Friday, June 27, 2008

Bye Bye Baby House!

Right at this very moment, Jill is taking her afternoon nap right here in the hotel room! We left this morning at 8:30, met by the driver Voloya and CHI rep. Galina. From here we went to the Ministry of Ed. for Galina to pick up some paperwork and for us to pick up Elvira. After this we went to an unknown building to sign and pick up more paperwork, I believe one of these documents was her new birth certificate! We left Galina and went on to the orphanage to pick up Jill! They made us write out on a piece of 'scrap' paper that we had been given all of her medical information and had no claims against the orphanage. Their social worker told us that her mother had been putting some money in an account for her each year. They said it was minimal and that in order for her to get a hold of it she would have to come here when she was 18 and try to prove herself to be this person which would be hard to do with her name change. They asked us if we wanted to go to the hassles of doing this when she turns 18 or if we would write on another 'scrap' paper that we are aware of the account and will not make attempts to retrieve it. I just found it very nice to know that her mother has been doing this for her! She will be glad to know in the future that her mother cared enough about her to try to save at least a little something for her future! They then gave us her schedule. She gets up at 7:30am, eats breakfast at 8, has a 10am snack, plays outside from 10:30 until noon, has lunch at noon, naps from 1pm-3:30pm (which is right now!), has a four o'clock snack, goes outside again at 5, has dinner at 6, then goes to bed at 8:30pm. Sounds pretty typical to us! The boys schedules were very similar to this when they were her age. We took a few pictures of us in our shirts that say Mother, Father, and daughter in Russian. The staff there really liked the shirts! If anyone's interested I bought them online from a site called cafepress. Then...to the van! Surprisingly she didn't protest at us buckling her in! We drove back to the Ministry of Ed. where Galina was and Wade signed two things, then Elvira took us to buy our plane tickets!!! We are leaving here at 7am next Saturday (the 5th of July) for Moscow. Then, we headed one more time back to the Ministry of Ed. and picked Galina up. She and Elvira came back to the hotel with us. Galina had gotten two younger pictures of Jill on her flashdrive while at the Ministry of Ed! They're not very good ones, but at least they are from when she was probably one or two and I am so happy to have them! The hotel staff brought up a crib, Galina and Elvira stayed a little while while Jill got acclimated and then they left! We're pretty much on our own now. We can call if we need anything, but there is really nothing planned until Voloya picks us up at 5:30am next Saturday to take us to the airport!

3 comments:

said...

Congratulations! I am so very excited for all of you. She is so beautiful! I will be praying for a good week on her transition and safe travels home.

God Bless - Monica Canestraro

Carolynn and Steve said...

Congratulations!!! I am so happy for you all. I hope that your next few days are amazing, that you make some great Russian memories, and that you are all home safely soon with your new daughter! Yipee!!

Patti said...

Congratulations! She is adorable! I'm so glad you were able to get the photos of her when she was younger.