Sunday, November 1, 2009

Back in Moscow

It is so great to be back at the Marriott. It is great to hear English and be understood again. The room is great, we were upgraded to a deluxe room, again with Butler service, and access to the Executive Lounge that has drinks and food all day long. The hotel restaurants are very expensive, so this will help keep meal costs down.

The pediatrician arrived at 10:30am on Saturday to examine Hannah. She didn't cry once while he measured and poked her. He was very kind and spoke great English. She is 75% for head size, and 25-50% for weight and height. The doctor said she was in great health and there were no signs of any of the medical issues on her chart at the orphanage. Her speech is delayed, which is expected, but she will catch up quickly. The examination lasted about 30 minutes after which he gave us a sealed envelope to give to the US Embassy when we apply for her Visa.

She took a nice long nap (as did I) and in the afternoon, we walked around the hotel, played in the room, and ate in the lounge. The first time I tried to bathe her in the region, she screamed the whole time and refused to sit in the baby bath, so I gave her a quick shower. I am not sure why she reacted this way. Perhaps bath time was not pleasant at the orphanage, or not frequent. The next night, I put the shower head on the floor making a fountain and this seemed to occupy her while I washed her. She desperately needed a good soak, so I decided to try another bath when we got back to Moscow. She started crying while the water was running, but I added bubbles which she loved and she completely enjoyed the bath. Yay! Now she likes it, this will be a good activity each night.

She slept great on Saturday night. She fell asleep at 6:30pm. I was nervous she would be up early again, but she fussed for about an hour around midnight, then slept until 8:30am. WOW! We felt totally refreshed!

Today is Sunday and at 11am, Irina met us in our room to go over all the Embassy paperwork. She will take everything to the Embassy on Monday and will meet us again at 11am. We will have the rest of the day to ourselves. She left an envelope with various documents that we need to read over to prepare for our interview at the US Embassy at 1pm on Tuesday. Nothing to get nervous about, they will just ask us about the process.

So, for now, we are relaxing in the hotel, we may try out the pool tomorrow, now that Hannah seems OK with water.

Right now, we can't access the internet on our own laptops, only on the computers in the Executive Lounge, and unfortunately, we don't have a flash drive to transfer photos. We will try to add photos later in the week when Marc orders internet for the hotel room. We don't feel comfortable adding photos of Hannah until we are home, just to be safe, but we'll share photos very soon.

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