The last few days have been so busy (Moscow-Velikiye Luki-Pskov), amazing (seeing Rita again), crazy (car ride to Pskov), scary (truck stop on the way to Pskov) and emotional (court).

We went to the Russian Medical Center on Tuesday and had our 8-doctor appointment. (That's a big post on its own.) We finished there about 2:30PM so our translator took us down to Old Arbat Street for souvenir shopping before we took the overnight train to Velikiye Luki. We arrived in VL with too many bags which required us to take three taxis to the orphanage to drop everything off before we went to our hotel for breakfast. There we were met by Lera! We had breakfast and headed to the orphanage about 9AM.

We were able to play with Rita for almost five hours. We saw the indoor swimming pools (!) and they let us play in a huge playroom with tons of nice new toys including motorized trucks and a bicycle. Rita was happy to see us and asked when she would be able to come home with us... she said that is ready to go now and doesn't want to wait any longer.

She was very happy and affectionate and playful. Lera taught her how to say "hi", "how are you", "i'm fine" and "i love you mama". She was really really nervous about the English but she is doing amazing. She is trying to repeat things that we say and listens to Lera very closely to try to get the correct pronounciation.

We have discovered one of her favorites games is kid wrestling with lots of tickles. She kept yelling (in Russian) "Papa tickle me!"... it was really really cute. We said our goodbyes and told her that we would be back in a week to pick her up. She understands that we will go by train and airplane to get home.

Then... we got to experience the notorious countryside drive. We had everything... snow, sleet, fast cars, one lane each way, lots of huge trucks going anywhere from 20-30 miles per hour to 60-80 miles per hour. It was like we were in a video game... trying to pass a huge truck (or trucks!) with traffic coming towards us much too quickly in the opposite direction. Fortunately most of our trip happened in daylight. We stopped for a quick bite to eat at a truck stop. I hesitate to write anything here because it's something I'd much rather forget.

When we arrived in Pskov we picked up our translator along a dark, wet (it was rainy by now) deserted road. We checked into our very nice hotel - the Heliopark near downtown Pskov. We had a quick meeting to review what we needed to prepare for court. We were exhausted (and still in the same clothes from Tuesday morning). Michael and I ended up falling asleep by 8PM. We woke up around midnight and worked until 2AM on our speeches for court.

Court was a good experience although the judge did not waive the 10-day waiting period. We spent a considerable amount of time on the topic at the beginning of the proceeding but both the prosecutor and the judge were explicit that unless the surgery is urgent she cannot and will not waive the waiting period. The rest of the time in court was pleasant and even fun. Both the judge and prosecutor were very interested to learn about Rita's new home and liked seeing the pictures. We were probably in there for 50 minutes before the judge left (and came back 10 seconds later) to announce that we were Rita's parents.

The orphanage director and local inspector were amazing in court. After court, the inspector gave us three pictures of Rita when she was 1.5 years old and her baptism papers.

In other news...
It looks like we could be in Russia for another three weeks. Our coordinator informed us that we won't be able to leave on 2/16, since we will need 4 business days in Pskov to complete Rita's birth certificate and passport. Since the 10 days were not waived we are not able to take her from the orphanage until 2/11. So this means that we are planning to get back to Moscow on 2/16, and we will visit the embassy on 2/19 and 2/20. (The embassy is closed on 2/18 due to President's Day). There is some hope (update after court today) that our coordinator may be able to get things done quicker in Pskov and still get us home on 2/16... The plan seems to change at least 2X per day here.

Right now we are planning to hang out in Pskov until Friday and then go back to Velikiye Luki to spend a few days with Rita before she leaves the orphanage on 2/11. We are also considering a trip up to St. Petersburg between now and then but right now we are exhausted and just need to get some sleep. We found a free wireless cafe with a canteen style kitchen so we will be able to survive.

More later....