Day Two

Well, I now have internet in my room. It is dial up but that is better then nothing and better then taking my laptop to a restaurant and type while I am eating. I was able to Skype with the kids today(somewhat). THey were very fuzzy and there was much delay but when you haven't seen your kids for awile, fuzzy is good.

I was thinking while I was waiting for the page to come up that I don't think I have given everyone the updated time line. It takes to long to change my tickers so I will just give you the info now. First there is a 10 day waiting period after court, I think it is for appeals. So the titles at the top of my posts are what day we are in of the 10 day. Today is day two down! After the 10 days little M will be ours. I will pick him up from the orphanage on Monday September 29th. We then apply for his passport so that we can fly to Moscow. Unfortunately it takes 7 days to get his passport so we should get that on Monday October 6th and fly to Moscow on October 7th. We then have to take him to get a medical exam, register with the US embassy and have an appointment to get a visa for him to enter the U.S.(he will have a Russian passport). We are then planning on flying home October 10th! Russ's birthday! The best present I think that we could give him.

In thinking about all the time that is ahead of me, it seems like forever, but surprisingly each days passes pretty quickly. Yesterday I spent time visiting with little M, oraganizing the room and taking a walk. Today was very eventful,at least for me. Woke up and had breakfast and went right away to visit Little M. THen off to the back to exchange more money, picked up the Smith's and went grocery shopping(this was great because I now have a stove in my room so I could purchase pasta and soups!). The afternoon was spent hooking up to dial up and catching up with emails and Skyping with the kids. THen off for a walk with the Smith's to dinner. We wanted to try La Vanilla, a restaurant that others suggested. THey still do not have an english menu, so after several minutes of trying to translate the menu on the spot, we gave up, asked to take the menu with us(that was not easy) and went around the corner to the Chocolate Restaurant. It was so nice to have an English Menu. Their food was also very good. Since it was quite cool here, we all decided to have Hot Chocolate at the end. I was a little dissappointed when the very small cup came out, but one we realized how thick and rich it was, that little cup was a lot. It was like drinking a melted Hershey's Bar, I actually ate it with a spoon. THen we came home by taxi and now I am blogging. No need to try to go to bed early. THe hotel has a large party room below. Last night and tonight there have been weddings. Since my room is now over the party hall, I can hear the music more then I would like. It is not to bad but enough to make it difficult to sleep. Last night it ended at 11:30pm, which was great - we will see about tonight.

Tomorrow is Sunday and no visits so we will see what we can do to make the time pass.

I can not end without a little update in Little M. Today he is starting to feel very comfortable with me. We were playing with the bubbles and I have been trying to get him to blow them. Well, today, he decided to take the whole container and carry it around. He kept tipping it and I did not want the bubbles to spill so I kept reaching for it, but he would just push my hand away. Then there is the puppet stage. It is more like a partition. He loves this little blue rabbit puppet and wants me to hold him up so he can put the puppet over the top. I have to be careful because I am afraid that it will fall over on him. But after holding him for several minutes, he gets heavy, and I get tired. I would try to distract him on the otherside of the room with other toys, but He would slyly sneek away and head right for that stage. It is going to be an exhausting 8 more days if I have to keep lifting him up. We go over pictures of the family in hopes that he will be able to say his siblings names by the time we come home.

I hope that things are going well and that the Buckeye's won this week. It will be wonderful that Russ will be home tonight for the kids. I am hoping that I will get a post tomorrow with a recap of the week that I missed. It seems that there are many others traveling on 1st and 2nd trips now or soon - that is so wonderful! God Bless you all!