Final Paper Chase

Today began our final paper chase. This morning we headed to the Tver Center for Adoption to pick up the girls new birth and adoption certificates. All we did was sit in the car and our coordinator did everything else for us. Then we went to the Registration office where we had to sign a few documents and were given the official stamps on the certificates. The green documents are the new birth certificates with our names as the parents and the girls American names (although the document is still in Russian) and the blue documents are the Adoption declarations. The coordinator ran into another office to make photo copies of everything and then off we went to the orphanage where the staff there would use the documents we just picked up in order to complete their portion of the paperwork. While that was happening we did get almost an hour to play with the girls. We met the new couple from our agency with their adorable little boy and we spent some time playing with our girls.

We had to leave early as we had been told that some official big-wigs were coming to visit the orphanage today. From what I gather, some Russian person who adopted a child from this orphanage knows or is married to a government official they got some big-wig to donate money to expand the baby home. So an official visit is set up. The staff was dressed up a little more than usual and we were ushered out early. That means a lot of free time this afternoon to relax. We ordered pizza delivery for lunch today. On our last trip our interpreter took us to a pizza place (called Milano-and written in English) and we were able to pick up a delivery menu. The front desk ordered for us and it worked out great. There is only so much 24 Yaca and hotel dining room that you can eat without going crazy. Here is to a relaxing few hours. Tommorow will be different.