YES, they are sisters.

First, we researched adopting from Jamaica and found that it can be a very time-consuming and discouraging process and many families drop out and switch countries after a year or more of paperchasing. Some do make it happen, but I was seeing a lot of discouragement and heartbreak so we decided against it. Tibet does not legally exist as a country from which to adopt so I then briefly started researching adopting from (Xizang) China or (Dharamsala) India where many Tibetans live. We contacted the office of the Tibetan leader for feedback regarding this possibility and got a clear response that it was not the right path.

At that point we started researched adopting from the United States. It would have been great if this option could have worked out for us because my father was a foster-kid and also because it’s free. We went to an orientation meeting and we found that the vast majority of the children in the US who were in immediate need of parents were older than our 0-39 month age range and the younger children had disabilities we did not feel like we could handle (which is saying a lot since we were open to a fairly wide range of medical needs). I know that older child adoption is right for a lot of families, but we were first-time parents without any experience, so we felt most comfortable with a younger age range. Fortunately, there are no orphanages full of young children in the US  We never considered going on a waiting list to adopt a young/healthy child because there are already many thousands of children in the world who are in urgent need of parents. We do not have infertility issues and we want to parent children who would otherwise not have the chance of a family. Next we researched England and we basically found the same exact situation as with United States. There are no children that met our parameters who were in urgent need of families and we were not going to go on a wait list.

My research indicated that some of the post-Soviet countries have orphanages that are full of precious young children in the age range we were considering with manageable health issues we feel comfortable with.  Birth-parents sometimes leave newborns at the maternity hospital if the baby is ‘different’ from the acceptable societal norms. Maybe the child has a cleft lip or crossed eyes or Down Syndrome – those are all reasons for abandonment in Eastern Europe, whereas that is quite rare in the West. This is not a judgement statement. I have no idea what it would have been like to live without freedom behind the iron curtain. I have no idea what it’s like to be pregnant and living in abject poverty with no social support network. I should mention that the foster-care systems in the Eastern European countries are getting more well established now so there is not an abundance of healthy babies as they mostly stay with biological families or go to foster-families. (There are many American families who are on waiting lists to adopt young healthy children from Eastern Europe). However, we found that the number of children that met our criteria who were in desperate need for parents was mind-boggling. I wish I could say that we “chose Russia” because of its fascinating architecture, interesting history or rich culture, but the fact is that we didn’t really “choose Russia”, we were led there because of the enormous need and because that’s where our children were.

Ali is courageous, joyful, adventurous, affectionate, helpful, loving, smart, beautiful and kind. We are so thrilled she is our daughter!

Baking her first batch of Christmas cookies at the neighbors' house. This was the day after Thanksgiving and our friends/neighbors invited a bunch of people over to decorate the tree and bake cookies.

They played Charlie BrownZen had only been home 2 weeks so we kept her very close and brought her home early while Ali stayed to decorate cookies (and her face apparently).

Home 5 weeks!

This is another holiday party - the day before Christmas Eve. This was their first time ever opening a Christmas present! Zen didn't really understand the concept at first. I used to design children's special occasion dresses and thankfully saved a few when I sold the business.

All of our neighbors had presents for the girls. They are the only kids on the block, so everyone doted on them - adorable.

We could only decorate the top 1/3 of our Christmas tree since Zen pulled down all the ornaments within her reach I wish I had taken close-up pictures of the ornaments we bought for them in Russia. We also got engraved ornaments to commemorate their first Christmases as babies before we met them (a rocking horse for Ali and a silver baby cup for Zen).

One of the traditions we'd like to start is making ornaments every year. The girls did hand print ornaments this year and they came out beautiful!

We went to see fake snow (and Santa was 'sold out'). The girls loved it. Didn't they see plenty of the real stuff in Russia?!

There are more holiday pictures here of decorating the tree, baking gingerbread men, wrapping presents, building a gingerbread house and holiday boat parades.

On Christmas Eve morning, I made an orange coffee cake (Paula Deen recipe). It was pretty good and easy, so I would consider making this again, but I'm really looking for something GREAT to make every year as an annual tradition, so let me know if you have a good recipe.

