It's a Beatiful Day in the Neighborhood!

Hi everyone! We are having another sunny and hot day in Tver--the temp is in the mid 80's already and it's not yet noon. The weather has been beautiful here the whole trip. The days are hot, but with a nice breeze and we get a brief thunder shower ever afternoon. The sun is out for so many hours that everything dries off quickly, though, and we're able to get right back outside if we need to.

I was thinking this morning about my court experience. It was actually kind of fun. Everyone--the judge, the prosecutor, the inspector--was obviously in a good mood that day and it seemed more of a formality than anything else. At one point the judge was reading the info about my house into the record and she suddenly stopped and asked if she could ask me a personal question. I said of course, and she asked if I lived alone. I said yes and she asked, "then why do you need such a big house?" Now, my house is only 1260 SF, but compared to homes and apartments here I guess that is pretty big. I thought really fast and answered that I had known I wanted a family when I bought the house so I made sure to get a big house so I could have a big family. She liked my answer. She also liked looking at the photos of my house and at the pictures of my cats.

As we got near the end of court--the prosecutor was making her last comments just before the judge would announce her decision, the judge suddenly realized that a document was missing. We had to adjourn court for a while to allow Alexey to drive back to his office to get it. The judge went ahead with her next case while we waited on Alexey, then as soon as he got back, she put her other case on hold and called us into her chambers so she could finalize the adoption. It was very sweet of her not to make us wait.

After we got back to the hotel from court, Mom and I changed clothes in record time and I ran downstairs to post the brief messages about the court decision. Then we were off on a whirlwind of shopping before we could go to the orphanage. We wanted to take a gift to the orphanage and got Alexey to get a list of things that they needed. We had to make several stops to get everything, but we were able to resupply them with some medicines, baby bottles, and other things.

These last few days with Alivia have just been amazing. When I look back at how uncertain I was during trip one of my decision to adopt her, I'm just amazed! She has blossomed so much even in this short amount of time. It's obvious that she knows she's loved. She's learning by leaps and bounds, too! She's pulling herself up now and standing with support. I have no doubt she'll be walking soon! She's curious about everything and loves to explore. (You can't tell I'm a proud mama, can you?)

~ Jeana