Day 11

We had a sweet sleepy baby today!

She was very happy when she came in (as usual). Even laughing (out loud!) at our attempts to entertain her.

Please excuse the headband/sumo wrestler's ponytail. Bad hairdays here are WAY worse than bad hair days at home.

The "lady in the closet" (I have no idea what her title/job is, but she works inside a tiny room inside the big play room we are in), came out and motioned for us to follow her across the room. She unlocked the piano and started to play! She was playing wonderfully and singing a little song while I held the baby, and Anna Gray started dancing! She was swaying her body and kicking her feet- it was SO cute!

The lady told me to sit with her and we played 'Mary Had a Little Lamb' and the beginning of 'Fur Elise' because they were the only things my fingers could remember at that moment.

Nathan wanted a turn and she banged around with him a little, but she kept grabbing his fingers and putting her hands on top of his- precious.

We were really excited to see how much she enjoyed the music :)

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It didn't last long though- little girl was TIRED.

We usually get about an hour out of her before she starts to crash. Today, she was so somber and could barely hold her eyes open for a majority of our visit.

She was as sweet as could be and only fussed once at the end when Nathan was trying to keep her upright (to keep her awake) and then she really got upset when her nanny came and took her away (is it bad that we were glad she cried being taken away from us? Lol).

She does make this face from time to time which is hilarious...

We came back for lunch at the apartment and watched a couple episodes of the Tudors (almost done with season 1!). I really wanted to go sit outside and people watch, but it's just not really an option. First of all, it's 9 degrees outside. Literally. And there are no people just ... sitting. Anywhere. As if we didn't stand out enough already. Plus, my camera doesn't need to be out in that :/

It's funny, we had to get a few things from the market tonight. So we got dressed and headed out, walking to the store a few blocks away. It's NINE degrees out there with snow falling like little frozen shards of glass and yet, here we were walking to the store like it was nothing. People out everywhere, kids walking home from school. At home, this would NEVER happen! It's just not a big deal here, it's life.

We planned to make spaghetti tonight, but it turns out the "sauce" we bought, was ketchup. Spicy ketchup :)

So we ended up with buttered noodles and sauteed mushrooms with shredded cheese- pretty darn good!

I know I talk about food a lot, but I'd be interested if I weren't here and I want to remember all these details!! Plus, besides our kids- I knew I'd miss food more than anything! I'm doing pretty good trying new things (that's been a learned behavior for me), but there have been times I would have killed for some China Wok or LP's tacos at home. And pepper. I miss pepper.

Movie and chocolate time :)
Paka!

Day 10

Sorry to disappoint, but there's no AG today :(

We told our driver we wouldn't be going today so that we could go to church, but that didn't work out either.

We slept a little too late, then the migraine I've had for four days strait reminded me of it's existence, our clothes on the line were still wet...  blah blah blah.
We stayed in and made breakfast/brunch and then had church at home with the Revolution service online (miss you all!!)

The rest of the day was pretty low-key:
Clean, unpack offically, sit down and separate all of our money to make sure we budgeted correctly for the next unknown number of weeks (scary), folded laundry, washed dishes, talk to the kids, figure out which baby clothes we brought will fit and which won't, etc.

Nothing exciting today! Missing all FOUR kids and ready to see AG again tomorrow!!
About to attempt to make fried porkchops and mashed potatoes :)

ETA: Well, okay... just for fun ;)

ETA (again): Our dinner was awesome! Very American.

I think (nope, I know) this is the first time I've ever mashed potatoes with an actual potato masher. And why in the world do I pay so much for Kraft shredded cheese when it is that easy to shred it yourself?! I'm annoyed by the laziness we've become accustomed to.

 Everything is simple here. And small. Everything is small- and yet, works all the same! They are not obsessed with the "bigger is better" concept here like we are. That's just fine by me!

Day 9

(Disclaimer: my camera has been giving me a tough time the whole trip. Today, it was very uncooperative so half the pics are from Nathan's cell phone.)