On Christmas Eve we baked a huge batch (7 tins) of cinnamon rolls to give away as gifts to our friends and neighbors. This picture was taken just as they were about to go into the oven. We used the Pioneer Woman's recipe. Unfortunately we messed it up, but I am definitely planning to do this again next year since I know where we went wrong.

We had 5 friends over for a Christmas Eve ham dinner and the girls got to open more presents. This is one of the first years we have spent without our parents and/or siblings and they were missed very much, but we decided not to travel for the sake of our girls' stability. Well, that and we've traveled to Russia 4 times this year and were happy to relax at home.

Apparently Santa doesn't care for cookies and milk - he prefers Boddington's and chocolate cake. I don't get the whole Santa thing, but my husband thinks it's fun. Ali asked me several times "where is Santa's sleigh?" and I told her "Some people believe it's in the North Pole", so that's what I'm going to continue with...some (small) people do believe in it and the girls can decide for themselves if they want to believe in it or not.

We couldn't believe how many presents were sent to our girls! Ali tried on every outfit as she opened it. They both played with every toy one at a time. I think they were a little overwhelmed and had an early nap.

Hopefully we'll laugh about this picture someday. Christmas Lunch/Dinner was ready while the girls were napping - how did I get the timing so wrong? We didn't want them to miss it and we didn't want to wait until they woke up (and eat a cold dinner). So we woke them up (hence the messy hair and tears). Otherwise, the dinner was excellent!

One of the bonuses in being married to a Brit is an extra holiday! Not only do we celebrate Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, but we also celebrate Boxing Day (December 26th). We had some English friends to the house for drinks and munchies such as pork pies, prawns, English toffee, Christmas pudding and other English junk food delicacies. Our girls we happy to finally be around another child. Everyone had a blast – sorry no pictures.

After a 1 day breather, the festivities continued! We had some out-of-town friends stay with us: 4 kids, 4 adults and 2 dogs in a 2 bedroom apartment for 4 days - such fun!

We got to celebrate our little friend's 4th birthday with her at an amusement park. I was a bit concerned all of this would be too much for Zen (who had only been here 6 weeks) but she was golden. Ali had a few overwhelmed moments with tears, but she did great overall. No regrets.

We spent the New Year celebration with 4 Brits + wives and 6 kids. Sublime. My mother in law sent party dresses for the girls from England.

Ali and friends spent the evening jumping over the couch, climbing trees and other rough and tumble fun in her party dress.

We brought in the New Year under the stars with good friends, then we all tucked the little ones into bed and got in the hot tub for a celebratory glass of champagne.

Zen’s height was 85.4 cm (74th %), weight 11.5 kg (48th %) and head circumference 47 cm (48th %).

Our plan is get her started with a Russian language speech pathologist and English language speech pathologist in the new year. After trying both, we will decide which of those 2 routes seems to be better for her. We’re also going to have her evaluated at our regional center for (free) early intervention services (if she qualifies). We’ll also be doing a hearing evaluation and visual evaluation soon. We wanted to give her a few weeks to get settled into family life before too many appointments. She is doing extremely well in terms of adapting to her new life with us.

Zen is a little ham, a bit of a rebel, happy as a clam and very giving.

We feel like we had a bit of a breakthrough on December 18th (5 weeks post placement). She looked different and my husband and I both noticed that day. We’ve been very diligent in her first few weeks home to get as much fruit and vegetables in her as possible since she didn’t have either in RU. (Basically she gets bananas or dried wild blueberries every morning mixed with organic vanilla yogurt and I use the food chopper to disguise lots of spinach or broccoli with other vegetables into whatever I’m making for dinner. Snacks are usually carrots and hummus). We’ve also been trying to get her out in the fresh air and sunshine. It’s working! The gray skin hue is gone and she has a normal pink color in her cheeks. The dark circles under her eyes seem to be looking a little better. Her hair was so thin and dull before but is now looking shiny and healthier. She’s not covered in bruises because she’s getting more coordinated physically. She looks happy and expressive and radiant. Five weeks!

