Day 5 of the 10 day wait...

We are halfway through the wait!! As of tomorrow it will be 5 days until we have Vera with us forever!!

Today was good to be around the apartment, but I think the whole stress of the trip is getting to all of us. It probably doesn't help that we have been with each other 24/7 for a week now! We walked up to Old Arbat to eat, shop a little, and get some groceries. It can be stressful just to do that stuff since there is such a language barrier and the weather is a bit colder today. It still takes us 15 minutes each way to get to the Old Arbat area. We probably should have just stayed at the apartment and avoided any walking today.

Well, we didn't think we would be able to get ahold of M today to check on getting Vera early. The number we had for her wasn't working. So, we called V and he said that the deputy director had said that they would never let a family keep a child during the wait again, but he would ask when he was going to be at the orphanage today. Well, we didn't hear from V anymore today. We kept trying different combinations to get M's number to work. We felt like we were missing the first 3 numbers, I think they call it the city code. From the information we had, there was a certain 3 digit number for cell phones, but that wasn't working with the rest of the numbers I had. I tried using the Moscow city code earlier today, but I had gotten a voicemail. It was a woman, but it didn't sound like M. Well, Ryan tried it tonight when we got back from being out, and it worked!!! M said that she would call the deputy director in the morning and get back to us by 9:30 AM. She said that the deputy director had promised that we could have Vera early! So, it sounds good, but I am not counting on anything! Also, Vlad had mentioned that the court decree could come early, and then we could have her. Plus, I bet that would mean we could start our US Embassy work then, too. So, pray that all happens!!

So, today I slept until 11 AM and then spent some time on my new Body Step routine. Ryan fell asleep with Kiara last night, but couldn't sleep past 5 AM, so he didn't get more than 6 hours of sleep. So, pray that Ryan can get a good night of sleep, he really hasn't had one since we got here! Kiara slept until noon!! I really hate waking up a sleeping child/baby, so we turned off her noise maker and went about our business not being quiet. So, she was really out, but finally woke up around noon. This is how she spent a lot of the rest of her day.

She got a present from S & B for her birthday. It is a bunch of cards that you can use a dry erase marker on and have different activities for her to do, like word search, drawing, connect the dots, etc. She has spent so much time on these today! Thanks S & B!!

So, since I don't have any pictures except for the one above, I thought I would add a couple videos from our first visit with Vera when we got to Russia. I don't think I posted any videos from that day yet. Enjoy!