An update from Laura and Greg

Hello Everyone,

Well it has been a full day. Greg & I had trouble sleeping and were sort of just dozing on & off in the wee hours of the morning. We stopped trying around 4:30am. There is a supermarket around the corner so we headed over for a little shopping at 5am. We picked up some coffee & cream and a few other little goodies then hung out in our room until breakfast started in the cafe at 7. The hotel provides a free breakfast buffet every morning. They serve a wonderful yogurt that Greg & I both love, and we fill up on hard boiled eggs, yummy instant coffee (don't know how they do it but it is really good), weird juice, pastries, and an odd assortment of pastas and cheese type dishes. I generally stick to the yogurt & eggs, myself, but Greg ventures out and eats the little sausages and such. We have to eat a good breakfast as the Russians do not stop for lunch. If there is an itinerary, we may not be given the opportunity to eat again until late afternoon. I carry breakfast bars and snacks in my purse for the road. So, this morning we were on our way to Mashuk, Elsa's orphanage at 7:30 this morning.

Igad (nickname for Igor), our driver, usually gets us to Elsa's orphanage in his Honda Civic in about 2 hours. If we took a mini-bus (van), with another driver it could take over 3. Igad is an impressive driver. We tell him that only Nascar people and stuntmen can do what he does in the States. Somehow, he can jut in and out of traffic at incredible speeds, in the face of incoming traffic, dart back into the proper lane just in time, and we still feel safe and, importantly, do not get carsick from how he drives. He isn't a chauffer, he is professional "driver."

Upon arriving at Mashuk, we met with the orphanage director and a social worker from Russia's ministry of Education. The social worker was there to observe Greg and I with Elsa and to interview us. The director was kind, as always. I had intended to ask to see Oksana, a little girl at the same orphanage that will be adopted by another family in our agency. I could not ask as it would not have been appropriate in front of the social worker. All adoptions are confidential in Russia. Instead, I said that Oksana's adoptive mother, Christine, had sent a gift for Oksana. The director told me that I could give it to the nannies when we saw Elsa.

It was a brief walk over to Elsa's building and when we entered the courtyard we found that some children were outside playing. Oksana was one of them!!!
We recognized her immediately. Our interpreter told one of the nannies the situation and she called Oksana over to us. She is the sweetest, most charming almost 4 year old girl. She is just delightful. It was wonderful to see her and give her the little pink fluffy tiara. She loves to dress up and "feel pretty." The tiara was because she is a little princess. Greg and I are so grateful to have been able to see her for those brief moments. Note to Christine: You will be here before you know it and she will be THRILLED to see you!

We went into Elsa's building to find her in her nannies arms getting bundled up for us to take her outside. She looked unhappy already and when I scooped her up she cried. And kept crying. They made us take her outside, just Greg and I, our interpreter, and the social worker. Elsa doesn't like strangers. She was very upset and she isn't a child that gets over it just because she is distracted. She REALLY didn't want Greg to touch her. There was good amount of crying while I held her, carried her, and talked to her. She didn't want her car, blanket, or a cookie. She was just UPSET. She has a runny nose and raspy breathing and a rash on her face from sucking a pacifier. This was an uncomfotable and unhappy little girl. There is nothing wrong with her expressing it. I would be upset, too. We had seen how she reacts to strangers before. She didn't like us when she first met us, but at least the conditions for interacting were more comfortable for her and her nanny was there, so she eventually warmed up. This time, everything was off for her. The whole time we were trying to console her we were being watched by the social worker and she and our interpreter were offering suggestions on how to distract her. Elsa didn't want distraction. She wanted comfort. It was a less than ideal situation but she calmed down eventually. She let Greg sit next to us and the animal crackers I brought along went a long way in convincing her that we were ok.