The interesting thing (to me) about that timeline has to do with deschooling philosophy. I’ve *heard* that it takes a person about 1 month to recover from every 1 year of institutionalization (the term refers to school, although I personally think this theory also transfers to other institutions such as orphanages). I thought maybe the recovery process would take longer since school is part time whereas an orphanage is full time institutionalization, but that timeline has been exactly correct for both of our girls. Zen was in an institution for 1.75 years and it took her almost 1.25 months to come into her natural state. Most of her post-institutional issues (such as rocking) have dissipated and the only remaining issues we are seeing: 1.) she still runs away from us and only sometimes looks back & 2.) she is not ready to be left with Ali’s (Russian speaking) babysitter yet because she sometimes shows a preference for the babysitter. We believe she’ll get over these two issues in the coming weeks. Ali was in an institution for 3 years & 1 month and it took her 3 months and 1 week to get over an eating issue (her other post-institutional issues had dissipated earlier).

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Adoption announcement photo

Holiday Card Photo

• She is happy and content most of the time
• She is also not afraid to express her discontent
• She adores her Papa and squeals with delight when he walks in the door
• She doesn’t take any sh*t from Ali and stands her ground
• She is adjusting to family life really well
• She has accepted us all and is fully attached to us
• She has not accepted that she has a dog and has not attached to him quite as well
• She is still very much a baby. I have ‘heard’ that children lose 1 month of development for every 3 months in an institution, which would put her at a 14 month level (she’s 21 months). We are going to have her development evaluated and hope that she is there or higher.
• She’s a great traveler
• She came home dehydrated and is still catching up and consuming loads of liquids.
• She has a good appetite and eating is going very well. She lets us know when her belly is full and she tries new things. One of our main goals right now is to get as much fruit and vegetables in her as possible and she was seriously deficient.
• She can really go through a lot of diapers
• She wears a size 18 month clothes and 6.5W shoe. She is 23.5 lb
• Her language is seriously delayed. We plan to enroll her in all early intervention services necessary.
• She does not like having her diaper or clothes changed
• She did not like the bath at all the first few days, but does like water play, so we started by sitting her on the edge of the sink to play and get as wet as she wanted, then she started playing with the bath water while standing outside the tub, and it took a few days before she would get in the bathtub.
• She likes to be carried
• She’s like her Momma and takes a while to get going after she wakes up
• She’s not crazy about bed-times, and we’ve made ourselves (and her) crazy trying to get her to sleep at a regular nap-time and regular evening-time, so now we just put her to bed whenever we see the signs. (For Ali that means obstinate and/or hitting and for Zen that means clingy/whiny/cranky).
• Jet-lag has not affected her much at all
• She is teething
• She’s affectionate and a total love! Such a sweet cherub.
• So far no signs of sensory integration issues. She does walk on her toes, but no problems with food textures, clothing tags, lights, sounds, etc.
• Her first word (that we know of) was ‘Papa’. She also says ‘hi’ now.
• She’s starting to wave goodbye and blow kisses
• I can’t stop looking at her when she’s sleeping and telling her how loved and wanted she is when I’m holding her and rocking her. She is really soaking in all the parent time that she missed out on.
• She has to be closely supervised with solid foods which is hard because Ali likes sharing food with her. She can’t have a banana or cheese stick (for example) without help because she jams too much of it in her mouth.
• She likes pulling all the books off the shelf and emptying the kitchen drawers and cabinets. She’s also a typical baby exploring gravity by throwing toys and whatever else onto the floor without actually playing with it. This wouldn’t bother me so much, but we have a ‘monkey-see / monkey-do’ situation going on over here, so Ali is quick to copy.
• The sisters both copy each other. I would have thought that Zen would be doing most of the copying, but it’s equal, so it’s a bit like having 2 one year olds right now.
• Have I mentioned what a happy, joyful girl she is? She is smiling most of the time and is actually quite an ‘easy’ baby. She goes with the flow a lot of the time and she is adjusting so well. I am so proud of her!

This was the first time M* had taken Zen from the orphanage - to get her passport photos done. This is her with one of her caregivers.

