Day 6 in Country....Long Post with Beautiful Pictures!

We finally have internet in our apartment, so I can do a more thorough update yay!

First up, Mila :) We get to visit Mila twice a day. We will probably be going around 9am and again around 4pm. We are allowed to visit whenever we want because she isn't really on a schedule yet. Our visits so far have lasted about an hour to an hour and a half. She usually falls asleep at some point and then we take her back or they take her from us. I got to see her little tiny crib today. She is in a little room that looks much like a small baby nursery in a hospital....with glass windows and 5 mini cribs making a u-shape on the 3 walls. This orphanage is very good as far as orphanages go. It is so different from Zoya's orphanage! It is very clean and bright and cheery. So far all of the staff that we have come into contact with are very friendly. They seem more gentle overall. It seems much mor relaxed and pleasant here.  It is one of the best orphanages in the country and our facilitator half-joked that the children here have better toys than her child!! She has many funny faces and loves to play with her tongue (just like Zoya used to!)....

Mila's favorite thing to do is star at her mama and dada. Seriously (well okay maybe its a tie for eating and staring lol), she LOVES to be able to lock eyes with us. She studies our faces but her eyes always come right back to ours. We were doing some bonding just staring at one another and I went to reposition her so her head would rest on my shoulder. She fought so hard to pick her head up and pull it away from my shoulder just so she could look at me again. She did the same with her Daddy! So of course I repositioned her so she could see me. We started out holding her with her back to us as to not overwhelm her, well forget that! This girl is READY for her parents to love on her! She is like a little mexican jumping bean so squirmy, but the minute you start singing she just settles.

I have some concerns about her hearing, but I'm not sure if its her hearing or just spending 7 months with little interaction. Some times she seems to hear things and other times not so much....could be developmental or orphanage "stuff" so we will see. We were really excited that they let us feed her this morning. What an amazing opportunity for bonding...we didn't get to feed Zoya until the second, maybe third week if I remember correctly. She put her little hand right up on the bottle but isn't strong enough to hold it (it's a heavy glass bottle). My worries about her health are lessened a tad when I see that she is still able to eat well on her own. This girl has a fighting spirit! I can't wait to get her home and help her gain weight. I can feel every vertabrae in her spine. She has a lot of features that remind me of a newborn, like her almost transparent skin. You can see the veins on her eyelids and the veins in her head. Her feet and fingers are just so SMALL. I laughed when I pulled out the 6-9 month snowsuit I brought for her. I hope it doesn't swallow her whole!! Still no smiles yet but for our evening visit tonight she lit up when she came toward us with her caregiver! Her eyes got real big, I was so shocked I was seeing her have that reaction already!!! AMAZING GOD! She started cooing a little bit tonight, she has a weak little dainty voice...but I'm sure once she is healthy we will hear more from her! Shawn thought maybe our second child would be more laid back like him....but since meeting her we both agree we have another sassy little diva on our hands!!! Oh I just love snuggling her! We have to wash our hands before holding her and she isn't allowed out of the little groupa area. Since a child in the groupa just had surgery, we are visiting her in a tiny little pass-through-way where the workers keep their coats and shoes. We have 4 very white walls and two chairs for our visits. Since she is so young and possibly with her health condition, she pretty much stays in that little groupa area and doesn't go to any other part of the orphanage.

The Mix-Ups:  So I told you already about the dossier mixup (I think it was a couple posts ago). Our dossier, along with The Woods' dossier, are currently chillin' on the train en route from the capital city to our region as we speak! It should be here tomorrow morning! Thanks for your prayers on this! This was really important that it arrive back by tomorrow. We are really hoping we might be able to get a court date next FRIDAY. That is the soonest possible day it could happen, but if the paperwork was delayed, so would court be. The other mixup has me CRACKING UP!! SUCH A FUNNY STORY HERE. When we went for our evening visit, the worker came over to take us back to our kids. Anna and Jerad followed the worker and then she came back for us. She led us a different way than normal.  We were led to this huge BEAUTIFUL playroom and we said "Wow BIG" and she smiled and left. We thought....SCORE! WE DON'T HAVE TO SIT IN THAT TINY CLOSET FOR TONIGHT'S VISIT!! Shawn and I looked at eachother and thought "wait this looks like the playroom Anna and Jerad have been describing." We heard all this laughing and the worker laughing so hard she could barely yell to us "come here." We knew what had happened, they had taken us to eachother's children!!! We got a good laugh out of that. When we did get down to Mila's groupa, one of the caregivers said in broken English, "I see those parents and I think, NO NO NO! THESE is not her parents!! We have mix-up!" LOL. Oh my it was so funny.

Answered Prayers:  This adoption journey has been so very different from our last in so many ways. We are not feeling the extreme homesickness we felt during our last trip, which is pretty weird considering we are missing our Zoya girl so much. We have prayed and asked you to pray for peace, pray for us to be able to even enjoy our journey despite having zero control, for an ability to trust in God, roll with the punches, and to know beyond a shadow of a doubt that we are right where we are meant to be. All those prayers have been answered. There is simply no other explanation for how calm and peaceful we feel. God allowed us to travel this journey with Anna and Jerad which has made our journey here richer in so many ways. They are an amazing couple and I know God has led us all together for reasons beyond having travel buddies. Your prayers for Zoya are being heard. She is having so much fun with her Aunt Jen and Xavier and is so happy. We have skyped with her several times and we have such a peace that she is just fine. She was a little sick last night but Aunt Jen Jen took care of her as if she were her own daughter. I am so thankful for Jen. Jen has been working with Zoya to say "Mila" and we got to hear her say it over Skype! She has no idea what awaits her!!!

The internet is acting slower than a dinosaur so I guess the other couple pics I wanted to post will have to wait until tomorrow!!! Thanks for all your prayers and love!