Stavropol

We arrived in Stavropol last night after a very long trip. We flew out of San Francisco at 6:30am to New York, and then flew from New York to Moscow, arriving in Moscow around 11am. Kevin says it was about 17 hours total travel time. Our flight to Moscow was interesting since it was light the entire time we were in the air. We flew over Greenland and the sun never set. After arriving in Moscow we took a free shuttle to the airport Novotel hotel and had lunch there. It had a comfortable lobby that we sat (snoozed) in until our Moscow translator arrived. She was a bit late and that's when we realized that we didn't have the correct phone number for her. But we waited patiently and when she arrived we were ushered into a van that held our driver, our coordinator and another couple from Germany who would be traveling with us. We were then driven across Moscow to the alternate airport, where our translator checked us in. led us around, and even helped us through security. We flew a Russian airline to Stavropol, and it was... very Russian. The seats are packed so closely together that it's difficult to squeeze in, and their restrictions about cell phone usage and seat-backs being upright during takeoff and landing are lax. We were taking it all in stride, and then there was an announcement that we were landing, but not in Stavropol, due to some thunder and lightning in Stavropol. The plane landed at a closed airport in Mineralje Vody (Mineral Water). It was surreal. We stayed there for about an hour until we all reboarded the plane and flew the rest of the way to Stavropol. I was happy to be on the ground! It felt so good to check in to the hotel.

This afternoon, after getting a good rest and breakfast at the hotel, we were taken to the orphanage to see our baby. It was amazing! She didn't cry, but was happy and smiling. She was fascinated by both of us and I loved holding her. She was happy to sit in Kevin's lap, which everyone said was unusual, because the infants are not used to having men around. She was alert, made sounds, grabbed for the rings I brought, held them in both hands, and then they went right to the mouth. She has her two bottom teeth. Her hands and legs were strong. We couldn't put her down where we were, so we weren't able to tell if she could crawl yet. She looks so healthy and happy, and the orphanage was clean and odor-free. The caregiver was so sweet with her when she came to take her. I think we spent about 30 to 45 minutes with her. She is wonderful! After saying goodbye to her we met with the orphanage director to hear about her medical history and to get more information about her. I think it went well.

We are on our own now for dinner. Perhaps we will join up with the German couple. They are very nice, and are here for their court date to adopt two little brothers.

Tomorrow, we will see the baby again (now I need to come up with a blog name for her) and sign the paperwork to accept the referral.

I miss C and K, but it's been great because Kevin has a new Blackberry Pearl from his work that has enabled us to send emails from almost everywhere we've been so far. What is nice about this trip is that they can both read and write now, so it feels like I have closer contact with them while we are away. We will fly back to Moscow Thursday, and home Friday.

We are still carrying around our court paperwork. I won't let it out of my sight because I worked so hard for it. There's been no mention of when that will happen, but I think we will talk about it tomorrow.

Stavropol reminds me of Stockton, it's warm and is full of trees. I had a glimpse of the countryside and it looks very green, with some rolling hills. It is much more humid here than in California, but it hasn't been uncomfortable. The city seems nice, from what I've seen near the hotel and from driving to the orphanage. There are lots of flowers.

To my Windows readers: my apologies for that ridiculous weather pixie in the side column that you have probably been looking at for ages. I thought I had it commented out because the browser on my Mac wasn't showing it, but now I'm on Kevin's laptop and there it was. So now it's gone!