There were some orphanage visits that she just cried for the whole hour and M* didn't bother taking any photos, but during this visit she only cried about half the time.

M* begged to be able to photograph her in her group environment so that she would have some pictures later in life to see where she resided. They did not allow him to enter the group setting, but they took the camera and photographed her in the play room.

You'll recognize this room from a previous post.

Notice how empty the room is? They said she was in a group of 16 although we think it's possible she was in isolation with this one other child. If that is the case, this other little one is now alone.

We got video of the nanny talking about Zen on one of the visits.

I think this is the day before he picked her up.

M* says he “filled a van” with donations for the orphanage and gifts for the nannies. The orphanage got many disposable diapers, clothes, a digital camera, 12 baby walkers, etc. The children can’t leave with any any of the orphanage clothing so he brought an outfit and they bundled her up in the tights, long sleeve onesie, corduroy pants, a sweater, socks, boots, winter coat, hat & mittens. It’s a cultural thing in Russia that the children are overly bundled, and I feel it’s important for adoptive parents to take the children out of the orphanage dressed according to the cultural norms so that people over there feel that we know what we are doing taking care of these precious Russian children. This is serious! I think there is some sort of superstition that children get sick if their heads are exposed (or something like that?)

Zen with a caregiver, doctor and the director just before leaving.

Z with 2 of her caregivers, getting ready to say final goodbyes

She's a family girl now! Here she is with her Papa driving away from the orphanage. He says that she cried in the taxi for about 1 minute and has been golden ever since. I'm SO happy he did as many visits as they allowed, because she finally felt comfortable with him just as they were leaving.

Her passport took 4 business days (Leningrad region). He couldn’t get a last-minute train, so he picked her up and went straight to the airport and they flew to Moscow on November 8.

The taxi took them directly to the airport and they flew to Moscow to get her immigration visa.

Getting on her first ever airplane. She did great on the quick flight to Moscow.

They ate pasta every day in Moscow because she loved it so much. She did great at the restaurant.

They were at an apartment in Moscow for 3 nights and she did really well. She had one major outburst expressing some anger and we are very happy that she is comfortable enough so early on to do so. Otherwise, she was very content.

Ready for her Embassy appointment. It was below freezing the entire time (November) and we were well prepared, but he still got lectured by several women for not having her bundled well enough.

Eating grapes with Papa. She is starting to smile and get more comfortable.

Got my visa! Headed to the airport for the international flight home.

They stayed at an apartment booked on Peace Travel Services which was in walking distance to the Embassy.  She had a medical exam done early November 9 and dropped off the visa application at the Embassy the same day. He picked up her US visa on November 10 and they flew home on a direct flight November 11th.

Zen is a great little traveler! She slept one hour on the 17 hour journey. They got through immigration in about an hour or so at our home airport. Ali and I were so happy to see them at the airport! When we got home, our neighbors were all outside our door to greet her. She looked positively delirious after the long day traveling and we put her straight to bed. She slept so well and woke up at a normal hour and has not suffered any jet lag (lucky girl!) One thing that has helped is waking her up after she’s been napping for 3.5 hours to make sure she’s going to sleep through the night.

Mean Old Nurse

Ali came up to me one day with her hands on her hips and her back crouched over and a really mean look on her face. She indicated that she was a babushka and she started roughly handling my arm and pretending to draw blood. She wants to play this game often and she wants to take turns so that sometimes we are the mean old nurse taking her blood which involves lots of fake crying. My husband and I have tried to alter the game a few different ways such as protecting each other from whomever is the mean old nurse, being gentle when we are the mean old nurse, or yelling at the nurse to ‘stop – don’t hurt me’ (in which case the nurse changes his/her mean old ways).

Crying Baby

Ali has been pretend-crying lately and we go over to her, pick her up, rock her like a baby, tell her she never has to be alone again and she has a Mama and a Papa now to take care of her, etc.

Mommy’s Naptime Tantrum

Ali used to have some nasty tantrums when she was over-tired and would scream “Shoes!” “Outside!” and things like that. When we were playing (not at nap-time but other times), I would lay down and start flailing my arms and legs and start screaming “Outside!” and she would laugh hysterically.

