No where to park?

Try this...

We see a lot of cars parked like this.  Heck why not.

Breakfast

I look forward to breakfast every morning at the hotel.  Here is why:

Coffee, pastries, eggs, fresh OJ, champagne, gilled tomatos...  You name it, it's on this buffet.

Tuesday

So today I woke up at 1am, tossed and turned and finally decided to get up at 2am. About 3 a shower sounded nice about 4 we called and talked to the boys and about 6am I went back to bed. Finally woke up about 2pm. Knowing our visit with Polina was at 4 we kind of hung around until...the phone rang!!! Oh no, we were supposed to leave at 3! We threw on our clothes and ran out the door. The traffic was awful, go figure so we ended up 30 minutes late. But we got there all the same and everything was fine. They took Polina's passport today and showed it to us, it's crazy cute. We found out that Polina has a strong affection for clothes and shoes. And she finally said mama today!

When we got back to the hotel we ask the "Navigator" where we could go for dinner and she recommended a place across the street. We went across the street and through this archway and what was an old dark building on the outside turns into this amazing modern office building.

So we go to this restaurant that is crazy nice. We open the appetizer menu on the table and see that each item is about 8900 rubles ($300 approximately).

 We just laughed like how do we get ourselves out of here! But when we receive the actual menu it wasn't quite so bad. We had a couple of drinks and shared a couple of appetizers and dessert for about $150! :)

So then we came back to the hotel and sat at the hotel lounge had another drink and watched the local Russians. I have to I really like these Russian people that I have met. They are super polite and proper and they love to have a good time. Every restaurant we have eaten at has music playing and a dance floor. They like to drink shots and smoke cigars. And they all look amazing. As I sat at the our table looking at Joe, I realize that this is our last evening out together for a long time. But there is so much to look forward to.

Good night.

We saw our daughter!

We saw Polina again today for an hour. When she came in she was still a bit leary of Joe but didn't cry and within a minute or two pointed to him and said "Dada". she has grown a bit but her 18 month clothes still fit, barely. She is talking now with single words and caught on to everything we played. Jaxon sent some Cheerios with us for Polina so we snuck in the contraband food and gave her one. She looked at it and after watching me eat a couple she finally took a bite. She didn't chew she just grinned. It was cute.

Tonight we had dinner at a nice Italian pub with another adoptive couple. Tomorrow we will go to visit Polina again at 4pm.



Btw.. We told Polina that she is a Dechant now. She seemed fine with it. :)

We are parents...again!

Today we met Natasha in the lobby at 10am to go over some information for court. Joe and I were the first to go in. The Prosecuter, judge, orphanage director, social welfare lady, another lady from the ministry of education, our interpreter and us were all in court. The ladies looked at some pictures we brought of our boys and photos of Polina. Then the judge ask me some questions like how did I think my boys were going to deal with having a new sibling? Why did we decide to adopt? Was I prepared to have more children in the home, ect. Then she ask joe a few questions like was he okay with her not being genetically related to him, did he think our extended family would accept her, would she be a burden on our family finacially, ect. So after about 20 minutes we received favorable judgement from all in the room and we are now the proud parents of little Polina. We will receive custody on November 18th. Right now we are getting ready to go see her.

At dinner that night.

Crystal

Court Day

It is 6:30am here in St Pete. We have court at 12pm today.

Room Reveal

So after lots of hard work from some very awesome people here are the pictures of her room!!    When I started thinking about her room I knew I wanted it to represent where she came from but I didn't want it to scream Russia.  While in a souvenir shop in St Petersburg, I saw a beautiful painting of a ballerina.  It was the perfect inspiration for the room.  When I got home my sister and I started brainstorming ideas and we came up with a dance studio.  We named the studio the "The Imperial Ballet Academy".  It is painted above the mirror but its hard to tell at this angle.  In the picture below, my father in law framed the mirror and hung the ballet bar.  The paintings were done by this incredible artist here in town Melissas Murals.  I found the material for the curtains from a wonderful children's book illustrator, Joy Allen.  I just happened on her website when I was looking for fabric.  I ordered the fabric and she sent me a signed copy of her book for our little one.  Of all things I saw her book at the grade school book fair this  year!  I can't thank my friend Tracy enough for asking her neighbor to make the curtains for me.  What an awesome gift! The light fixture was a gift from my neighbor, Jennifer.  She had found this at a garage sale and refurbished it for me.  Then my wonderful father came over and hung it.  Joe and I hung the mirror and made the little tutu stool out of some more of Joy's fabric.

In this picture you can see some more of Melissa's artwork and 2 pieces of art from an artist I found on Etsy. She custom made the paintings to match the room and reflect our daughters hair and eye color.  The little high chair is a gift from my sister Deanna and my mom bought the little book on the table to go with her room.

These letters were my friend Jennifer's idea.  She got the idea on Pinterest and had everyone at my baby shower decorate a letter.  Even the little girls helped.  I thought they turned out great!

Here is one last picture of Melissa's art work.  She did an amazing job.  The room is not done yet.  I still have the hang the ballet shoes that my sister had framed and some finishing touches but I thought it was close enough to go ahead and post.