It's only day 3 in region, but we have already settled into a routine.
I get up, work out, and "shath" (as we call the shower/bath combo). Nathan makes me tea (I have officially replaced my morning coffee with green tea), he shaths, we get ready and go to the orphanage. We visit AG, eat lunch, and then _(fill in the blank: laundry, market, nap, friends, BLOG etc.)__, eat dinner, watch a movie, go to bed.

I have always been honest on this blog, so I will continue. I was really struggling the last two days. I didn't expect to, so that was really hard for me. First, the sharp contrast in the baby we are seeing versus the baby in the picture really threw me off. I realize it really it doesn't matter what she looks like (at all), it just caught me off guard and took a minute to adjust! Secondly, it's really hard to bond with your baby when you see her 30-60 mins a day and you can't feed her, change her, bathe her, or dress her. Yesterday, they told us not to hold her so much because she gets sleepy. It's hard to bond with your baby when you just look at her. And they're all looking at you. They are watching to make sure you don't do anything wrong, that you follow all the rules- in this big quiet room. It's just hard.

That being said, today was a good day.

Her diaper isn't full- they had a burp cloth inside her diaper)

We got there at noon as planned, and after just a few minutes waiting, they brought her in. Two ladies we hadn't seen before. She kicked and squealed and smiled coming into the room! She seems to be that happy all the time, but we're pretending that was about us :)  They put her in a walker to "play". They were really sweet with her and she just smiled and smiled at them.

{It is so obvious that our baby girl is very well taken care of here and we are SO grateful for that. She is always dressed and bathed. They clearly all adore her. Some of the other families are not having the same experience and we are so thankful that this is where she is right now.}

The ladies asked to see our photos and we showed them our book. It was really fun actually, they were asking lots of questions (neither spoke a lick of English, so we all got tickled trying to explain our family- most Americans can't figure us out!!).  They reminded us of a few of the rules: we sit on the floor on the carpet only- me on my knees, not my bottom. They told us that the baby eats food and loves her "milk mix"/bottle. We gave them the diapers we brought for her groupa, per their request and then they left!!

It was just the three of us in the room the whole time! It was wonderful.

She was so fun and our's.  She's already figured out that Papa is for playing and Mama is for cuddling, lol. She gets wild and playful with Nathan (p.s.- she has an outie!!)

And she's very ticklish!

As soon as she's in my arms, she snuggles- today she KISSED ME (as in, intentionally smooshed her little wet lips against mine)!!! It was so unbelievably sweet!!

She played hard for a solid 30-40 mins and then she ran out of gas. She only wanted to snuggle. Nathan tried leaning her back/upside down and she yelled out and shook her head 'no'! Ha! We can't decide if that was intentional or just really good timing.

As soon as I cradled her, she started falling sleep. We didn't want to get in 'trouble' like we did yesterday so we tried and tried to keep her awake lol. She dozed a couple of times (our first time to see her sleep!!). So sweet. I felt like we were torturing her, so I was kind of glad when the nanny came back to get her for nap.

After our visit, we decided to walk around and get more familiar with the area. We were starving since it was nearly 3pm and decided on Pizza Bella. There was a lot of ham involved in both our pizza and our pasta, but both were very, very good. We walked a bit more and found the biggest.toy.store.ever. It was incredible! We bought a snowsuit, hat, and mittens for Anna Gray. There is no way the things I brought with me for her will keep her warm- it's soooo cold.

We just got home and will spend the rest of the night doing laundry and dishes, probably something really light for dinner since we had such a big/late lunch and then movie! It's Nathan's turn to pick :)

It was a really good day.
Paka paka!

Day 8

The second half of yesterday was pretty relaxed. We settled into our new apartment- which is GREAT. It has a ton of rooms! So far, both places we'd stayed were just one room with everything crammed in (and we thought they were nice!). This one has a large living room, huge bedroom, kitchen, bathroom, separate WC, and closets galore.

