And Jill makes three...

We arrived in Moscow Wednesday after a pretty easy 8 hour flight. You gotta’ love a direct flight from Chicago! After collecting our 50 pound suitcase full of gifts, we went straight to the orphanage and Baby Jill. She looks great! Her rash is much better and she’s standing up on her own and she just acts like a different child. She is much happier and involved in the play which is quite a relief. After playing with Jill and handing over our gifts, we checked in to the Marriott Courtyard, grabbed a quick bite and went straight to sleep. We were exhausted! Despite having bulk head seats, neither of us slept much on the plane so by the time we hit the bed, we’d been up more than 24 hours.

Today, Thursday, was our day in court. Vlad picked us up along with Jules and David, another adopting family from our agency. Jules and David are adopting a cutie little girl, Clare, and live just outside of St. Louis. We were here on together on trip 1 and the moms (and Aunt Jill) will travel together on trip 3. We are having fun sharing this journey with them! Anyway, back to court… The courthouse was exceptionally nice - so different from Saratov or Arkalyk! It could have been a courthouse in any large U.S. city. The judge, a female, was easy on us. The 20-minute hearing felt good and exciting versus intimidating. In the end, the judge declared us parents of Anara Jill Giddens and wished us well. So, now we are officially a family of five: a one year old, two year old and three year old! And, I have a little girl!!!!!

Vlad directed Tim and I to a great pizza joint for lunch and from there we took the Metro (subway) to visit Jill again. During this visit, we took her out of the orphanage to a photo shop for her U.S. passport pictures. She was really curious about all the cars and people, not scared, just curious. Her eyes took it all in and her head was moving around not missing a thing. She may be the quite/observant type. Afterwards, we spent over two hours hanging out with Jill. We tried to entice her with Gerber Puffs. Not interested! Oh no… not another picky eater!

For our Florida buddies: We now join Pete in eating crackers in bed! Picked up cheese, crackers & grapes, along with a few beers, and ate in bed while watching the Hallmark Channel. Yes. We are hard up for entertainment tonight! It’s raining here and walking out to eat just didn’t appeal to us tonight.

We’ll see Jill again in the morning before catching our flights back to St. Louis. It’s been a quick but successful trip!

Paka, paka from Russia!