Visit #3

Today was visit #3 with our little boy & supposed to be our last for this trip. Our visitation time wasn't until 2:00, so we had all day to think about it. We killed time this morning by taking a walk to the "mall" which is basically a big building with a bunch of shoe stores & a few other stores. I found a necklace & earrings as a souvenir & got some cute hair stuff for the girls. The lady selling it was very nice & didn't seem annoyed with our lack of speaking Russian :) We paid a whole $40 for all of it. There's a grocery store on the bottom floor & we strolled through there. Interesting...that's all I can say! Fresh fruit & vegetables are pretty scarce. There were whole fish vacuum sealed with their tails sticking out of the deep refrigerators. We bought some drinks & Russian chocolate then went on our way. FYI...you have to pay for the plastic grocery bags here. Seriously! We got to the orphanage right on time & went through the routine we have come to know well. Hang up coats in coat room, put on blue plastic booties over our shoes, & walk up the dimly lit staircase to the "music room." We waited about 20 minutes for them to bring our baby to us. For the first time, Andrew took him from the caregiver instead of me. He was okay for a minute & we gave him his teddy bear of course, but then he reached out for me. I took him & he snuggled up to me with his bear. He sounded congested again & I could tell he didn't feel well. I let him take some time to get used to us & then we tried sitting on the floor to play. He really wasn't interested in toys or daddy. He just wanted to cuddle with his mama & that was TOTALLY fine with me :) We tried playing a few more times, but after a few minutes he would just crawl back into my lap & cling onto me. He let daddy hold him a couple of times, but only for a minute. Knowing this was our last visit with him & the fact that he needed me more today than the last 2 days just killed me. He was clinging on as if he knew we had to leave. An observer from the MOE came in for awhile to watch how things were going & take notes. We are really under a microscope during these visits, but we just go on like we're at home playing in our living room. Our facililitator introduced us to her & told us she would be in court to support us & give a favorable report of our visits with him. This is a GOOD thing :) During some alone time with him, we traced one of his feet on a piece of paper so we can figure out his shoe size. That ticked him off & we settled for one foot print instead of two. We also took off his socks, pants, & diaper to get a good look at him all over. Towards the end of our time, I got him to sleep again in my arms :) Then our facilitator told us we get to go back tomorrow morning for an extra visit before we go get some papers notarized!!!! YAY!!!! That's 2 more hours with him before we leave & that made us soooooo happy!! I prayed for that yesterday. We had been told it's a good idea to give yourself an extra day just in case of delays or issues, & I am so glad we did. When we got back to the hotel our facilitator Y asked if the hotel had given us our registration cards & we said no. When you come to Russia you must have passport, visa, & register when you get to your destination. The hotel had given us our passports back a few hours after we checked in, but never gave us the registration cards. If you don't have this when you leave the country you have to pay a fine. Y was not happy & she told off the 2 women at the front desk in Russian, of course. It was actually quite entertaining & we were grateful to have her looking out for us. She has been working with Russian adoptions for about 15 years & knows her stuff. We headed out for dinner after all of this & are now back in our room ready to crash...and it's only 8:15 PM. The emotional rollercoaster here is exhausting, but we are happy to be here. I still can't believe God trusts us with this & has given us the priviledge of being this little boy's parents. I'm still in awe that we are here experiencing this. I have to give a lot of credit to my AMAZING husband for teaching me that there are no limits to life & adventure should be a part of it. I couldn't imagine being here with anyone else & he is the MOST INCREDIBLE dad ever! One more day to go & then we'll be home....until we return to bring this baby home. Goodnight from Russia!