Monday, September 17, 2007

Our Last Day with Haylie--for awhile

We started our day at 3:30am when we woke up. Because of the crazy time differences, we went to bed exhausted at 7:30pm, then awoke at the crack of dawn. We were starving, and since it was so early nothing was open. So we ended up eating some of those premade tuna salad & cracker packs that I had brought. We stayed awake for 2 hours and then went back to sleep until 7:30.

We met Natasha in the hotel lobby at 8:45 and drove back to the orphanage for our last day of visiting with the babies. We signed some legal documents saying we definately intended to adopt and change her name to Haylie Ann. Afterwards, they brought in both Haylie and Alexander (Dave and Stacy's little guy). The orphanage is being remodeled so the rooms where they usually take adoptive parents were all torn up. They ended up putting us in the "music room" which also was being renovated, but they pulled out some gym mats for us to sit on and play with the kids.

Both of these kids are sooooo cute. I got a chance to look Haylie over closer and check her all out. She looks great!!! We also measured her--she is so tiny. I had taken several toys but turns out the toy she and Alex liked best was the tape measure!! They had a cute little one piece outfit on her that was 6-9 months and it was too big!!! Alexander is 4 months older but they are almost the same size because he was a preemie...he is 30 inches tall and she is 29 inches, but she has a bigger foot by just a little. We tried to feed her some cheerios, goldfish, and even some Gerber puffs, but she wouldn't have any of them--she just liked to throw them. Alex however, loved his goldfish and ate a whole bag!!

We got to spend a couple of hours with the kids. They were getting really sleepy by the time they came to take them away. Haylie loves to be held and snuggle and I know would have fallen asleep on my shoulder if they had waited a few more minutes. We got some good videotape, but I am not a very good baby photographer. Seems like in almost all of the pictures I tried to get of her, her eyes were closed. I still can't post any pictures because I have to use the hotel computer and they won't allow me to download anything. As soon as we get home I'll put a bunch of photos on.

After they took the babies away, they took us back to the directors office to see if we had any questions and kept asking if we are happy with our babies. We both had taken gifts for the director and the orphange workers, but they said it was unessacary and not to give them. So we each left one present for the director, Dr. Ludmilla. She seems like a nice, caring woman. She does however wear the most blue eyeshadow I have ever seen!!

We drove the hour ride from the orphanage back to Novokuznetsk in the van with Natasha and the driver. They then took us to a store that carried all kinds of good quality Russian souvenirs like the Mateotroshka dolls--those handpainted wooden dolls that come apart and have lots of littler ones inside. Of course we silly Americans spent lots of rubles getting souvenirs. The quality was much better than anything we had seen elsewhere.

We got back to the hotel around 2:30. Stacy & Dave and Rich & I then went out for lunch/dinner since we hadn't eaten since 3:30am!! We ended up going back to the little restaruant we ate at last night. Rich was more adventuresome and got some of the stew that Stacy had tried the night before. He ended up liking it after all. Both Stacy and I ordered Russian ravioli. The menu said it was mushroom, but it ended up being stuffed with meat with just a few mushrooms over top and covered in sour cream. It was actually pretty good and kind of reminded me of beef stroganoff. After dinner we were all exhausted again and headed back to the hotel for a "nap." Rich & I ended up sleeping till 9:30 pm. So now its 10pm and I'm down in the internet room writing this. I sure hope we'll be able to go back to sleep after that long nap.

We are leaving the hotel in the morning at 5:45am to start the LONG journey back. It will take a total of 29 hours to get back to Lexington, and then we have a hour's drive to get home. We will be toast I'm sure. It has been an amazing trip, but we are both very ready to come home and start the long wait until we can come back to pick up Haylie. Being here has made us all really appreciate the blessings of home. While the land here is beautiful, it is very depressing to see the living conditions. As Rich the history teacher says, it is much like the US was at the beginning of the 40's & 50's with so much industry and mining, with no regard to the environment. The pollution is terrible with a constant bad smell which leaves a sediment on everything. Even the water has a bad smell and we have to brush our teeth with bottled water. This will be our last time in this city. On our next trip we go to Kemerovo for court. We will drive back to the orphanage that time to pick up the baby, but won't stay here again.

Since we will be flying all day tomorrow, the next blog will be from home!! Can't wait to see everybody.
Love Jody

3 comments:

kitzkazventure said...

Anxious to hear all the news stateside and See Lots of Pictures. Safe Journey home! Karen

Anonymous said...

Hey Jo Jo,

SOOO glad to hear everything went well. I can hardly wait until you get home. Travel safe sis!!

Love always,

Lisa

Susan J said...

Jody,
i don't know why I waited this long to view your blogs..WOW.
What an adventure you have been on. Talk about divine intervention...Haylie truly is a gift from God! We are keeping you in our prayers and cant wait to see more of her!!! You are goig to have the BEST time with your little miracle!!
much love,
Susan & Co.