Second Day With the Girls

Today when Galina woke up she crawled into my arms and let me rock her for quite a while. I have to get some good Galina time in while Valya is sleeping. I got her dressed and ready to go for the day. Valya was still sleeping so I woke her up and rocked her for a little bit. I started to get her ready for the day. I guess I should have rocked her longer, because as soon as I took off her diaper she started to pee and got her blanket we and everything else. I finally got her cleaned up and ready to go, but she was still cranky. Not a good way to start the day.

We went down to breakfast where we saw our friends Stacy, Doug, and Nicholas; Ann, Ned, and Konstantin. We had to sit away from them because the tables around them were taken, but we were glad to get a table in the corner of the room away from everyone. Valya can pack the food away and she gets so happy after eating. Galina is a bit more picky and does not seem to devour her food unless it is Dannon yogurt.

After breakfast we waited outside for Anna to pick us up. She was going to take us to get the girls pictures taken for their visas. We drove over with Ann, Ned, and Konstantin. Konstantin was in Galina's group. They know each other and find some comfort in seeing a familiar face around. It was fun watching them play together in the van. After pictures we came back to the hotel. It was snack time and then some play time. After snack, both Galina and Valya went down for a nap and slept for two hours.

Tomorrow we leave for Moscow. We are flying with Ann, Ned, and Konstantin and staying at the same hotel in Moscow. Sharing this process with other families has really enriched our experience. We were watching videos of the last visit here in May and realized that Konstantin was in a section of our video. We did not know this at the time. Ann and Ned were very excited to see video of the other children playing in the yard with Konstantin.

Thanks for everyone's wishes and congratulations. John and I are absolutely elated!