a VERY GOOD day

Hey - glad you missed us!!! Guess we've been sending way too many emails - cause many of you were "concerned" that we hadn't posted for a day!!

Here's the news - she is PRECIOUS!!!!! Lots of delays yesterday - but won't go into all the details (power out, field trip . . .). The younger kids in her oprphanage went on a field trip for thier first day of school and didn't get back until 5. So we walked around the orphanage for a few hours and just sat - and waited!! We were in lobby when they came back - all of them adorable in thier little uniforms and carrying helium balloons. The picture in the file at the NAC was blurry and not good - so we didn't really know what we were looking for. Then this one little girl came in - I couldn't even see her face - but she
had a french braid and little pink socks on. There were about 30 kids that came through the door - she is the only one I remembered!

So we then went and talked to director - she had nothing but good things to say about her. Grandma wants her to have family - so that should not be a problem - but then director said that ANastasia just got back from staying with a family
in Italy. There is a foundation there that brings orphans to country for summer vacation. They had indicated that they "may" want to adopt her - this info is through Anastasia! But director looked at me - KIM - and said "Anastasia looks like you!" so Yuri asked director to ask her if she wanted to meet us - which was good -

A little while later the director came back with a girl (who was not the girl in the pink socksI saw coming in) The director told us that Anastasia's face "lit up"when she heard americans were here to see her. So I figured I had it totally wrong as far as who she was - I kept smiling like a big dork at this other girl - then the director takes us around a pole - and guess who - the french braid with teh pink socks. Her "teacher"was with her - the adults there are very caring and seem to LOVE Nastia - her nickname. I wanted to grab her and start crying - thank you Jesus - but thought that might frighten her - good thinking huh??

Anyway, we just walked around the grounds. Yuri translated for us - then Yuri got a call so Mark and I were alone with her for about 10 minutes - and we did great. Yuri said he was worried about us - but then he saw we were getting
along fine, so he just stayed on his phone call.

She gets out of school today at 1 - we are picking up a happy meal for her then will meet her at orphange. We're starting the paperwork today.

As far as the other family - they have not filed any paperwork - so will not be in the picture, unless Nastia wants to wait in case they do come. It is up to Nastia if she wants to proceed with the adoption. We will ask her today. Yuri is going ahead and preparing the paperwork so we can proceed as rapidly as possilble - more details on timing in next couple of days.

Thanks for your continued prayers and emails. We will not put any specifics on blog - it's kinda crazy over here and we don't want her picture or name on such a public forum.

THat's it for now - gotta get ready for our lunch date.

Love kim and Mark