An interesting 24 hours

Last night as we finished posting our power went out and then back on. A few minutes later we started smelling something burning. Upon investigation, there was smoke filling our stairwell. We were staying in the basement of a transitional housing place for older orphans, so we ran upstairs and woke one of the housemothers up. Since she didn’t speak English and we didn’t speak Russian, we called the director and explained the situation. Apparently something had exploded in the wall, blowing out a chunk of the wall and leaving the upstairs without power. We still had power downstairs, but it was very smoky. Since we didn’t have any other place to stay, we went to bed a few hours later hoping nothing would catch fire.

Since we get to visit the girls twice a day during the week and once on Saturday and Sunday, we’ve decided to split the weekly visits so we visit each girl individually once a day and then have them together on the weekends. This way we get to know the girls individually but they also get some time together (they used to be in the same groupa but they aren’t anymore). This morning we visited with J. It was a really good visit since she’s been a little hesitant with us. As far as we know she’s never had anyone visit her for adoption but she’s seen plenty of friends be adopted. She’s not quite sure what to think of us, or even dare to hope that it might be her turn. The first time I referred to Mark and I as her mama and papa she just stared at me. But by the end of our visit she would smile and giggle when we said it, and would say my mama and my papa when looking through the picture book. :)

We visited with B in the afternoon, and she was SO excited to see us. While she is more energetic than J, she sat and colored, and looked through books, and sat and played with us without a problem. She is definitely no more energetic or hyperactive than any of our other kids have been when we’ve visited in the orphanage.

For those of you who may not have been through an adoption with us before, we won’t show any pictures of the girls’ faces until after court. We didn’t hear today when court will be so we should hear on Monday.