Recap of Monday

The day with Anelya was wonderful yesterday. It's hot again, so I got to take her outside for both visits and they only made her wear two layers and a hat! It's starting to hit me that I have to leave my little girl in just 3 days. I type that and my eyes fill with tears. It's bittersweet for me to see that she now recognizes me and greets me with a huge smile every time I come into the room. She reaches up for me to take her. She wants to be with me. But I have to leave soon. This is really torture.

I was thinking a lot about leaving her yesterday.

Anelya continues to love "all things trees" and spends most of our walks looking up at the leaves swaying in the breeze. She also shakes her head "No! NO! No!" all of the time. I think she likes how the air feels on her face.

Watch it or I will sick my thug on you!

The time for court training changed 3 times. I was supposed to have court on Tuesday evening and so, I had taken my time preparing the speech. I decided I would not write the speech, that I would simply memorize what needs to be said and go from there. I like to speak from the heart and if I write the speech, I will know exactly when I am going to cry and will be nervous anticipating it.

After the first visit we went back to the bazaar, this time for no particular reason other than to join Tammy, Bob and Sarah. I ended up with three more very cute pairs of tights and I am now looking for a local chapter of Tights Anonymous. That brings the count to 13 pairs. I never thought I would exceed the number of mini yurtas we bought, but alas, I have succeeded.

As I mentioned in a brief post yesterday, we went to Lady Pizza for lunch and there I was told that Olga had called and my final training would take place at 4p.m. at my hotel. Remember, I had not written my speech, but I know who I am and I know how I feel, so I decided to wing it.

Olga was there with Helen and we got right to it. The point of the meeting is for the translator to practice your translations, agree upon the optimal wording and to make sure that the information I am providing is correct and beneficial to the case. Basically, it looks something like this:

Court record: State your name, DOB, Place of Birth, Address and Occupation

Part I: Introduction: About me and my family, my home, why I am single, why I want to adopt, why I cannot or do not want to have biological children.

Part II: Specific information about the compiling of official documents throughout the process, the dates when they were registered at the various ministries, who I used to assist me, when I got to Semey and how did I get the visa and about meeting with the baby house director on Day One, meeting Anelya and why I chose to bond with this child. Cue the crying. Here I have to talk about how Anelya has progressed in my presence, how I feel about her and how she reacts to me.

Part III: Actual request to petition that the court declare me Anelya's legal mother, that her birth certificate be changed to include my name as her mother with no birth father listed.

Olga then proceeded to ask me questions that could come up. How will you discipline your child? How do you feel about people who hit their children? Why do you think some people hit their children? If your child gets sick, would that be a reason to "get rid of her?" What would be a good reason to get rid of her? You are a young, beautiful woman, why don't you have a baby of your own? And it went on and on. None of the questions shocked me and I felt very confident with all of my answers.

Mom is sick with a terrible head cold now and will be staying home this morning. I am quickly writing to you to give you something to chew on. I will write more about my day once something happens. I'm so excited to finally be knee deep in court week. Exactly 50 hours from now, my court hearing is scheduled to begin. In 52 hours, I expect to be Anelya's legal mother. This, my friends, is quite a week.