11/19/06 – Tomorrow is the big day

Jill has been making most of the posts – today it is my turn. Tomorrow morning at 11 AM local ( that will be 1 AM on the East Coast) we go before a Russian judge to petition to adopt Helena. We have met with our coordinator and our interpreter twice now to discuss what to expect. The region recently added a third judge to handle adoption cases and we have been assigned to the new judge. Neither our coordinator or our interpreter have worked with families before this judge, and I think they might be even more nervous than we are. The first time we met with them about court they provided an agenda of what to expect. Over the last couple days Jill and I have walked through the different topics ( and questions we have heard other families had been asked) and captured notes on what we would say ( though I have to give credit to Jill, as she did much of the work). Tonight we took our laptop with us when we met with them, and I think they much appreciated the opportunity to help us refine our answers. I’ve spent the last hour or so refining our notes and getting them ready to print at the hotel business center (including formatting for A4 paper rather than US letter size). A minor detail, but as we only have three sheets of paper to print three pages of notes, it might be critical.

Enough about court preparations – time to get on to Helena. Yesterday we arrived at the orphanage at about noon, so she had already had her lunch and was posted on the potty (as is usual practice). We talked with her there for a few minutes, then the caretaker arrived to dress her for us. Jill asked to take over and the caretaker was only too glad to oblige. There was another couple visiting their son in the main play area (more on them later), so we were asked to use the small room Jill has mentioned previously. It was nice and private, but cold (it has been very cold here – temperature this morning was -15 degrees Celsius, or 5 degree Faranheit). After about 20 minutes, Jill went to offer chocolate to the caregivers and check on the other children. She came back saying that the other copule had offered to share the main play area with us. They are from Spain and successfully went to court last Monday. They are waiting out the 10 days and coming to the orphanage everyday to play with their son, Roger (it was Rostom). It turns out that they have two children at home (a daughter age 4 and a son age 2). Roger will turn one early next month, so they will have their hands full when they get home. We showed each other pictures of our families, and when we placed the photo album we use with Helena down in the playpen between Helena and Roger we got to see another side of Helena. She was happily playing with another toy until she noticed that Roger had crawled over and picked up HER album. She quickly threw down the toy she had been playing with, crawled over to Roger, and took HER album out of his hands. It was quite funny to watch, and made us feel good that she valued the album so highly. Later, both she and Roger were in walkers careening around the hallway, and anytime Roger would try to get by Helena, she would move her walker to block, sometimes pretending not to be watching Roger while she did so. After some time in the walker, we fed Helena her afternoon snack and then handed her off to her caregivers. She was able to join the rest of her group in group playtime, so she wasn’t as upset to see us leave as Friday (and I think yesterday’s caregiver (and today’s) is more connected to the children than some of the others).

Now it is on to our sleep odyssey (or lack thereof). Yesterday we moved across the hall to yet another room. It is much quieter than the previous room, and slightly larger. The problem we had last night was with heat. Talking with our interpreter today, it seems that the colder it gets outside the higher they turn up the heat inside, and both Jill and I suffered last night because of this. If we opened the window the room rapidly became too cold, and after we shut it the room quickly heated up too much. Despite being medicated with an Ambien CR, Jill couldn’t sleep and ended up taking one of the individual (twin) comforters they outfit the bed with and the bedspread out into the sitting room area (which was slightly cooler) and sleeping on top of the comforter on the floor. I tried to go without meds, but gave up and took on of Jill’s Sonata’s at about 2 AM – which didn’t seem to do anything. I resigned myself to getting up every hour or so, opening the window for about 5 minutes, then closing it and going back to bed. Even with all that, I think I still got more sleep than Jill did. Jill has had a really hard time sleeping and needs all your prayers. Tonight Jill is in the bedroom and I plan to sleep on the small loveseat, which we figured out how to pull out into a small bed today. With an Ambien CR in me, I hope to get enough sleep to be able to handle court – I just hope Jill does as well.

Back to Helena – today we visited her again at about noon. The Spanish couple was already there, and we immediately asked if they minded sharing the main visitor area. They had no issues, so today Helena and Roger again played near each other (they didn’t interact much, but then they were both busy with their new parents most of the time). Jill tried on the shoes we brought to visit the US embassy in Moscow (which fit) and the snowsuit we brought (which was way too big). I guess I’ll be bringing a smaller snowsuit back with me (unless the 10 days is waived). Today we spent more time holding Helena and walking around the hallways talking to her. She seemed very content. Of course we also got into the physical play she loves, and she spent time in a walker zooming around the hallway. She seems to love the walker, especially when she gets to explore areas of the orphanage she doesn’t see very often. We had to block her several times from entering other rooms or going down a unused side hallway where they store extra cribs, strollers, etc. Our interpreter told us that her snack would be later than usual today, and as Jill and I were both exhausted we decided to leave a bit earlier than usual to give her time to play with her group (and to give us time to rest before the meeting about court I mentioned at the start of this post).

Well, that about catches us up to date. We need all the prayers we can get for tomorrow – first and most importantly that the judge decides to approve our petition to adopt Helena, second that she decides to waive the 10 days, and third that court goes smoothly. Prayers for Jill to get adequate rest are also much needed. We look forward to reading comments left here or to the emails you sends us. Our next post will be tomorrow afternoon (local) after court, so be sure to check here Monday morning (your time).