We made it home! It's been a l-o-n-g day for us. I think we've been up for 24 hours now.

Monday afternoon was great with M. Dr. L led a series of games with the children to access their gross motor skills, and their cognitive and verbal development. And how the children interacted with each other. (We were traveling with another family who was adopting a 4-year-old girl and 5-year-old boy.) First off was "the balloon". Wow, the balloon was a hit. The children stood in a circle - with some of the adults - and we bounced the balloon around the circle. Next we did the same thing sitting on the floor with a ball. All the kids did great and were having so much fun.

Then Dr. L had M and the 5-year-old boy recite some Russian poems and sing songs. Get out the video cameras! M is shy as a solo performer but was great as part of the group and even corrected Dr. L when she started to sing the wrong verse.

Then we had some great bonding time. We continued to play with some balls and the balloon which she named "Mickey Mouse". Between the three of us, we had some tickle games / wrestling on the floor / lots of goofiness with Mickey Mouse. After a while we settled back on the sofa with M cuddled between us and looked at her purple "First 1000 Words in Russian" book. On each page there is a little yellow duck that you can find within the illustrations. M loved to play this game. Michael would pretend to hide the ducks with his finger, and M would laugh and squeal, "Papa!!!". It was great.

One of M's caretakers kept popping down and at one point M ran away with her. I thought she was gone for the evening since the other children also left about the same time. We started to pack up, and about 5 minutes later M was back with us. We had another 45 minutes or so together where we just colored on the floor. (I think M ran upstairs and had her dinner, and the caretaker allowed her to come back downstairs to play. Which was really cool.)



It was now approaching 7PM and we had to leave. M took us all upstairs to her room and showed us where she slept. She's in a room with 5 other children. She has the far left bed by the window. We also got to see her bathroom and play areas. Everything was very orderly and clean. The other children were running around and playful. The kids seem happy and healthy. Seeing this first hand makes it easier for us during the wait!

Next posts....
Visits on Tuesday
Q&A