We Have Arrived, Day 1

She. Is. Perfect.

I could leave the post at that and be content but I know we have questioning minds out there.  We landed in Ufa at 7:30am and the Ufa representative, E, and the translator, A, both met us at arrivals.  We then went to meet our lawyer, V, and that was the first time it occurred to us that, of course, we would have a lawyer!  We drove to the Ministry of Education where we signed the consent forms to go to the baby home and read all about her file.

She is the fifth child of this couple, all previous have been adopted out.  A brother in '95 and a sister in '97 to the grandparents, then two brothers in '01 and '06 into foster care.  We are now not concerned with the biological parents possibly wanting her.  She was relinquished into state care right away.  They had her birthday incorrectly stated at the Ministry - mum, they said it was in MAY!  GAH!  E called the doctor that has been handling her file, and the orphanage and both confirmed the date in February is correct! Phew!

My first impressions of the Ufa city and the space in between is that it is green and magnificent.  We were told it was all industrial but it is very agriculturally rich.  Massive green fields and rolling hills with righ earth patches.  Mostly rye is grown, some corn.  On both sides of the car I was just in awe at how vast the farming went.  It was like an ocean of lush green.  Mike slept and I took pictures of him.  I also saw cows, horses, goats, and sheep.  I only mention the animals as a big deal because they were RUSSIAN animals.

The town where the orphanage is is more industrial on the outskirts.  The buildings look rundown on the outside but I'm betting that is more because of age.  The apartment we are staying in, with a woman, K, is warm and cozy - with a RUSSIAN cat!  Prrrrrrrey-mew-ov! (that's for Katie).  The industrial factories and sites are all surrounded by cute brick or iron walls that separate them from the sidewalks.  Russian roads have no lane lines... I gather that you imagine a dividing line and as long as you stay on your side and don't hit anyone anything goes.  Mike says it's Toronto traffic with wonky NS roads, with no lanes though!

Ok, so the best part (well, the best up to this point was the glorious showers we took, but then) we traveled to the orphanage.  The outside looks like all the others but there is a bright mural painted on the outside.  The inside was clean and smelled like food.  The ladies were all smiling and and we were led (up a marble staircase, mind you) to a meeting/party room and they brought her in.  As I predicted, I was calm, but Mike was perfect as he teared up.  I loved seeing it and cried in the car on the ride home remembering it.

She was wearing a red corduroy dress with yellow tights, and a yellow headband with a big yellow flower.  She seemed cautious but not scared.  We found out after that she had never been in that room before either, talk about stress.  She seems to self soothe herself by rubbing above her right ear.  She is very tiny and not walking yet.  She was born quite small and it has taken a while to build up her muscle strength.  She is still in diapers (so L, I will need your crash course on making those cute ones!) but she was receptive to us.  We sat on the floor first and had her look us over, she immediately pulled at the hairband, and we just took it easy.  Once she was a little more used to us we started the making her dance and tossing her in the air (not too high, we were being watched LOL!) and that brought out the smiles and giggles.  She has her cute little teeth in too.  The cleft is not visible by any means, and I couldn't even feel it when she quickly stuck my finger in her mouth.  It must be all on the roof of the mouth behind the gum line. She also enjoyed picking Mike's nose.  She was calm and so wonderfully perfect.  Her giggles at the end were almost like little 'roars'!

Her case was discussed with us afterwards and there is nothing there that would scare us away.  She will need exercises to build the muscles, lots of patience, but her intellectual level appears on target for her age.

She is a complete doll!

We go back tomorrow to play some more, and have the doctors discuss with us and examine her.  The team of E and A are so wonderful.  E is like the mother hen making sure we don't think about anything but the girl.  A is normally a french translator and we are her first English case.  They obviously care about what they do as they live 10 hours away and move into an apartment for cases like us.  E seemed to be familiar with Dania and was very honest in her opinions, the whole time stressing that she is not a doctor! LOL!  K, who we are staying with, is wonderful too.  She doesn't speak English but she makes amazing food, what else matters?

The photos might have to wait to be uploaded so stay tuned or I will show you in person!  Wednesday is when we go over more specifics about the case and procedure for the following trips.  In the meantime, I'm sure we will both be seeing her scrunch her nose up and smile when we crash to sleep very shortly... oh to sleep laying down, so wonderful.