Our Russian Adopted Princess: 4th day with our daughter

Well today, Saturday, we were picked up about 10:00 am to go and see our daughter. This was the first day with Sun here in St. Petersburg and it was beautiful. The Church on the Spilled Blood, just glistened and the Gold Spires were even more outstanding. It seemed that everyone seemed in a cheerier mood because of the sun. We drove to the orphanage, it only took us about 15 minutes, much shorter than normal. There was absolutely no traffic. When we got to the orphanage, there was nobody in the coat room, so we hung up our own coats and took our blue booties. We then proceeded to go upstairs, the staff directors were not there today, it seemed really quite there today. Our translator went and got our daughter. She was wearing a cute pink sleeper with sandals. One thing we noticed, they do try to dress her up when they bring her to us. She was even wearing the same headband as the first day. I took her from the arms of her caretaker and she was just a little bit unsure. I started to show her all the familiar toys and she seemed really serious. After just a few minutes she loosened up and started playing freely. I have noticed that she sits really well, she can move herself from being on all 4s to sitting really well. She can walk while holding on to our fingers, and can stand well with help. I am going to work with her on the crawling because I feel that it is important for hand eye coordination. She has wonderful grasping technique and can grab with her thumb and pointer finger with no problems. She tried to stack the rings today and couldn't do it, but she could take them off very easily. We only had about 1 hour with her, which seemed to go very fast. It was really hard to let her leave and we couldn't take her. As for Tom, she already has him around her finger. He really has totally fallen in love with her, and hates to leave her also. We are looking forward to the time we can come back.

The apartment we rented has turned out to be a gem. It feels like home away from home after just a short time. We love being in this location, it is so close to everything. We have ventured out to some really great restaurants and have been pleasently surprised on how many people speak great english. The menus have been in Russian and English, we haven't had a problem talking to anyone and the Russians seem very happy to please us. While walking on the streets tho, that is a totally different world. You really need to know where you are going, because the Russians just push there way to where they need to go. If you stop and are in their way, they will be happy to push you along to the side. We really have been able to navigate Nevsky very easily. It would have been great to see this place in the summer, I bet it is a totally different world then.

Today we went to the largest shopping mall here, it has everything you could ever want. The prices are very high and everyone here wants "brands". We did happen to find a store outside our apartment that has some nice souveniers.

We have mixed emotions tonight as we get ready to pack, it will be so hard to leave our daughter here, and pray that the nice women who have raised her thus far will continue to do a great job. We pray for her safety and that her heart will be full with all the love that we send her way.

Friday night we ate at Bogarts, it was a recommendation from

Ina, our translator at the clinic.

It was really good, it had Humphrey Bogart decor everywhere

We had a really good meal, and for desert:

FONDUE

Julie we thought of you at this time!