Wednesday - Visit #3 at the Orphanage

We signed papers today saying that we agree to adopt Valerie!!! Irina came in and asked us if we had made a decision. It definitely wasn't a hard one. We had made up our minds about 2 minutes into the first visit. She is a precious child and we will be so proud to be her parents. Today's visit was really fun. We took fewer pictures and video today and just really enjoyed playing with her. She still loves that cell phone! She made lots of silly noises today. We were looking at our little family photo album with her and naming all the people. I pointed to my picture and said mama and she said mama just as plain as could be. This of course was the highlight of my day! We got her to say it a couple more times but of course would not say it for the video camera! We were in that same tiny little closet of a room today. It is ok but we don't get to see her crawl or help her walk around much because there's simply no room. If we are in the same place tomorrow we plan on taking her out in the hall so we can see her move around a little more. She can crawl really fast and cruise around on the furniture but isn't walking alone yet. She did stand alone today for a little while so I'm sure she'll be walking when we come back for trip 2. I hate to miss her first steps but we'll have lots of other firsts. We tried some 12 month size clothes on her today and they were tight so we'll try 18 month ones on tomorrow. I was so glad that she is larger than we thought based on her referral measurements. Those were just the last measurements on her chart when she was referred to us. We got a special treat today from the social worker. She gave us a picture of Valerie that was taken when she was 8 months old. How wonderful to have a baby picture!! We're leaving a disposable camera and hopefully they'll take some pictures for us between trips. It was another great visit!