Together at last...

Today the plan was for all of us to sleep until 9 AM to catch up on the sleep we lost on the trip over. But, we were all 3 basically up at 5:30 AM and couldn't go back to sleep! That at least gave us time to get mostly unpacked and setteled into our apartment. Kiara gets to sleep on a magic bed! ;) It is basically the couch that turns into a bed and it turns out it is more comfortable than our bed. I told her about her magic bed when we were back home and she has really liked it so I am glad she likes it and will sleep there alone.

The "Magic" bed

Our "comfy" bed

V came and got us at 11 AM. He lost his license so we traveled by foot and metro to get to the orphanage. It was quite a hike. Kiara did amazingly well and she loved the "trains". We got to the orphanage and we got to go to the play room instead of the orange room we were always in on our last trip. While we were waiting for Vera to eat her lunch, V told us that we aren't going to be able to keep Vera during the 10 day wait. :( I was pretty surprised because at least the last 3 or 4 kids who have been adopted from this orphange are always granted the privelege of keeping their children during the wait. Plus, one family from my agency was just granted this privelege on December 1st! I guess either the normal director is on vacation or no longer there, so the lady in charge now won't let us keep her. If something were to happen to Vera during this time, then it would fall on the orphanage. I can understand, but am disappointed. I think Kiara was most disappointed of us all.

One of the caretakers brought Vera in and wanted to show us that she could walk with the lady holding her hands. Well, Vera either didn't want to or can't, because she wasn't going to do it. She cried just a bit as I held her for the first time. I think things were coming back to her slowly. Kiara was a brand new face, so I think that confused her. But, we had the stacking cups that we played with her with on the first trip and I think that helped her make the connection. Kiara is so good with her. She will let Vera basically wack her in the face and she speaks to her so sweetly. It was so great to see my girls together for the first time.
Vera was a lot more smiley and interactive during this visit. I don't know if it is because she remembered us or if she just felt better since she hadn't just been through the whole hospital ordeal. Although, I felt she seemed more sick today than when we visited her in the hospital. She was congested and might have had a slight temperature. So, pray they don't put her back in the hospital because she has a cold. I would hate for her to have to go through that again and who knows what that would do to our process! I don't even want to think about it!
We only got to see her a little over an hour because V needed to get back to get some of our paperwork translated. It was hard to leave her, almost harder than when we left her for the last time on our first trip. I can't wait until she is with us for good. So, since she won't be with us during the 10 day wait, we can still go and visit her. I am not sure if we can do it everyday, I am not sure about the weekends. It takes us about an hour to get there with at least 30 minutes of it walking. So, we will be making the trek on a nearly daily basis, I guess I won't have to worry about exercising. No wonder everyone is skinny here! We have court tomorrow. I don't expect any hurdles, but you never know in this process. So, pray that everything goes smoothly. We will get picked up around 2:30 PM tomorrow and probably go to the orphanage to pick up either the director or doctor that needs to go to court with us. After court we will go back to the orphanage and we will get to see Vera. We might be taking her to get her passport picture tomorrow if there is time. But, since we don't have court until 4 PM and I have never heard of court starting on time, I doubt we will have time. Also, pray for a miracle that they would waive the 10 day wait, but I have never heard of that happening, either. So, it looks like we will be getting the best Christmas present. I think we will be able to keep Vera either on the 22nd or 23rd, just before Christmas.

Once we got back to the area where our apartment it, we went to each a late lunch/early dinner at The Hard Rock Cafe on Old Arbat. Poor Ryan got a BBQ sandwich that he couldn't stand the smell of, so basically had fries for dinner. It is something with the way they prepare their beef that he can't stand, so he says he will be sticking with chicken. After eating, we got some roubles and then made our a stop at the grocery store. We basically needed more water, soda and kleenex. We had already made one trip to the store yesterday. We also brought a whole suitcase full of food with us that I am already very thankful for. During our walk home, Kiara basically had a melt down, but I don't blame her. It has been a HUGE few days for a 5 year old and she has done so well. She was basically crying that we weren't going to have Vera with us starting tomorrow and about some other nonsense stuff! I am glad she misses her sister. So tonight we focused on getting Kiara ready for bed and had her asleep before 8 PM, she is exhausted. Ryan is getting a few hours of work in. I am kind of thankful that court isn't until later in the day so we can just hang out in the apartment for a good part of the day.

We probably won't get back to our apartment until late tomorrow night, so I am not sure if I will be able to update, but I will try to at least let you know if we passed court. But, I probably won't be able to post anything until after noon Central time. Thanks for all your comments, prayers, and following along!

And for anyone wondering, the outfit she was wearing today as a 12-18 month size. It was loose on her because she is so skinny, but didn't have a lot of extra room for the length.