Kid-Friendly Toilet Seat – My brother installed these in both of our bathrooms when we were in Russia on Trip 1. They are the best! The thing I love the most about these is that they are so respectful of children’s needs.

Dr. Bronners Almond Castile Soap – You can dilute this if you are saving your pennies and it goes a Long Way. I prefer the consistency of it undiluted though. We use it as hand soap, bath soap and kids’ shampoo. It smells wonderful and works really well.

Trader Joe’s blueberry goat’s cheese – This is a Must Try, even if you’re not crazy about goat cheese. I always serve this if anyone comes over. I like it with plain crackers. You won’t believe how good this stuff is!

Food chopper – I found this refurbished on Amaz*n for only $28. It’s simple, no extra parts and easy to clean. I’m very particular about which gadgets I bring in, because we live in a small space. This one is apartment sized. It really only has one setting (which chops things to smithereens) but it’s perfect for us because I can sneak all types of meats and vegetables into any dish I cook and Ali will eat it.

Foogo kid’s cup & Sigg kids water bottle– I was starting to get self-conscious that my child was the only 3 year old drinking out of a sippy cup but I can’t handle the spills of a regular cup or water bottle, so these cups are perfect while she’s learning coordination.

Laptop platform – I’m on my laptop too much a lot. It gets hot and I don’t like the idea of whatever radiation is coming out on to my lap. Sometimes I use it at the kitchen counter, but usually I’m sitting in a comfy chair, so this lap thing has been priceless. Targ*t has a new one I haven’t tried.

Amaz*n – I know, I know, it’s corporate America and I should shop close to home, but the convenience factor wins for me. I can order whatever we need from the convenience of my home at 10pm or whenever it occurs to me that we need something. I only purchase things that are eligible for Free Shipping. If the purchase is less than $25, I leave the item in the shopping cart until there is something else we need. The purchases over $25 ship free. The packaging is an annoying waste though! Recent purchases include used books, waterproof mattress protector, luxurious sheets, Melissa & Doug puzzles on clearance, soap, pajamas, etc.

Go*gle Chrome – This is my (internet browser) of choice. I’m on Russi*n websites quite a bit and do a lot of international research for my volunteer work, and this browser translates everything automatically! It saves me so much time. I used to use Go*gle Translate (and still do for certain things) but the auto-translate feature on Go*gle Chrome is the best.

Yaho* Groups – I won’t admit how many groups I am a part of, but I learn SO much from so many intelligent people out there. Any interest you may have, you can find a Yah*o Group for, and you’ll be connected with like-minded people. I participate in adoption groups, health groups, peaceful parenting groups, travel groups and life learning groups.

Electric toothbrush – Not just any electric toothbrush – I’ve tried a few and this is the only one worth buying. I feel like this toothbrush is actually keeping the dentist at bay. It’s not cheap but I believe it’s worth every penny. Brushing teeth for everyone in the family is now quick, easy and highly effective.

Meyer’s Clean Day dish soap – I’m not crazy about doing dishes (huge understatement there), so this is a small luxury that makes the task slightly more manageable.

Stain Remover - I know this is #12 on a list of 11 things, but this stain remover is saving me so much money. I didn’t use it the first month Ali was home and her clothes got wrecked, so I won’t be able to pass those down to Zen. Ever since I started using stain remover, I don’t think one thing has been ruined. (Thanks Mom!) What’s your favorite kind?

It’s harder than I thought! She used to do potty about 90% by herself, and now she wants me to help her completely, but at least she’s not having many ‘accidents’. She was sleeping through the night, but now she comes into bed in the wee hours of the morning and I can’t fall back asleep. Absolutely everything used to be “All By Myself!” and I started getting used to that. Now she wants to sit on my lap through dinner and she feeds herself part of the time and we spoon feed her part of the time. She wants to be carried a lot which I expected and welcome but she sure is heavy and I feel bad when I need to put her down. (If only she would let my dear husband carry her…)  She used to want to dress herself (except the buttons and zippers) but now she wants us to dress her most of the time.

