Back At It

I am feeling much better today, thank goodness, so we are back at our Groundhog Day routine, which, in honor of my daughter's beautiful hairdo, I have decided to call Hedge Hog Day. Hedge Hog Day here consists of getting up at 7, taking turns in the shower and packing the diaper bag for our 8:30a.m. pick up. While we are waiting, we sometimes break the rules and get all crazy and wait outside the front door of the hotel, which isn't even on a road. We spent our few minutes of fresh air admiring the weapon that Igor has displayed in his office window by the front door for all to see. Igor, "I like my weapon, what do you think?" "Yes, Igor, we love your weapon." *rolling eyes*
On a lighter note, we took Anelya for a stroll on Thursday afternoon with the Clark/Gilpatricks. The first three laps of the baby house I had Anelya in her carrier. She likes me to put my hands under her feet so she can jump jump jump even when she is in mid air. By the fourth lap, we decided to let her try to the stroller. Which she did not like. Well, my dear, I'm pretty sure you will dig the Porsche of strollers that awaits you at home. If this unhappy face didn't come with such a dreadful scream, I might let you keep this stroller ;-)

Then we sat on the bench for a while and Baba cooed and

Anelya concocted new mischievous plans.

Today when we got to the baby house, Natasha brought Anelya out to be and she not only smiled, but she reached way out for me. We were all really excited to see that.

We jumped and played and absolutely did not sit for one second, thank you very much.

Anelya walking on the new window sill that was made possible by the LMI Semey Window Project. There is a link for how you can make your tax deductible donation to this project on the blog. I think Anelya's eyes are saying, "Hee hee hee. Don't tell the Director I am standing on his new windows!"

Anelya did not want anything to do with her porridge this morning. I can't blame her. It looked pretty runny, if I do say so myself. She drank her juice down, but anytime I picked up the spoon she screamed and did a back bend. So, no breakfast for you, Miss Grumpy Pants.

Towards the end of the visit, the doctor came in to examine her. I got to come along this time. I have seen her little naked buttski in the morning when the put her tushy under the faucet, but had never seen the front. Well today I did and I was very surprised to see a two inch scar on her groin area. Fantastic. "What is this?" I asked the doctor. She told me in Russian that it was such and such and not to worry. Right. So, after the visit I went outside and asked my interpreter to come with me to the doctor's office to get more information. Up in the office, she pulled out a medical file which was astonishingly long for such a young baby. Well, it turns out that Anelya had surgery at 2 months of age for a hernia. Nice of them to tell me. It's supposedly fine and nothing to worry about and "won't give her problems as a woman" but you'd think they'd have told me that my baby had surgery when she was 8 weeks old, now really.

So, I am a little riled up about that right now, but it is what it is. It isn't like I would have ever said no to Anelya, it's just that it makes me wonder how much else there is to uncover. The good news is that I will get her complete file after court and can give it to her adoption pediatrician who is Russian, so he will be able to read all of the notes. NEVER a dull moment, for sure.

After the visit, we went for a nice walk along the Semey River with Tammy. Bob, Sarah, and Veronika stayed at the playground. It felt so good to be anywhere but the hotel and get some exercise. Then we went to Park City and bought some meat and potato filled pastries, for a change, and some ice cream for tonight's dessert. We are going back to Tammy and Bob's tonight for dinner. It's a nice way to break up the monotony and regain a bit of a sense of home. There is some talk about us eating franks and beans this evening... shows you how nostalgic we are for home!

So, we'll be picked up in a while to go back to the baby house and then we will come back and get ready for dinner. We managed to buy our plane tickets for all three legs of the trip and this time next week we will be on the Frankfurt-Boston trip. It is starting to hit me that I have to leave my angel here next week and it's making me very emotional. I am absolutely dreading it.