Monday

It's 5:30 pm here. We're back from our day of visits. On the days we make two visits our schedule looks like this:

9 am Go see Justin (It's about a 20 min drive)
11:30 Finish up visit and head back
Noon - 2:30 Lunch, Blog, Walk around downtown Kras, Rest, (or recently, wash socks and underwear in the sink... there's nothing like putting on a pair of crunchy, air dried underwear!)
2:30 Go see the girls (about a 30 min drive)
5:15 Finish up visit and head back. (It usually takes a little longer to get back to the hotel due to traffic)
6:15 Dinner (We've been meeting up with another American family we've met. They're from Pleasanton!)
10:00ish Bed
Anytime between Midnight and 3am one of us might wake up. If so, we'll check out Euro 2008. That's when the games are on here, live.

Doing 2 visits in one day is really, really emotionally draining. It's especially hard with the girls, since we're trying every little "trick" we can think of to try to engage them. Every visit has had it's ups and downs. Last time, Natalie didn't even want to come in the room, but this time she didn't hesitate as much. She kicked the ball with Scott for a while. She let me catch her as she came down the slide... well, twice. She smiled and giggled, then it was as if it became too much for her, feeling happy, that is. Little does she know, we're not going anywhere. We'll wait. We'll keep trying. We know she's in there.

Lexi loved blowing bubbles today. Usually it was blowing... sometimes it was spitting into the wand! :) We brought juice boxes today, which were a hit with both of the girls. It was very clear that they didn't have a lot of experience using a straw though. Interesting.

Lexi was definitely on the verge of a tantrum today. We were playing outside and her "group" came out to the little playground next to us. She decided that was where she wanted to be and was NOT happy to be led back to her boring, non Russian speaking mama and papa. I can't remember if we distracted her with the juice box or trail mix (the girl loves snacks), but eventually she settled down.

Our visit with Justin started out like it usually does. Just the 3 of us (with our facilitator on the side making her phonecalls). We were outside today, mostly swinging, on the jungle gym and slide too. A little while later, his playgroup came out. There were about 15 of them... Suddenly, 15 little ones, ALL calling us mama and papa. It was about the most heart breaking thing you've ever seen. At one point, I was knelt down, watching Scott and Justin, and I felt this little hand come to rest on my back. Beside me, stood the most pathetic looking little boy. He just wanted to be held. So sad.

It was interesting to watch Justin once the others came out. He was a little possessive of us. He didn't really want to share the toys we had taken out for him. Scott reassurred him in Russian, "We are YOUR mama and papa, forever." This seemed to help. He shared when we asked him to from there on out.

All of the kids took off their shirts and folded them up on a little picnic table in the play yard. Not sure if that was a get some sun thing or don't get your clothes dirty thing! By the way, Justin has been wearing the exact same outfit all 4 times we've seen him.

We are planning on visiting Justin again on Wed and Friday. We decided we'd see the girls Tues, Wed, and Friday. Saturday will be Gotcha Day. In adoption speak, that's the day we pick them up from the orphanage. Then it's 4 more nights here in Kras and 7 more nights in Moscow. It's the trip that never ends! We've met one family here that is completing everything in 3 weeks (versus our 4). We've met 2 other families that have decided to fly back to the States after court, then return to get the kids when the 10 days are up. However! We've met one other family who has a 32 day itinerary. At least there's someone here longer than us!

Better be going. It's so hard to sum up what the visits really feel like, but hopefully we're giving you a little glimpse.