Still Waiting

Hey all - well we're still here. Now we're waiting on her passport. They said it would be ready on Thursday morning, but there may be another step that we have to do to get it finalized - there is ALWAYS one more step over here. We have a tentative appointment at US Med Center for her physical and at the US Embassy for additional travel documents on Friday. They have been great - we have to have completed passport to have the appointments, but they said if we don't have it, they will get us in on Monday. The problem is if we don't get the passport on Thursday, it will delay us leaving until Monday or Tuesday and we REALLY REALLY want to come home. Rachel has MANY Exams at school next week so it would be very difficult for her to come home next week - so we're hoping and praying we're outta here on FRIDAY!!! - which would get us home on Saturday

Anastasia is doing great. She loves just lounging in her PJs and playing lots of games and eating popcorn (we brought popcorn from home). We've watched Cinderella MANY times! She LOVES the clothes that Rachel bought her. She has one favorite outfit - and doesn't yet get the concept of wearing more than one outfit per week (or per month!!!) She's had tears a few times, but just wants to cuddle a bit then she's fine. Today when she was crying she said she was sad but she didn't know why. This is a huge transition that she is getting ready to make. The time in the apartment has been a good intermediate step. The other day when we were with Yuri, he asked her in Ukrainian what she wanted for lunch - and she answered in ENGLISH! She took a LONG bubble bath the other night - and has already washed her hair twice since Friday. She does not want to leave the apartment and would prefer to stay in. She doesn't like the 20 minute walk to town in the slush and I can't blame her. Tomorrow we'll go out to check on her passport and pick up some of her things at Grandmas so hopefully we'll get a meal out. Canned tuna is getting a little old. I"m going to try to get some Friday's to go (not sure if they understand the concept "to go" here) on my way back.

One cute thing she does - at night, she gathers all her "treasures"and puts them in bed with her - I'm sure they did that in the oprhanage to protect their stuff. The other morning we found a bag of potato chips in bed with her. At the end of the day she folds all of her clothes up very neatly and puts them on the end of her bed. Now when we sit down to dinner, she grabs our hands and closes her eyes (ready for the prayer) then at the end she says AMEN! She keeps herself occupied just playing with pieces of paper, or a feather . . . she knows how to make her own fun!

Anxious to get home to our kiddos in the states and get all four together.