Sometimes I find myself losing my patience and thinking “you know how to do this!” but then I remember where she has come from and that she never had a Momma to do any of this for her before  The baby house forces the kids to be independent earlier than what is developmentally appropriate because it makes their job easier. Then again, regression is not just an adoption-related issue; many biological children who have been in families since birth also regress. I’m helping her as much as I can but I’ve been getting too easily frustrated and I do not want her to feel bad for asking for help. Starting yesterday, I’m doing  a mind-shift to start enjoying this phase since I missed out on caring for her as a baby and this is our time to re-live her baby days. These past 2 days have been much easier now that I have a different outlook about it.

And now for a completely unrelated video which captures some of the joy and fun around here :

Waiting for Her First American Passport - it took all day but we are very glad we got it.

Looks like a certain 3 year old was playing dress-up with the dog while I was packing.

Sorry I don't know the name of this church in St. Petersburg

After running Ali all over the city the day before (she was so patient), she had some much needed playground time. The playgrounds over there are lame compared to here, but she doesn't mind one bit. She wandered around and around looking for a slide.

Hanging with Freddy Mercury in St. Pete

Ali was jamming that birthday cake in her gob faster than we could cut it She's in her PJs because we celebrated at midnight (thanks to jet-lag).

I got to celebrate my birthday by holding my baby girl in my arms again - what a gift!

Having my whole family together for the first time - best birthday ever!

Papa and His Girls

Heading home the day after a successful court hearing! This is our layover in Germany from RU to CA. Ali was a star traveler as always.

It’s a girl! ‘Zen’ was born February 5, 2010 in Leningrad Russia. She is 20 months old. Hubs will be going to pick her up in a couple of weeks. The adoption court hearing was very difficult and I don’t want to ruin this happy news with all the drama, so I’ll put that in a separate post. Here are some photos of our baby girl:

Z in April 2011. This is the first time we met her. She was 14 months old

Z on July 1, 2010. This was the second time we had met her. She was almost 17 months old.

This is Z on October 17, 2011 when she was 20 months old; 2 days before we were approved to adopt her.

The cake looks a bit strange but tasted SO good.

Hubs and Ali woke me up at midnight on my birthday to wish me a Happy 37th with a delicious cake topped with a flaming inferno. Although they found a wonderful (surprise!) cake at a nearby bakery, they could not find any birthday candles and the “make a wish” part was really important considering we had an adoption court hearing the next day So hubs decided to make his own birthday candles by lighting Q-tips soaked in nail polish remover. Oy -vay, that was one wake-up! They certainly did not get through the Happy Birthday Song before I was screaming to blow it out before it lit the bed or the curtains on fire. I couldn’t blow it out on my own and barely had time to make a wish, so I gave my wish to Baby Z for whatever her heart desires.

The jet lag has been difficult, so we didn’t sleep much after that. We had an 8am pickup by the awesome driver/translator Boris (thanks Adri!) to go meet Baby Z at her baby house. The orphanage director was upset that our rep didn’t request permission to bring Ali. She was also upset that we had a different translator than the one we had in June (because that person has now moved to the US). Admittedly, Boris did not know any medical terminology which made things challenging. Ali was great throughout this first part of the meeting. Then they brought us to another room and brought in Baby Z and left her there with the four of us strangers in an unfamiliar room and she was balling, poor baby.

I had dreamed about this blog post and how it would be such a wonderful birthday gift to hold my baby girl in my arms again and for her to meet her big sister for the first time and we’d get our first family photo. That did turn out to be true, but my initial feeling when I saw her was shock. My Number One Goal is to respect my family and I will probably edit or delete this post before either of my children learns to read, but in an effort to candidly portray the adoption process to others, I am going to forgo the ‘rainbows and butterflies’ version of this story. When they brought Baby Z in, she looked awful. I honestly thought ‘I can’t do this.’ She looked very sick and she was not exactly jumping into our arms. Ali was off in wonderland playing with all the toys in the room (Why Oh Why doesn’t she do that at home?!) Baby Z was crying so pathetically and her face was full of blotchy red spots and dark red circles under her eyes. I actually asked my husband “Are we sure about this?” He said “Yes, 100%” which was reassuring to me so we signed the paperwork agreeing to adopt her (for the third time). I didn’t take any pictures of her in that state and her face started looking more normal after she settled down.

