Still Low Key

Our schedule continues to be low key. At the beginning, it's rush, wait, rush, wait, rush... Now that we have a court date the only consitent thing on our schedule is visiting the children. Today's visit was in the afternoon, since Misha has school until about 1:30. Needing to do a few errands, we left about 11:30 to find the requested ball pump, junk food, and more gifts to finish out the week.

Our driver knew exactly where to go to find the pump which was good. William and I had looked at a Sport store yesterday, but they didn't have any. This store sold pumps, watches, clothes, and a mix of other things. The toy store we went to had many choices. It reminded me of Toys-R-Us but at a fraction of the size. We managed to find everything we needed for the rest of the trip. I was trying to find things they would like, but also that didn't cost too much knowing that everything will stay at the orphanage when they leave. (Consider it another donation.)

When we arrived at the orphanage, Misha was still in school, so we were able to spend about 1/2 hour being entertained and charmed by Anna. She immediately dove into the snacks and then took us for a stroll around the property swinging her new pink zebra striped purse and talking on her pink plastic cell phone. We made a short stop to catch a cricket who lost a leg in his efforts to excape. As we coninued our walk, we sang and skipped (not William). William was required to hold her purse any time she needed to make a phone call. several "calls" were made to Misha telling him to hurry home from school.

Finally Misha came back and an excited Anna and Mama ran over to greet him. We returned to the Green Room formore snacks and to give Misha the ball pump and some Match Box type cars. The children had to leave for a bit to eat and take passport pictures. When they returned, we fed cookies to the parrot, lined up all the stuffed animals to teach them and played the piono while William danced. Misha had fun with the camera and Blackberry again. Lots of hugs and kisses today. Anna doesn't wat to hug or kiss Wiliam because of his scratchy whiskers. She just laughs and runs away. I think he's going to shave it off before we leave.

After the orphanage it was off to Internet Club again. This tome for 2 hours. Back at the apartment, we relaxed a bit waiting for our coordinator to return from the orphanage where she was translating more phone calls from the US. When she returned, she taught me to make Russian Salad. This is a very popular dish - very filling and tasty, too!

We also got a chance to discuss indepth the questions that we will be asked at court by the judge and the appropriate responses. Our coordinator was very thorough and encouraging in this process.

Tomorrow the maid comes and we meet the children's Babushka (grandmother).