On May 17, I dreamed that we received our court date and instructions to leave for Russia on May 25.  "That can't be possible! That's only a week away, and my brother is coming to Los Angeles, and I have so much to do at work. And my UK police clearance is not back yet!"  Well, the next morning I received an email from our coordinator that our court date was scheduled for May 28 and we need to travel to Russia on May 25.

That's one week and one day notice, no problem!

I spent the next week tracking down both local and national UK police clearance letters - to bring along, just in case the judge requests them.  Our coordinator says that he typically wants to have clearances for every country that a person has lived in, and for some reason he did not ask for mine.  Hopefully this does not cause any issues for us tomorrow.   I quickly learned that there was no way my national clearance (the more important document) was going to get to me, back to the UK for apostilles and back to me again in one week.  They have told me that my clearances are due to post on or before June 16.  I did have originals of my local clearance, so I quickly sent those for apostilles (1-2 day turnaround). Long story short, I didn't get those back either because the office moved over the weekend, delaying processing by 1-2 days, and they did not have the signature on file for the official who signed the document.  Right now, they are stating it will take up to 20 days to verify her signature before they can send me the apostilled letters.

Anyways, we got our flights last Friday.  It was a busy week with Rita's Honor Choir Festival & trip to Disneyland, Cirque du Soleil (Sunday) and Morrissey concert (Tuesday).  Big school project on DNA due Wednesday/Thursday.  And leaving for our trip on May 25!

We had an uneventful trip over, and enjoyed our Saturday evening in Moscow watching the Eurovision Song Contest at our hotel restaurant (complete with sound system and giant TVs).  On Sunday, we got up late, had a leisurely breakfast at the hotel, and then started our 2.5 hour car journey to the region.  We met up with our coordinator and she told us that K has been asking about us, wondering when we are coming back and she was happy to hear that it was this weekend.  She knows that we are adopting her and she is going to live with a new family.  I was very happy to hear this.

When we got to the orphanage, K and her groupa were still finishing their afternoon nap.  We went into the playroom and got caught up with our coordinator.  K came into the room about 15 minutes later, all smiles and ran over and gave us big hugs.  She brought her teddy bear that we left on the first trip, and she immediately showed that his stitches were coming apart on his back.  She explained that it wasn't her, but said that her roommates did it!!!

We played all sorts of things over the next couple of hours.  Our coordinator had to leave to talk to the social worker (before Monday's court hearing) so we had time to ourselves.  This was great - much more normal!  I brought a few new toys for K, like Littlest Pet Shop Fairies and a flower pillow for her bed. She kept running back to her groupa to show her caregiver and the other children.  I would run after her and got to see her interact with the others.  She definitely liked to show off her things, certainly enjoying her time in the spotlight.  She would then run back into the room we were playing in.

BTW - the kitchen is on the first floor and we've decided that the whole orphanage smells like boiled cabbage.

We put together a photo album with the photos from our first trip, and also shared photos of all of the events from May.  We played with balloons, balls, coloring books (for 30 seconds) and most importantly, the iPad!  As soon as we got into the room, she went over to Michael's iPad and asked if she could use it.  Very very polite.  Now, trying to get the iPad back is another story.  Whining, shifting away from us, slapping hands away, LOL!

Michael and I both thought she looked thinner on this trip (she's 80% percentile on weight) and her complexion was a bit splotchy and white.  She had a lot of bites on her face, arms and legs.  The coordinator said the mosquitos have been horrible this year.  (We went on a walk after dinner and can definitely verify that statement!  They move like swarms around you, and they are huge!)

I don't know if I mentioned this on the Trip #1 blog, but when we saw her last time we noticed that she rolled her tongue a lot.  Dr L looked at it and said that she just thinks it's a self-soothing thing.  Today, she hardly did it at all so I am hoping that is a sign she is feeling more comfortable around us.  K's teeth are also really bad.  Like her top four upper teeth are almost completed rotted out.  I need to wiggle them tomorrow but I'm hoping that they fall out soon.  Chronologically, it should happen any time.  All of her other teeth (including four permanent teeth on the bottom) look OK.

Around 5:45PM, K's caregiver came to collect her for dinner.  We took a couple of family photos and then walked her to her room.  We got big hugs for goodbye.  We should be able to see her again tomorrow after court.

After the orphanage, our coordinator took us to our hotel and prepped us a little for tomorrow.  Our big prep meeting is tomorrow at 9AM.  Court starts at 10AM and should last 2-3 hours.

It's been staying light out until 10PM.  We walked over to the mall and had dinner at a nice Italian restaurant.  We then walked around the city center and back to the mall for coffee and desserts at Coffee Bean.

Big day tomorrow - time for bed!