Happy

Now that court is over and we are just spending a few days in Moscow, there is not such pressing and interesting info to post. But I will tell you that we are having a great time here and Ivan is doing really well.

He is eating well, sleeping well (praise the Lord for his little thumb!), and is very playful and cuddly. Phil and Barrett left yesterday--they made it safely and are home sleeping in their own beds right now. Clara and I had a low key day yesterday--we ate here at the hotel, took Ivan to the hotel play room (how great is that?), and turned in to bed early.

We walked back down to Red Square this morning to a flea market of sorts. By the end of our shopping, we were surrounded by hundreds of police/ guards/ soldiers and literally thousands of people who were making their way to the festivities outside of Red Square for the "Day of Consent and Agreement" celebration. We found lots of wonderful things in the little market--the best of which is a black fur hat that looks ADORABLE on Clara! She loves it and I must say it is perfect on her. We headed back for lunch at the hotel again. Their pelmeni is so yummy and was perfect after our chilly walk/ shopping spree. Ivan LOVES pelmeni too. Clara will be very busy at our house when we return making hundreds of her yummy little dumlings for us to freeze and eat all winter.

Clara and Ivan are napping now and we are headed out in a bit on a tour of some sights around here. We pitched in with another adoptive family to get a private tour guide for a few hours who will give us the history of much of the Kremlin, take us to an art gallery, the Grand Cathedral, and even help us navigate the Metro. Mary is from Michigan and is traveling with her mother also. She is a wonderful single mom adopting little Christina. It is fun to be in this hotel as we see many other adoptive families.

As I said, Ivan is doing great. He is happy and active--perhaps a bit too active for our little hotel room. Before his nap today I let him walk up and down the hallways...he had the best time! He is walking everywhere and is super curious. He is very ticklish too which is so much fun. Oh, and he has a little temper. I nearly laughed my head off yesterday when he got mad at me while changing his clothes and swatted his hand at me saying, "yet!"; I realized he was trying to say "Nyet!"...my little boy has only been with me a few days and is already telling me "No!"...he should be able to hold his own at home without any problems at all!

Tomorrow (Wednesday) we head to our Embassy approved Doctor's appointment and then to the US Embassy on Thursday. Please pray that all goes well at the Embassy--especially since I am using Power of Attorney over Phil, etc. We fly out on Friday around 2:15pm Moscow time and will land in CA at 4:30pm. I'm not entirely sure how Ivan will do on the plane, but we did end up buying him a seat and I am so glad. Seriously, Aeroflot might be the smallest seat/ leg room airplane I have ever been on. At least this way we will have a bit of space between us to let Ivan move a tiny bit.

All in all, we are happy and peaceful. I am enjoying this time to get acquainted with Ivan. He is such a sweet little boy--and funny too. There is lots of laughter and many smiles...I am so, so thankful.

(Here are a few pictures from our court date...talk about Happy! Phil and I with the social worker/ Barrett with Natasha our translator. P.S.--Please note my Halloween outfit...every good Southern girl likes to dress for the holidays!)