Introducing!!

Geraldine Svetlana Thornell!

I left the hotel at 9:30 am and just got back at 6:00 pm!

Tomorrow morning I will need to get the passport and hit the bank and the newest Thornell will be picked up after donning her princess pink attire and head to the airport for a quick flight to Kiev and US Embassy processing!!!!!  Home on Saturday to the rest of the clan!!!

I will post more info later about my day, I am heading out to dinner with my buddies.

My Montage 3/30/10 at OneTrueMedia.com

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Big Day Coming!!

Spring cleaning going on over here. We have seen many work crews cleaning up the roads. You can always tell where they have been by the tiny piles of dirt left behind.

We found this really cute playground so decided to walk to it today.

Here Logan and Robin try out the teeter totter

How cute are these park benches! Too bad this strange guy sat down and ruined the picture :)

Jim has crabs :) :)

Logan using a very old swing set

Nice slide, but very hard landing

Seemed like our eternal flame, not sure what it is though

This is where we planned to have dinner, but the italian side was not open :(

So we walked down to our old standby, the potato house.

I had something different this time, the dough packets had a sweet cheese in them and the spaghetti was really good!

So we have court tomorrow morning at 10:00 am!!!!

If you find yourself awake at 3:00 am est please say a quick prayer that everything goes all right! That all the paperwork goes smoothly tomorrow so that we can get this train moving down the track!!!!

We meet with Serge at 9:00 to prepare for court and the rest of the day.

I already have my granola and lunch bars and bottled water packed :) :)

Last visit as an Orphan!!

This morning I got a call from Alexander asking me to come out early. He needed to do a 10 minute errand. I asked if it was an Alexander 10 minutes or a Nancy 10 minutes and he just laughed.

We went to this huge outdoor market! They sold anything you could imagine!!!

This is the entrance :)

He was able to buy one of the two things he needed. And we were only 20 minutes late to the orphanage :)

When I got there missy was the only child in the groupa and she was sobbing! I dropped all my stuff and picked her up and just rocked with her. It took her about 10 minutes to calm down. I still have no idea what was going on or why she was so upset.

They then told me we could go outside!!

We walked all over, talked to other families.

Gerri Sveta actually shared her yoghurt!!!

She threw a really big tantrum soon after. I told her no and that mama didn't like her behaviour. She got madder and tried to walk out of the stroller. So we had to go in :(

I kept thinking this is our last visit here!!

After tomorrow morning Ms Gerri Sveta will NO LONGER be an orphan!!!!

It is Monday night!!

We had the most amazing borscht for lunch!!!

When Alexander showed up to pick me up at 3:45 to go to the orphanage we went on a quick little side trip :)

His wife was in the car so that should have been a clue :)

We ended up at his daughter's apartment. I got to meet her and his granddaughter!!

What a beautiful family :)

Sveta was very happy to see me :)

She just LOVED playing with this balloon

I showed her how to play with the balloon to make lots of noises :)

Still holding her breath while playing with the balloon

Mama feeding her so she won't get too messy:)

Playing with a bunch of toys :)

I noticed two more beds in the groupa bedroom. I only saw one new child in the groupa, but they weren't all there. Pray that Sveta only has 2 nights left in the orphanage before she starts her life with a family :) :)

Great News!!!!!

Relaxing in the sun :)

While dropping off our laundry

 

I was SO very happy to hear that we would be allowed outside!!!!!

The chariot awaits the princess!

What is this shining in my eyes???

The babushka's doing spring cleaning

This is an empty swimming pool

More playground stuff

Eating her yoghurt while playing with a little one from her groupa

Once picked up I got to go on another Alexander adventure :)

I knew we weren't heading to the hotel and the area was vaguely familiar.

We ended up at the cake factory!! I can't even describe how wonderful the smells were!!!

Alexander's wife works here and we visited :)

She had made us homemade borscht and smetlana!! He needed to get the chicken to eat after it.
It was so yummy!!

So the good news is that the head Dr says the xray shows Sveta has completely healed!!! She said her hip is normal (not really normal, but I know what they mean).
BUT, they are not releasing her for sitting up till she hears back from the Dr in Kiev that did her surgery.

Then Marina says, oh but the GREAT news is that the adoption center has your interpol clearance!!!!!!!
Now we are waiting on the adoption center to release our court approval letter.
Nicolai is standing guard there to receive it. Once he has it the letter will be faxed to the court.
We are currently set for court on March 31st!! Don't know the time yet till they get our letter.
Please pray the paperwork all gets done in a timely manner so WE can get home!!!!!!!!
I just might have to have a big beer and chocolate for dinner!!!!!!!

An Awesome dessert!!

I had to break down and go potty at the orphanage!!

I have managed to avoid this the last 3 weeks :)

Here it is and now you know why!!

Luckily tomorrow is laundry day :) :)

Here is the wonderful nurse that took care of Sveta after her hip surgery in September!!!

She speaks a little English and we were able to talk quite a bit.

She said that every day she and Sveta would pray to god for a mama and papa for Sveta.

She asked if we would be able to fix her hip and feet and I told her we would do everything we could. She hugged me, told me she loved us and started crying!! Luckily Sveta was totally engrossed in her banana.

See her cheek??

She LOVES my glitter chapstick

Kiss perfect!

We decided to take a little trip with Alexander: We got to see the dam up close!

We actually went over it!

Jim, the history teacher, was so excited to see the memorial park for Lenin:

What an amazing park!

At the base of the statue is the working man that the country was built on!

This is a picture of Lenin Avenue - It runs from one end of the town to the other, 24 kilometers!

This is the memorial to the Afghanistan War, 300 lost from this small town.

We went back to our wonderful italian restaurant. This is one side of the restaurant

And this is the other side:

You can eat either italian or japanese food on either side.

I actually had a cappucino after my spaghetti bolognese - it was delish!!

This is what Robin and I had for dessert!!!!

Words just can not describe how delicious it was!!

Jim had to order one for himself!

Prayers for good news tomorrow!!!

Woo Hoo It is Sunday!!

And NO, that was not facetious at all! :) :)

Being Sunday we hit the bazaar again :)

What is the chance of finding a bag with our state on it??

Everyone selling pussy willow branches - must be an Easter thing.

Unfortunately lots of bees everywhere too!

My buds :)

My purchase - this afternoon's groupa snack :)

Logan has learned how to play solitaire while here

My lunch today - hubby wants me to get the chicken recipe.

hhhmmmmm, pound chicken flat, dip in egg batter, cook with some cheese on top :)

Robin decided to try their spaghetti, not bad

Very exciting morning!! I woke up at 7:30 and lay in bed listening to my latest audio book, Must love dogs. I am really enjoying it. I went downstairs at 8:45 for my 9 breakfast. Turns out instead of 15 minutes early I was actually 45 minutes late!!! Daylight savings :) :)
The staff here thought it was pretty funny. They wanted me to call my buds to get them down, but I ran upstairs to let them know. Jodi and Rich slept in, still trying to adjust their bodies to the time change.
Will be interesting to see how the kids adjust :)