Sisters!

Our baby’s  health has declined. The first time we met her (April), she looked great, she rarely cried, she was playful, adventurous and smiling. The second time we met her (late June), she looked drugged (for lack of a better description). We were getting the feeling that she might be kept in isolation or was becoming emotionally dull due to neglect. She cried a bit, smiled a little, hardly walked and otherwise did not babble nor express much emotion. She was not active at all and just sat on our laps and interacted just a little. This third time we met her (October) she not only looked sickly, but was inactive, stiff and cried bitterly. She needs to get out of there. She is surviving but not thriving. Her situation is the same as with many hundreds of thousands of other orphans – she is barely hanging on. She will have a lot of healing to do. Can’t wait to see the sparkle in her eyes again! And that gray skin hue will go with proper nutrition and sunshine.

I got to spend my birthday with my girls!

After our visit, we went back to the orphanage director’s office and Ali was in near-meltdown mode for about an hour (at lunch/nap time) while the director droned on about stuff we had already gone over in April and again in June which was a waste of 2 hours. And the worst part about that is, she neglected to tell us the most important thing we needed to know for court – her medical recommendations for when we return to US. Ali was so hungry and tired, then we had to drag her an hour across the city plus an hour in a restaurant (not a great afternoon for her). However, hubs asked her at lunch what she thinks about having Baby Z as a little sister and having her come live with us and she said “Da!/Yes!”  Stay tuned for court news.

The travels were extremely smooth and we checked in to our hotel (which is decent and in a great location) about 9pm on Thursday. We woke up at 7am on Friday and had a very busy day. We got our referral paperwork from the Ministry of Education (the regional authority was all smiles this time and was happy to meet Ali). We went to the court-house with our rep. We grabbed some lunch then went to our medical appointment which was smooth. We also scheduled an appointment to see Baby Z on Monday morning. Then we fell asleep for about 5 hours and woke Ali up at 11pm to go out for dinner. I know that sounds terrible but it was important so that we wouldn’t all wake up at 3 am hungry with nowhere to go. We found a great Greek restaurant off Nevsky Prospect. Ali is such a stellar international traveler and I am so proud of her! It was a LONG day of running around and we did most of it on foot because the traffic was so bad that our taxi didn’t show up. It is cold here and we don’t have mittens for her but she was an absolute star all day long while we were dealing with official appointments. She even did really well with being woken up half-way through her sleep pattern and hitting the big city after dark.

At a playground in St. Petersburg. She was very surprised that it didn't have a slide, but this kept her entertained for ages. We were happy for her to play as long as she wanted since we ran her all over the city the day before. She was so patient!

Now it’s the weekend and we don’t have any appointments so it’s a bit more leisurely. Ali wasn’t having a great day on Saturday so we didn’t venture too far. We had hoped to get a hop-on, hop-off bus to hit some tourist sites, but instead we walked to see a church, took her to a playground, went to a souvenir market and got lunch at Rock Pub (which Ali chose and we all liked).  Then we crashed early afternoon again and woke her up at midnight to go out for dinner (poor darling!) Our favorite restaurant in St. Petersburg is Metropol which is right around the corner from our hotel. We had heard that you can order food there until 2am. We couldn’t eat in the shwank dining room this particular evening though because they were having a beer festival! Everyone was in costume (think upscale Oktoberfest with live music). We ate in the adjoining lounge and although we got a couple of looks, it was all fine. I thought about naming this blog post “Who Wakes a 3 year Old Up at Midnight to Take Her to a Beer Festival?!” but decided against that title considering we are trying to adopt #2 in a couple of days. For the record, we didn’t actually take her to the beer festival, only to the quiet lounge to eat dinner so she wouldn’t be bored and hungry in the hotel room while up most of the night with jet lag.

Ali was captivated by Freddie Mercury and the rock music drew her in so this is where we had our lunch. Turns out this place had decent food and she was happy to find a restaurant where she could dance around and sing as loud as she wanted!