Some Questions

Thank you to the people who have submitted questions. Please keep them coming.

1. What is your hotel like? Hotel room?
Our hotel is pretty nice. I think there are only rooms on the 2nd and 4th floors. The first floor has the café and the 3rd floor has conference rooms. We are currently on the 2nd floor, but due to the conference this weekend, we are going to be moved to another room, probably to the fourth floor. There are no elevators in the hotel. Four floors don’t seem too bad to walk. However, the way the stairs are set up, it feels more like 8 flights of stairs. We did that on the first trip.
Our room is actually considered a suite. There is a sitting room with a couch, television, mini-fridge, and a closet. Then we have a small bedroom and a bathroom. It is just big enough that we are comfortable, but not cramped.

2. What types of food do they offer at dinner?
The hotel provides breakfast, but lunch and dinner we have to fend for ourselves. We are trying to watch our spending, so we eat a large breakfast and then choose one other meal to eat at a restaurant. We have ate the last four meals at the hotel restaurant. Evan has had the chicken fillet, chicken stroganoff, and pork chops. He always orders a side of fries (shocker!). I have had the spicy chicken, chicken fillet (twice) and pelemini (like wontons in wonton soup). I try to mix up my sides. I’ve had boiled and baked potatoes, as well as soup.

There are two other restaurants nearby that we know have English menus. We just haven’t been there yet.

3. Do you use local transportation to go and see Nicholas? Or do you rent a car?
Sergei, our representative, is also our driver. He picks us up at 10:15 AM and 4:15 PM every day for our baby home visits. The baby home is about five minutes away. If we were offered a car, I would not take it. I have no idea what their traffic laws are here. I told Evan yesterday that it appears that everyone has the “right of way”.

4. Can you do any sightseeing when you are not seeing Nicholas?
We probably could go for walks. They gave us a tour of the town on our first trip. We just feel very vulnerable not being able to speak the language. The town is not huge, so we have probably have seen most of it just driving to the baby home and our beloved court house.

5. How are you treated by the workers at the orphanage?
Everyone at the baby home treats us very well. They are happy that we are going to adopt Nicholas. In fact, when talking to him, they tell Nicholas that we are his mama and papa (we understand that much).

6. Who is in the courtroom with you during the hearing(s)?
There are 9 people in the courtroom: Us, Luba(our interpreter), Sergei, a representative of the baby home, a representative of the Guardianship Authority, the court reporter, prosecutor, and judge.
We’ve spent more time with these people than we ever thought we would. Even the security guards know who we are.


Visits with Nicholas continue to go well. Two days ago we taught him how to use a sippy cup. I would have thought it was weird that he didn’t know how to drink from it, but Evan and I witnessed something interesting the other day. We went to get Nicholas from his room and his caregiver motioned for us to wait a moment, so she could give him something to drink. And, they gave him a CHINA cup for him to drink from. He gulped it down and handed it back to her. It was a very breakable cup with no lid! So, now we have him drinking from a sippy cup.

Also, our visits end right before lunch and dinner. Nicholas has a great internal clock. About twenty minutes before our visit is to end, he starts making a puckering face and starts to wave “bye bye”. He is hungry and knows it is almost time to eat. It is quite funny. But, it is hard to get him to think about playing until it is time to go. We always give him a snack when we visit, but that obviously does not hold him over.

We are trying to remain positive during our wait, but I will admit that last night my attitude started to go sour. God has given us all this time to bond with Nicholas, but I get frustrated with the process and just want to go home. Today has been a lot better though and I'm ready to press on.

I will leave you with some more of Nicholas' "masterpieces". I got comments last time that the pictures of Evan were creepy. I hope you find these pictures beautiful (ha ha).







Kristin