Friday December 12th, 2008 ~ Our last day with the girls

Once again we ate at breakfast 24 hour cafeteria in our hotel. We really want to eat at the buffet in our hotel but it did not open until 8 and that was too late for us. Once again I had meat pies for breakfast, but thankfully I learned how to ask for orange juice and was able to have a little bit of a real American breakfast. We started out at 8:45 and headed out to the notary. We had to get our official court documents notarized and ready to bring to the court. It took about an hour because Tatiana had to type a number of copies and pages and fix a few minor errors (like a wrong spelling of one of our daughters soon to be English name!) It was very interesting to read this official document or contract because it had a lot more information about the girls like the full name of the birth mother. Once we were finished we were able to go to the orphanage to play with the girls. Today they had dressed them again in the Hello Kitty outfits that I brought them to wear. It is so big on M that she looked like a little old man with her pants hiked up around her under her arm pits. But both girls looked adorable and very, very sweet and loving with us. D only wants to crawl around and run, she is very active. Too bad that today we were not allowed to go into the private room so we had to play with them out on the couch in reception. There is no where to let D crawl around on the floor so it made for a fidgety little girl. We had a wonderful time with them playing and taking lots of pictures. I had meant to get measurements and an out line of their feet for sizing and did not have time to do any of that. At 12:00 all the girls feel asleep. D fell asleep in Mike’s arms and the other couples daughter also fell asleep in their arms. M was so tired but did not want to sleep. She fought it with every ounce of her being. She was very cranky with heavy eyelids.

We left the orphanage and went back to the hotel to pack our bags and check out. Then we headed to court to bring in our documents. We went to a very official building to meet with a female judge. We had to wait a while and were seated next to a criminal court room. We saw the Russian police bringing in a criminal for trial. Mike and I were first up to meet the adoption judge. We went into a small office and met a very nice women who will be our judge. We handed over all the documents and sat and watched while Tatiana told her our story and went over our documents. Then she asked us a few questions, it was very tense because we did not want to say the wrong thing. Once we were done the other couple went in. We were told about a ton of new documents that we will need to get once we are home. The faster I get them done the faster we get back to our girls, the sooner they can come home. One more step closer…

Then we went to eat pizza for lunch which was a really nice change from the Russian faire we have been having. We stopped to get diapers to bring to the orphanage to leave for our girls and then we finally were able to go back to the orphanage to see the girls one last time. It was so sad to leave them. The caregivers put them in the other outfits I had brought for them from Target. They both looked so cute and the 9-12 months basically fit them. We talked to them and sang to them and told them we will miss them very much and see them soon. I wished them both an early Happy Birthday and New Year which will happen before we can get back to see them. We told them how all of our family and friends are ready to spoil them rotten. We handed over a digital camera to the director in hopes that the caregivers will take pictures of the girls when we are gone. We also left with them the glowworms because they loved them and the soft photo albums with our family pictures in them. We then presented the director with gifts for the orphanage and the girls ‘Groupa’; All sorts of toys and books, a lot of the items that we played with the twins with this week. Thankfully my carry on bag that was packed with toys on the way over here will be empty on the way home. So we said our final goodbyes. We carried them both to the second floor to their playroom and gave the diapers to their caregivers. We waved goodbye and Mike just could not leave them. They were put in excersaucers on the floor and Mike asked permission to say goodbye one more time. He went in, got down on the floor on his hands and knees and gave them more kisses goodbye. I really wanted to do that too but I didn’t want to press my luck and upset the caregivers. It was a really touching moment and definitely made me tear up as we left. I wish I had gotten a picture of that.

So, we packed up and got into the van for the long journey back to Moscow. Hopefully we will be back here in 6 weeks and then they will be ours forever.