Trip 1, Day 3

We had our second visit with the baby today (Wednesday).  I got to feed her.  I'm not sure what the mixture was that she was eating, but it smelled like it had fish in it - mmmmmm.  She also drank juice from a small cup (not a sippy cup).  She cried when she saw the juice cup, but she wasn't supposed to have it until after she ate.  But, our driver/interpreter quickly gave her the cup so she would quit crying.  We only got a short visit today because it seems that the first time when we visited for 1.5 hours it was too much for her and she was more tired.  We are going back earlier today (Thursday) to see her, and we are hoping for a longer visit than we had on Wednesday.
When we left the baby home we went to visit a beautiful church nearby.  Our driver asked us if we wanted to eat bear for lunch - um, no.  We settled on Subway - :).  I'm not doing well with traditional Russian food - dumplings with meat, pickled herring, cabbage, potatoes.  I'm enjoying the mall food court more - pizza, etc. 

It has been very cold here, about 20 degrees and snowy.  Even with silk pants under my pants my legs feel numb after walking for a while.  However, my new Lands End puffy coat is working well on my upper body!

Trip 1, Day 2

We had a great first visit with the baby!  She was beautiful and so sweet.  We had a little playroom where we visited with her.  There were a few toys there for her to play with, plus we took some toys for her as well.  We arrived at about 3:30 p.m. for our visit.  She was very calm and curious while we were there.  About an hour and half after being there she started to stick out her bottom lip.  I told Aubrey she was getting upset about something.  I picked her up and held her and she put her little thumb in her mouth.  I looked at my watch and it was exactly 5:00 - her nap time.  She is exactly like J and H were.  The babies are on such a routine, it's amazing.  About 10 minutes later the caregiver came back to get her.
We also took care of some formalities that we needed to do today in the downtown area. 

Trip 1, Day 1

Today we were able to catch up on some sleep.  We also went over to the mall that is just a couple of parking lots down from here.  It's not very big, but it's nice and you can buy most any type of clothing.  There is also a big grocery store in the mall.  We ended up eating a fish sandwich at the food court for lunch.  Even though they only had about 4 restaruants to choose from, one of them advertised Southern Fried Chicken.  I had my doubts...

We took some good pictures around town, but I can't get my camera card to work in Aubrey's laptop.  It won't even give me the choice as a drive when I browse.  So, I will take pictures with his phone and those will be the ones I can upload.  I only have this one from Monday.  It was taken from looking out our hotel window.

We're Here!

As exhausting as the past 24 hours have been, I have to say we had great flights and they were all on time. We left Atlanta at 12:30 p.m. on Saturday and arrived in our region at 8:30 a.m. Atlanta time on Sunday, but locally it was 7:30 p.m. Sunday night. We lost 11 hours somewhere between home and Russia and I'm about to see if I can find it! :). I will post each day with photos. However, today Aubrey made photos of the airport when we landed and the security guard made him delete them. And by delete, I mean stood next to him while he scrolled through them. Oops!
Our hotel was about a 20 minute ride from the airport, and it's really nice. We will be comfortable here for the week. There is a 24 hour supermarket across the street, too. We have Monday off with no plans, so we are going to try to go out today and walk around. I'm so glad I bought me some waterproof snow boots. There is snow everywhere!
We will meet our driver/translator Tuesday for an appointment we have, then we will go to the baby home to meet the baby for the first time. On Wednesday-Friday we will have assigned times we can visit her more. We are so excited! I can't wait to share pictures.
Love,
Brandy

Finally . . .

I'm having to take the cobwebs off the blog...

On October 11, 2011 I received the call that we had a referral -  a baby girl.  She is precious and we can't wait to meet her.  We will travel Saturday, November 12 to her region in Russia.  Our first trip will be for a week.  We will then return home and wait for a court date which will be after the new year, possibly February or later.
I have prayed that the ones taking care of her will have favor on her - that they will hold her and love her until we can get to her.  When I question whether all of this will work out, I'm amazed that everything falls into place.  I have prayed all along that we would have the child that God has meant for us to have.  I'm hopeful that this baby girl is the one. 

I'm looking forward to being able to update the blog daily while in Russia.  I talked with a family who recently traveled to where we'll be and they had no trouble with internet service.  I won't be able to post pictures of the baby :( - boo-hoo.  But, I will bring tons of pictures back with me to share in person!

*Also, (my friend) K.I.'s singing made me add "Blessings" to my Playlist.  Laura Story is great, but I prefer K.I.'s version!