This is how it works…..we go to a restaurant and randomly pick something on the menu. Sounds fun, and we had nothing else going on! We went with Sandy, Ryan, Bodi, Heather and Justin. Choosing randomly was easy, the entire menu was in Russian of course and no one in the place spoke a bit of English, but us. We each basically ordered something and passed it around the table to share. The meal (?) turned out to be pretty good! We ended up ordering a salmon dish, beef dish, some sort of sausage dish (now what I am calling dish, I guess I should clarify as a meat with onions). We had three different types of salad (?), stuffed tomatoes, and some dried type of beef with some very thin bread, like tortilla. For dessert we tried to order three different items, but ended up with three bowls of basically ice-cream. It really was fun and a different experience, for me anyway!

I was unsure of this dried meat...I did taste it, but that was about it!

The bill was 2,750 rubles, just under $90.

Tomorrow we are being picked up at noon to visit Victoria and Blake. Blake will be able to come back to the hotel with his parents tomorrow after our visit. Victoria will be able to come back on Tuesday. I am still a bit anxious about tomorrow and how Victoria will process everything. This was very evident last night with my lack of sleep, just lots going on in my head. There is a clock on the wall in our room that I guess I thought just ticks loudly. I got up in the middle of the night and just needed to get rid of the ticking. I took the clock off the wall and put it in the oven! I decided that was not good enough and I could still hear ticking. I picked up the portable alarm clock and put it in the oven too! Mom asked what in the heck was I doing. I told her that the ticking was just really loud. She said with exasperation, “Jennifer Marie!” Wow, she even threw in my middle name!! Yes, the oven worked on blocking out the stupid ticking!!! Of course I was finding things to worry about…and then came crazy dreams during the short times I was asleep. I shared one with dad earlier today through email…..and he reminded me, “Dreams can be very interesting regarding your concerns”. Yes, I suppose that is very true……