The only thing is trying to bathe- ha. You have to turn the hot water on full strength in the sink, wait until it's hot, then turn it down to a small stream and THEN turn the hot water on in the bath. You use a detachable shower head (they've all had that so far), but there's no shower curtain and very little water pressure.  It's a little tricky!- and cold- but it gets the job done.  We found a little space heater we are going to move in there tomorrow.

After an eventful a.m., we watched all the sweet congratulations and encouragement come in for a little while {grin}, but we both ended up falling asleep. We still aren't quite adjusted to this time zone and yesterday was emotionally exhausting. When we woke up, we made our first solo trip to the market to stock up on groceries for the week.

Thanks for providing our grocery bags, Tennesee Titans, so we didn't have to pay for any sacks! This is about $50 (U.S. dollars) worth of groceries- but it's a lot. It will probably last us about a week.


This morning, Edward and Tatyana arrived to pick us up. We went to the notary (Hot Topic @DebbieW!! lol) to sign our request to adopt AG. From there to the local administration and we were approved!! Tatyana sent our request back to the SDA yesterday, so as soon as that is approved we can have court. That will take at least five business days and could take up to two weeks.  We are praying very specifically for fast approval, both for the obvious reasons and for financial ones. We need Nathan back home and back to work ASAP.

We arrived at the orphanage around 11a and were taken back down to the playroom. After a few mins, they came in and told us Annie was sleeping and we would have to wait until 12pm. They woke her up at noon and gave her a very quick lunch before bringing her to us :)  You could tell she was still pretty sleepy! She snuggled into Nathan and buried her face in his neck. I'm telling you... I don't have a chance!

Yesterday, I asked if I could take pictures and the nanny said yes. A few minutes later, one particular lady was coming and she told me to hurry and put it away. Even after our visit, she stopped in the stairwell and said "photograph...shhhh" and held her finger to her mouth. Today, the nanny didn't stay with us so after we saw that one lady leave the room, we snapped just a handfull of pictures as fast as we could and then put it away! :)

We managed to wake her up a bit to try to play. We laid her down to see what she would do and tried to see if she could sit up- she's too top heavy! She played with a few small toys, but she mostly just wanted to be held. She babbled some today!! "Bah-bah-bah-bah-bah" like she was telling us the most grand story, complete with facial expressions! She sucks her tongue and makes the cutest little fishface!!  After about an hour, she fussed once or twice and started snuggling in again. She LOVES to be cradled... but then she started falling asleep! The nanny told us that everytime she's in your hands, she will go to sleep. Hopefully, that little trick comes in handy on the flights home ;)
Starting tomorrow, we will visit from 12-2 every day, after lunch and between naps.

I'll be honest- yesterday, I kind of had the same reaction our twins did: That's not Anna Gray! "Anna Gray" is brunette and little! I was just so stunned by the child in front of me, compared to child I had imagined for the last 7 months. I think if she had been big and brunette OR small and blonde, I would have been fine. But big AND blonde really threw me!

Today, I guess some of the shock had worn off because she came into the room and I immediately thought... that's our Anna Gray!!

(BTW- she actually had on a 6/9 mos outfit today. It was small on her, but we were happy to know that we could probably squeeze her into most of the clothes we brought just to get her home without buying any!)


We came home for lunch (AFTER Tatyana took me to get a hair straightener- woo woo!). It's annoying the tar out of Nathan that I take pictures of everything- but I want to make sure we remember the whole experience! Of course, I throw in some extras every once in a while just to aggravate him. bwahahaha

Carrie and Lee, another RR family, we were on our side of town this afternoon so they came by for tea and coffee to visit for a while. On Sunday, they are taking us to the church they've been attending in country :)

Off to eat Nathan's first attempt at making a Ukrainian meal- Paka paka!!

LAYLA, BRYNN, AND CALE:
Brynn, we watched Aladdin in Russian today! It was very cool :) Cale-man, Daddy is making broccoli tonight, your favorite! LP- did you get your makeup work done? What are ya'll doing this weekend?! We miss you soooooo much! You are just going to LOVE your baby sister, she's so fun!