Day 2/10

So first I have to start by making a correction. Justin wanted me to let you know that he had to answer more than 3 questions in court! I guess it just seemed like it wasn’t that many as I would have preferred he answered ALL of them! Another thing I wanted to mention about court for future adoptive parents was that you shouldn’t be surprised if something in your homestudy gets mistranslated. During court the judge asked me if I went to religious school. I was confused by the question. I simply said No. Then she seemed confused by my response. So they asked me again. Did you attend a school for religion? Again, I said no. They just let it go. After court I asked the interpreter what that was all about and she said that it must have been the way something in our homestudy was written. My guess is that there is a section that talks about church attendance and our involvement in church and that we host a small group bible study (we miss you guys by the way!). That must have been what it was.

Our other news from yesterday that we forgot to share was that we moved across the hall to a new room. This room has a full kitchen in it. I will have to post pictures of it for you. I can just imagine the luxurious hotels many of you are picturing. HaHa wait until you see how extravagant this place is! Lol

We had an awesome visit with Blake today. We were able to stay for three hours. There is a lady from California named Jennifer here with her mother. She had court yesterday. Her daughter (Irina) Victoria is in Blake’s group. So we will make many of our visits together. You should have seen the two of them play! I wish I could post pictures of our visit. We had so much fun. Jennifer immediately changed Victoria’s shoes, put in a hair bow, put on a necklace and satin gloves, and gave her a little purse. Blake went over to her and said something in Russian to Ira (that is her nickname with the kids) and then he gave her a kiss! It was priceless!! So as any good parents would we got them excited quickly by playing chase and tickling. Well I guess the babies in the room next to us were sleeping and we got scolded in Russian! We tried to behave, but it is hard in that small room for 3 hours. I think we only got in trouble 2 more times! We were worse than the kids. But it was just wayyyy to fun to hear them laughing and giggling. Justin did try to go ask someone if we could move to their gym but they said Nyet, it was being painted.

So guess what Blake is obsessed with?? He loves electronics! Cell phones, cameras, anything with buttons. He loves to pretend to be talking on the cell phone. Even Jennifer was stunned at how much he fascinated by them. The other amazing thing we learned today is that he is a great repeater. If we say a word two times he will do his best to repeat it. This will be huge for learning English. So for example we said Braht Brady. Brady. And he said Brady the best he could. We said Sistra Madison. Madison. And he said Madison. We are definitely proud parents! But we are going to make sure we watch what we say around him! Also we are using his name as much as possible so that he catches on. We are saying Blake followed by his Russian name. We will soon drop the Russian name and hope that he catches on.

We will not get to visit today or tomorrow. The baby home locks the doors on the weekends and does not allow visitors. Kind of creepy in a way. So we will leave the hotel at 9:00 on Monday to go back. We are hoping to get to go outside and play for a change of pace. When it was time to leave, Irina – our agency rep, told Victoria and Blake that we would be back on Monday and that soon we would come and bring them new clothes and take them home with us forever. Blake grinned, but I still am not sure he gets what that means. As many have pointed out, this may be an advantage of not having him during the 10 days. We always have to look for the positive side of things. At least this way we are working up gradually and able to explain for the next several days what is forthcoming so that he may be a bit more prepared.

Today we will hang out at the hotel and walk to the little supermarket. The biggest project of the day is to organize the room since it is all disheveled after the move. Don’t you just love how FULL our agenda is here at the Vlad Inn?!?! On one hand it is nice to slow down. On the other hand it is enough to drive a person to insanity. Sunday here is the Russian Orthodox Easter celebration. From my understanding the meaning behind their celebration is the same as ours. No, I am not talking about Reese’s peanut butter eggs, egg hunts, and chocolate galore. :o) But the amazing fact that Christ rose from His grave! We hope to join in on their celebration in some fashion. We are planning to venture downtown as we hear there will be special things going on.

Paka, Paka (Bye, Bye)