Monday October 17^th

9 AM - Wow! So that is what a full night sleep feels like! We were able to sleep for 9 hours last night after maybe 4 hours in the past 48. Breakfast was awesome though we didn’t recognize half of it.

9:30 AM  Our driver(Yuri) and translator(Irene) picked us up. Since we had some time before our appointment with the Ministry of Education, We took a tour of “Christ the Savior Cathedral” (The largest church in Moscow, picture attached) which was demolished by Stalin in 1930 and turned in to a swimming pool. It was completely rebuilt in 1997 to its original condition.

10:30 AM - We met with a case worker with the Ministry of Education(which oversees all adoptions). We had really worried about this meeting & what they might ask. The lady however was very nice and gave us the description and picture of a beautiful baby girl “A”. She asked if we would like to visit this girl and we accepted.

12:30 PM – We drove for an hour to get to go 10 miles to the baby home due to the heavy traffic. During that drive we were able to see the apartments that a majority of people live in this area. The apartments were as tall as skyscrapers and went as far as the eye can see. (Picture attached) We continued further through a birch & evergreen forest to a residential area and finally the baby home.

1:00 PM – The baby home is kept extremely clean and we were given little booties to cover our shoes. There were toys all around, Christian art and lots of color on all of the walls. The employees seem to be very cheerful, in fact one of the caretakers was singing as we passed her in the stairwell.  We met with the Director and then the baby home’s doctor; they both had wonderful things to say about this little girl. No major medical issues and despite just getting over bronchitis, this little girl was still pleasantly plump.

1:30 PM – The director took us to a music room used for performances for and by the kids including a stage for puppet shows! In hopeful expectation we wait for the caretaker to arrive with this little girl. The door opens and wrapped up in a little pink blanket is the most beautiful brown eyed baby in the World! (OK so maybe I am a little biased!) We both had tears of joy streaming down our cheeks. Christy beat me to the caretaker and was able to hold this gift from God for the first time. She instantly took to Christy and snuggled in to her chest while playing with Christy’s hair, finger nails and costume jewelry. She was also very impressed with the baby in the wall mirror and went back and forth between looking at us and herself there. Finally, I was able to pry her out of Christy’s arms. She was a little skeptical of me at first but after some play time she started to warm up to me. Apparently, she has not been around many men and was especially curious about the hair on my chin (Most of the women didn’t have that!) We were able to trade off holding her for a couple of hours, playing with the toys and the flexible family picture book that we had brought. She was especially impressed with the picture of 3 little boys dressed in Red sweaters. (Christmas pics of our boys) She is teething and has 6 teeth and chews on everything! She also has soft skin, eye lashes to die for (according to Christy) and a calm temperament.

     Christy and I had both prayed for peace if this was the right girl for our family. We have never felt such peace, all of the anxiety melted away after getting to meet this sweet girl. Now all that we want to do is find the quickest way to bring her home!