The social worker is interviewing Greg and I through this process, asking questions like, "Why are you adopting from Russia?" and "Do you have any experience caring for children?" She asked if we had a house and if we owned it then asked if we were effected by the economic crisis. No pressure. All the while we are trying to connect with our daughter. The social worker will testify in court as to how we interacted with Elsa and her findings from the interview. We answered her questions as simply as possible. They seem quite concerned that we know that there are unknowns and health concerns and that we are prepared for it. See, it is illegal for completely healthy children to be adopted out of Russia. So ALL the children are given some kind of diagnosis. This way, it is documented and the process is still legal in Russia. For Elsa, they just added up the delays she has due to being institutionalized and called it something. Russian families take children all the time and then bring them back when they realize that it is more work than they thought it would be. They get paid monthly for taking care of the children (like our social system) but they are not equipped to handle the responsibilities. Foreign families are required to do much more work and are more prepared for adoption, but as the system sees kids returned all the time, they want to make sure that the foreign families are not entering into the adoption niavely or with misconceptions.

The social worker left soon after Elsa calmed down. The nannies were going to take her from us for lunch but we asked if we could stay and at least watch. 30 minutes with your daughter in 3 weeks time isn't exactly enough time and it certainly wasn't quality time. The nannies agreed that we could feed Elsa lunch after they were finished feeding the other children. There wasn't enough space in the tiny room for all of us. Finally, Elsa sat on a tiny, tiny chair and I perched on another one. Greg wasn't about to fit on a chair so he crouched by Elsa. She waited patiently for her lunch and the nanny served a stew of some sort in a metal bowl with a huge soup spoon. There was a lot of food in this bowl. She wasn't allowed to touch the bowl and knew the rules regarding lunch. It was obvious that she had been trained to sit and wait and quickly eat the food. She let Greg feed her and she gulped down huge bites. After a few bites, her eyes would get big and a little shiver would run through her body. She was literally quaking with happiness over the food. It is really funny. She did it several times. I tried to catch it on video on the camera but don't think it picked up. Elsa was a very different girl once her needs were met. She began interacting with Greg. She picked up little pieces of food from her bib and "shared" it with me. She had a HUGE bowl of stew and then a plate of ground beef and boiled potatoes. We have no idea how so much food fit into such a little girl. We couldn't believe it. It looked like an adult dinner. I don't know if she really eats that way all the time or if that was for our benefit but she goobled it all up, let out a healthy belch, and then we got to see what our baby is really like.

Our daughter smiles, AND laughs. We have been waiting a long time to see a smile on that beautiful, sad little face of hers. Her entire countenance changes. She likes to be tickled and cuddled. She even did the head resting thing that she does - against Greg's head!! It was SO sweet. We got some great photos. Greg was so sweet with her and is just letting Elsa take her time getting comfortable with him. We didn't see her walk. She wasn't into it and they didn't give us a lot of time. We will see her again on Thursday. Can't wait!!

So, we have what they call "pre-court" paperwork tomorrow. It is actually court, and the most difficult day. "Official" court is Wednesday. Tomorrow, we will be interviewed (interrogated?) by the judge. There will be a prosecutor present and he/she can ask questions also. The orphanage director and social worker will testify. We pray that the paperwork was done properly and that they do not request anything further. Our coordinator, Farida, said that she didn't know if our paperwork was ok or not because she didn't recieve it all at once, but in several packages. I don't know what she is talking about, but that is not unusual in our case. The people in the U.S. and those on the ground have had some issues communicating. I try to just go with the flow and PRAY that there are not going to be any problems. It is hard to relax as we have encountered so many problems so far...it is sort of like waiting for the other shoe to drop. I'm sure that it will all work out in the end, just getting though the hoops is the hard part. Especially when the hoop is small and on fire. So, there are 2 days of court and the official decree is to be given on Wednesday. There is a 10 day waiting period after court when the decree is published. It is in case Elsa has some biological family that didn't know that she was in an orphanage. Farida says that the waiting period is a result of the widespread belief that orphans are adopted by foreigners so that their organs can be harvested. Yes, you read that correctly.

Tomorrow morning we will pick up photos of our little family. We bring them to court so the judge can see us interacting. We still plan to spend the waiting period in Germany but can not make plans until after court on Wednesday. BTW, the weather here is pretty warm. It seems to be in the low 50's or high 40's. Moscow will surley be much colder!

Thanks to all for checking on our progress. Thank you for the support and prayer. We appreciate all of you so much! Greg said to make sure to tell everyone hello.
Love,
Laura