Lina is HOME!!! Gotcha Trip- Part 1

Sorry for the delay- we have been busy bees here!! Our Gotcha Trip went without a hitch- from an empty airport upon arrival at Dulles (as opposed to our court trip when we barely made the plane) to speedy paperwork processing in country, to bringing our babygirl HOME.

Our Gotcha Day was not the romanticized vision we had been dreaming of.... walking out of the orphanage hand in hand, teary goodbyes from the director and staff.... no, that didn't happen.  We were told the orphanage staff would be bringing Lina to our hotel instead since the roads out there are so bad.  This was a bit relieving to me since these roads were a huge concern of mine now that the snow is all melting and they will be a muddy mess.  When we first arrived in Pskov, her region, we were told she would be coming later that day- the 17th.  Then a couple hours later we were told that the staff weren't available to bring her out that day and it would be the 18th.  Another slight let down, though again I had a bit of relief since our teeny hotel room here only had 2 twin beds.  We weren't quite sure how sleeping arrangements would work out!

Another vision that went out the window... we were told she would be arriving at 11:00 and our translator would call us at 10:45.  I had visions of watching her walk through the hotel doors and embracing her etc. etc.... Well we got a call at 10:30 that she was already downstairs waiting for us! ACK!!  We rush down and she is sitting on this couch surrounded by caretakers and facilitators- there was barely any room for Mike and I to squeeze in! But we made our way through. :)

I get to come home with you guys?? No way!!

We only got a few photos- these are pretty much the best ones.  Ah well. I promptly took her up to our hotel room to change her clothes (though we were then told we could keep the clothes- normally everything stays at the orphanage down to socks and underwear and all).  Mike took off with our facilitator and translator to handle Lina's bank account(s).  All orphans have at least one bank account which can have a substantial amount of money, and we were donating a good bit back to the orphanage.  

So Lina and I got upstairs and I quickly started peeling clothes off of her... and had no idea how many clothes I would be peeling!! Good grief!!  Now keep in mind- it was very pleasant outside- in the mid to upper 50's, maybe even in the low 60's.  Here is what Lina had on, not including the diaper she was wearing for the long car ride also:

Panties over diaper, knit tights, socks over tights, jeans, long sleeve shirt, knit sweater, winter coat, snow boots, and knit hat.  Poor thing had to be sweltering in the car for 2 hours!! And I'm sure the heat in the car was jacked way up too.

This was the sight I found under all these layers...

She was actually trying to copy my smile but it ended up looking like a grimace.  She was a lot thinner than I was expecting, and she was covered in this horrible rash.

The blue is medicine the Russians are fond of using on kids.

This rash was HORRIBLE.  And itchy.  And I didn't take photos of the awful fungus on the palm of one of her hands as well as the balls of her feet.  I couldn't wait to get her home to get all this treated.  But pretty new clothes and a healthy dose of Cheerios seemed to make things a bit better in Lina's eyes.

And some coloring

Mike was gone at the bank for about 4 HOURS!!  Apparently, Lina had three bank accounts- one with just one ruble (30 rubles equals about $1.00) and the others totalled a LOT more than we were expecting.  We were so worried about how long this would all take since we had to catch our train back to Moscow that evening, but we made it.  Donated a nice chunk back to the orphanage and set back to the big capitol city to complete the embassy paperwork.

Lina fell asleep in the car on the way to the train station, hence the zonked out look.  This is the first time I have ever seen her with her tongue out- REALLY tired!  At the train station- Goodbye, Pskov! Paka paka!!