There's one less orphan in the world today......

Today was "GOTCHA DAY" for our sweet Anna.  My mom and I left on Sunday for Russia and arrived on Monday.  It was late in the afternoon when we finally reached our destination and it was too late to go and visit her on Monday.  We had been told that we would go and pick up her birth certificate on Tuesday and then head out to the institution and take her into our custody on that day.  It was a crazy day of running and our facilitator thought that we should wait until Wednesday to take her with us because the passport process would take hours and it would be too much for Anna.  After we got to the institution on Tuesday the assistant director said that we could take her on Wednesday and get her passport picture made then because the weather was too bad (raining) to take her out into.  I was a little aggravated at first but it really was for the best.  It took us at LEAST 5 hours to go through the passport application process today.  I was about to pull my hair out because I was afraid they were going to try and say that it wasn't a good day to take her today either, because it was so late.  When we arrived at the institution we went into the office to talk to the director.  Our facilitator told her that we had more questions about Anna and her routine and the director said "oh I will tell you all of that in two weeks when you come back to get her when her passport is ready". Uhmmmm NO!  We will be taking her today.  She did not agree with us.  She had issues of letting go and she said this is just so weird.  We have never had any adoptions before and I am just not sure how this is supposed to take place.  So then she gets on the phone with her supervisor to find out if she has to let us take her today.  She stated that she could not find anywhere in the papers that say when we are legally allowed to take her, so our facilitator kindly showed her where it stated she is legally ours and that we could take her. So then she had to agree, but with tears, and we were allowed to take Anna from the institution to be with her forever family!!

As we were leaving with her I heard someone yell out "Nastya" (this is her nickname for Anastasia) and we turned around to find a lady with tears pouring down her face as she came over to hug Anna and tell her goodbye.  It was really, really sad. We were told that she was one Anna's caregivers and it was apparent that she loves our little girl.  It broke my heart to see these people so saddened to see our sweet girl go home to her family.  I know that their heart is breaking to lose her but I promised to send them pictures and updates often. They really seem to care for the children and adults that they have in their care and I am grateful to them for taking good care of her.



This sweet girl of mine really is a gem. I honestly could not love her more if she had came from my own body.  I mean fierce, deep love for her like she has always been mine.  Is that abnormal? I don't know.  I have read blogs about families who adopt chilren and they say that it takes time to fall in love with them and I totally can understand that. But what about me? I love her like I gave birth to her. Maybe it's because she was born to be MY daughter. God knew that for whatever reasons her parents had for giving her up, that she would one day be mine.  I think she already knows it too.  She knows that I love her and she appears to love me back :)  I can't tell you how many hugs and kisses I got today because there were too many to count!

The sweet little thing did so good today.  She hopped in the car with us and headed off for her new life like it was something she does every day!  It takes a little over an hour to drive from her institution to the city where we are staying and did all of her paperwork and court.  She did great in the car.  She ate her gummy fruit snacks and guzzled down a whole cup of juice.  She acts so thirsty...I just wonder if she was allowed enough to drink and may be dehydrated some.  Her skin is horrible.  She has sores in her scalp and scratches it like crazy.  But it gets worse.  Her feet make me cringe and I cannot imagine how they must feel.  I don't know if she is allergic to something and her feet are just raw from scratching them OR if she has some type of fungus going on with them.  She just claws at her legs and her hiney like they itch soooo bad.  BUT the child has never had a bath, so you can imagine why her skin is in the shape it is in.  They said that they give them sponge baths and I have no idea how they wash their hair.  So we gave her her first bath tonight and she did pretty well with it.  At first she was hesitant so I sat on the side of the tub and just stood her up in the bath and splashed water on her until she was comfortable enough to sit down in it.  It wasn't long and she was enjoying herself!  We got her out and greased her from head to toe with lotion in hopes that it would help with some of her itching....but I don't think it did :(  She started clawing at her feet and it made my heart hurt so bad for her.  Our facilitator has left to go back to her city while we wait for the passport so we are here trying to make it on our own.  I think we will venture down to the drugstore tomorrow and try to find something for her skin.

After we got back to our hotel we took her to the restaurant for dinner and I was curious to see how she would do with eating.  I had read about children being adopted from orphanages and that they could have a bad relationship with food such as hoarding food and gorging on it.  She did neither...but she does like to eat that's for sure!

We were told that she was potty trained but we brought pullups and diapers just in case.  She wore a pullup most of the afternoon until we could get her back to the hotel and put panties on her.  My mom tried putting her on the toilet and she became upset....afraid of the big girl toilet, ha ha! So we tromped up the street to the mall and found her a small little potty in hopes that this would cure her fear and it did!  She went to the bathroom twice before bedtime.  She has already watched her "signing time" videos and skyped with her brothers and sister.  We went to the mall and the grocery store, came home, took her bath and finally passed out on her little cot bed. I put the sweet baby in the bed with her blanky/teething rings, she layed there for about 5 minutes, then pulled the covers up over her head and went to sleep!!  I know she's over there dreaming now and thinking "please don't wake me....I think I'm in heaven!"

I CANNOT even begin to thank all of you enough who have helped us through this process to make Anna our daughter.  I promise you that we could not have done it without your love, prayers, help and support. You all mean so much to us and we are eternally grateful to each and everyone one of you!  I'm sure that Anna thanks you too! She now has a mommy and daddy who love her so much, and two brothers and a sister who cannot wait until she is home!! May God richly bless you all!!