Third day in Stavropol

It is our third and last full day in Stavropol. We will be leaving early tomorrow morning on the only flight of the day to Moscow. We spent time yesterday at the orphanage twice to see "M", once in the morning and once in the afternoon. We signed the preliminary paperwork yesterday morning which was our intent to accept the referral of M. Today we signed the official paperwork at the notary office: the referral acceptance of M, and the court application to adopt her. The wheels are turning in Russia now. Yesterday evening I handed over our court paperwork to our coordinator, and after looking through it they determined that we only need four more documents (which they said should be easy). We don't know which documents however. The correct channels for this information must be used, so they will be informing our agency through their Moscow office. I don't question it... because it sounds like they have had some past experiences with some families that have been very opinionated and demanding. We would like to keep things simple and steady.

Seeing M again today was wonderful. She laughs so easily and craves attention from people. The caregivers mentioned that she was going to be difficult now that she has been held so frequently by us the past three days. She will be expecting to be held more. They let me feed her a bottle this afternoon and it was a great bonding experience for me. She grabbed my finger tightly and watched me as she sucked down the contents of her bottle in about two minutes. She's very cuddly. But she enjoys Kevin and his tickling and googling at her too. She is teething mightily and will shove anything hard into her mouth... rings, knuckles. She also looked carefully at the photographs of our family that we showed to her. She's very face-oriented. It was good to see her concentrate... so I know there's some wheels grinding behind all those easy smiles.

We said goodbye to her, and it was bittersweet. But I know that she is in good hands with the caregivers; they do a great job with the babies in their care. The baby room is clean, neat and doesn't smell. I was very impressed.

For the rest of the day now Kevin will work a little bit, and then we will do a little souvenir shopping. I'm looking forward to getting home and seeing C and K! I can't wait... although I believe their grandparents have been keeping them busy taking them to swimming lessons and the library. They even went to see Kung Fu Panda!