Day 2

Note: this post has been reposted and the original comments were lost

N was just as beautiful today as yesterday and seemed happy to see us. She is good natured and comes to us freely...part of that is her age and part of that is that she is accustomed to having multiple caregivers. She does perk up when she hears voices outside of the room we visit with her in. She prefers her caregivers over others, and that is a good thing.


We had a full hour with her right before her nap time. She came in a sleeper with a onesie underneath and a hat. They dress their babies very warmly here. I think they save the more "western" clothes for visits like ours and dress the children in more traditional Russian baby clothes on a day to day basis, but I cannot be sure of that. She eventually pulled her hat off and put it in her mouth. I changed her about halfway through the visit to see what size she is in. She is in 3 mth clothes! The 6 months sleepers I brought were just a little too big, although when we came back for the second visit this afternoon, they had put her in one of the six month sleepers (I left all the clothes I brought with them in the morning) with socks over the footies, which made them fit better. They also routinely double-sock the babies. Last week it was snowing here and next week is supposed to be cold again. We are enjoying an unusually warm sunny spell.

Because it was such a beautiful day, they asked us if we wanted to walk with her outside this afternoon. We walked all the way around the building and through some of the play area. Babies in this home are up to three years, so I don't think much of the play equipment we saw gets much use from them, as most of them are too young for it, but it brightens the outside. The caregivers take the babies out twice a day, in the morning and afternoon, weather providing, I am sure. Many babies were out and about today, either in strollers or in play yards together, supervised by a caregiver.

We were supposed to have her from 1-3:30, but N was very tired. Her caregiver told us when she brought her to us that she was being quiet because she had not slept much this morning. We were told to come between 9-10 this morning, but according to the schedule I was given today, she naps at 9:30, so that explains the eye-rubbing that started halfway through our morning visit. This afternoon, by about 2, she was rubbing her eyes and a bit cranky...then started to perk up a bit again, but they came and took her at around 2:30 because they saw that she was tired and I could not insist to keep her, because a) it's not my place, and b) I felt it was best for N for her to go nap since she was obviously tired. We did get a chance to ask her caregiver questions. They all love her...she is "very positive" and eats well and likes to be with the other children. When they came to get her, we had some advance warning, but then the caregiver just rounded the corner, came and took her from my arms, said "do you like her?" in Russian (we have a translator with us at all times) and we said Yes! and then she immediately said good bye and left. It all happened very fast. We were left holding the little teddy bear we had brought to entertain her and an empty feeling.


We never did hear from our doctor, which is very disappointing. He said he was available for quick turnarounds, but I guess life got in the way or something. We don't have a phone that works here, so we cannot call him and he hasn't answered either of the e-mails we have sent. Frustrating, to say the least. We are not seriously worried about her medicals, but this is a lifetime decision and we need to make it with all the knowledge we can. We have very, very little info about her birth mother. We do know she was Uzbek and that little N is half-Uzbek, half-Russian.

I am uploading video now. I also took some rather long footage of the drive from our hotel to the baby home, so that is taking a while to upload. We have to buy internet access cards and I am not sure how much time we have left on this one. Word to the wise. The hotel we are at is very nice...it is a five-star hotel. We do not drink the water, though. Our translator took us to the store today to get yogurt, plastic spoons, bread, cheese, water and a few cokes since we wanted a snack today and we have to leave for the airport at 4:45 am (she is picking us up, poor gal)...and all that cost less than one bottle of water with dinner here. Seriously. You don't want to know what we've spent on internet cards. I'm pretty sure C doesn't want to know. ;-)

Tomorrow we will be spending the night in Frankfurt, so if I run out of internet time, I think we will have wifi at the hotel there. Maybe even "free" wifi that is really free.