Good Morning! It is about 2:oo pm here, but early Monday morning for folks back home.

Katie spent a bit of a restless night, but we got smart this morning. When she woke up at 5:00, we gave her another bottle. 5 minutes later, she was back in the portacrib making the sucking sounds that means she is about to fall asleep. This means that we got TWO more hours of sleep ourselves. (Wonderful!!)

Katie still has a bit of a cold and is both congested and snotty. Added to this is her teething. So, add drool to the mix. Dimetap and Tylenol are great. It has made her feel better - although we can tell when the small doses we have given her wear off. We expected all of this, but we feel so bad that she feels bad.

Katie absolutely LOVES to be dangled. Hold her up in the air, let her hands and feet wiggle while she looks down at our faces and you will see pure delight. She beams when we do this.

She craves human contact! She cries when you put her down.

Katie had her first shower today! She was clean from head to toe - until 20 minutes later when it was breakfast. We tried more carrots - note the "tried". She is wearing more than actually went into her tummy. Oh well! Sweet potatoes were a hit, so all is not lost. Cindy asked if I wanted carrots for breakfast or if bananas sounded better. "Duh!", Cindy said.

She is having a good time - for the teething, we have given her biter biscuits. At first she just held them, threw them on the floor and ignored them. She graduated to licking finally. Now, she uses them for their true purpose. The entire hotel staff has been wonderful. We couldn't have had more helpful folks - unless you were here!

Still rainy here, so we haven't ventured out with her. Christy was wonderful - she went to the store for water, more baby food, and lunch! Yummy!! I was ready for some new food. Didn't like the idea of splitting up, but . . . All is well - 'cept now Cindy owes Christy BIG TIME.

Heading to Moscow on Wednesday and US Embassy on Thursday.

More info to come later.

Here are the promised pictures of Katie!!

Last night, Katie was asleep at about 8:40 pm and up at 6:30. Needless to say, she is one tired puppy! She has had two naps today, and won't last long this evening. Yesterday was such a big day for her! All things considered, she is adjusting well. There are so many new things happening, including teeth! She is working on getting some teeth a little further back in her mouth. Thank goodness that Aunt Tinny packed the baby Oragel! It does seem to be helping.

She has little pink boots that have lights, and she likes to make the lights come on. Of course, the boots aren't on her feet for this. She is not a fan of shoes, yet.

She LOVES her bottles! She can't suck enough down. And of course the applesauce is good too. I am not certain about the peas and carrots. She truly is my daughter!

We are trying to nest this weekend. More to come later as Katie is getting a little tired sitting here at the computer.

Christy, Cindy, and the real Katie!

It's OFFICIAL!!

Katie is officially now my daughter, and I have her with me here at the hotel.

Today was a long day. Court was at 10 this morning and lasted til just before noon. Everything went well. Only one bit of a snafu: the judge didn't initially see the documents requesting citizenship for Katie. Fortunately, I had both a copy and the original, so I pulled that out. Then, they thought that there should have been an updated version. I showed the interpreter the dates and length of validity, so that was ok. And then, the judge went back through the documents that she had and found the apostilled (a state version of a notary) copied in with all of the other documents. For those who don't know about the paperwork, trust me, it is SOOOOO EASY for one to be overlooked in the mountainous volumes of papers! The ten day waiting period was indeed waived, and we were able to go and pick her up in the afternoon.

So, from court, we dropped off three different people, and then went to drop off my court documents requesting a change in birth certificate. Then, we went to get the present/voluntary donation for the orphange: a sewing machine. Then, Cindy and I were dropped off at the hotel at 1320. We were to be picked up to start to process of picking Katie up at 1400. Once we were picked up at 1400, it was off to get flowers for the director of the orphange, pick up Katie's new birth certificate listing me as the mother and her new name, Kathryn Lee, and pick up chocolates and a cake for the people at the orphange. THEN, we got Katie!! We took everything with us that she would need, including a diaper. The probably would have supplied the diaper, but we had them, so better to take one. They dressed her for us, and then we got her into her snowsuit. What a sight! Katie is so tired right now that we will post pictures tomorrow. It was a big day for her!

After picking her up, we went to get her passport photos taken. She was a trooper throughout the car rides and the picture taking. Then, we got her to the room and gave her applesauce, a little carrot, and a bottle. She took to the bottle like no tomorrow! We were a little afraid that it would taste too different, but we should not have been concerned! She loved it!

Then, it was time to have dinner. We had decided to have a nice dinner at the hotel to celebrate her arrival in the family. So that's what we did. Then we came over to use the computer, and here we are!!

Katie has been such a joy today! She is laughing, and crawling, and cruising around. She doesn't quite walk independently yet, but it won't take long! It does my heart so good to hear her laugh, and to see her smile. It has only been in the past few minutes, when she is just exhausted, that she has been fussy. She didn't mind her diaper being changed or her shoes going on, or the flash of the camera in her face! Tonight, we will learn how well she sleeps. I am sure that she will probably sleep well given how tired she is, but then again, she is in a new environment.

I will let you all know tomorrow, and get some photos up!

Christy

Greetings from Russia, again!

We did safely arrive in Moscow yesterday, although it was a good deal later than anticipated. We had been flying to Moscow for 6 hours when the pilot informed us that there was an 'electrical problem' with the plane and that we would be landing New York Kennedy airport 40 minutes later. We found it rather curious that as soon as we landed, they called for a passenger to go to the front of the plane. Long story short, our 9 1/2 to 10 hour flight suddenly changed to better than 16 hours of boarding and unboarding at 1:00 in the morning. Fortunately, we were able to call Moscow as soon as we landed at JFK to let them know of our delay. At that time, we didn't know if we would even get to make the journey that same day (night, whatever time you want to call it) or if we would have to wait until the next day. Once we knew that we would indeed fly out that night, we again let Moscow know the current situation. The bright side of these calls is that we were only through customs and immigration for about 10 minutes when our translator found us. I have no idea how some of the other adoptive families who were on our flight managed to meet up with their organization. Hopefully, someone was able to meet with them fairly quickly.

So far, everything is pretty much on schedule. There is one question as to the location of one document, but I have to trust that the powers that be will find it in the appropriate place. They will have to as I do not have a copy of it.

We have already ventured out today (Tuesday, March 13, 2007) and did a little more tourist shopping. We stopped at a grocery store and got some water and some wonderful pastry things. We will still need to get some things for Katie, but there will be time for that later. We should get to see her tomorrow. It is a bit of a bummer that we don't get to see her til then, but come Friday, that shouldn't be a problem any more!

Our hotel is same, down to the same room. We are happy about that! The only thing that is missing is a television visible from the beds, but since there is only news presented in English, that really isn't a problem. And of course, we have the portable DVD player. What a life saver! We brought even more movies with us this time as we found we were getting bored the last time. We extended our other entertainment options to include Scrabble and Boggle. We found that cards and Yahtzee got old quicker than we thought it would.

The snow here has all but melted, so the walk was MUCH more pleasant and easier. The temp is also warmer (obviously to have melted the snow), and is close to 40 F. Nice weather in our eyes. It also lets us continue to use the 'refrigerator' in the hotel. The refrigerator is the alcove at the windows, which we open due to the heat of the rooms. That keeps our water and soda cool without using real refrigerator.

Not much else to add now.

Christy and Cindy