Here She Is!

Here's our beautiful daughter, Valerie Diane Hunt!

Happy times! This was the day we picked her up from the orphanage. She and Blaine hit it off immediately.

Our new family in front of the gold church in Khabarovsk.

Well, we made it to the Marriow Courtyard here in Moscow yesterday afternoon but it seemed like midnight to us because our bodies were still operating on Khabarovsk time which is 7 hours behind Moscow. Valerie did pretty well on the flight but it was still a tough day. She only slept for about an hour. I was wearing a black T-shirt that was new and it rubbed off on the sticky stuff all over Valerie's face and some ladies in front of us had given Valerie a red marker to color with and she had that all over her too. I used a lot of baby wipes but still she was quite a sight. She looked filthy. We all were actually. When we finally landed she wanted to run around the airport so I just let her while Todd was waiting on our bags. After our bad luck last time, I was so relieved to see our first suitcase pop out; however the relief was short lived. Everyone got their bags and left and we were missing 1 suitcase. We could see Andrei our driver and coordinator here in Moscow waiting outside for us. He came through the gates and we told him the problem. After lots of talking and pointing, here came our suitcase. We never knew what the problem was. Then we had another issue trying to get out of there. We handed the girl our boarding passes and some other papers we'd been given at the airport in Khab, but we didn't think they had given us any baggage claim checks. Lena had checked us in and handed us our stuff. Finally Todd opened up our packet of tickets and they had been stuck to the back of them. By this time, Andrei was obviously very put out with us. He grabbed our cart from Todd and took off. He raced through the airport and through all kinds of traffic and parking lots without ever looking back to see if we were following. Valerie was screaming and squirming while I was trying to run after him. We got in the car and took off. Todd tried asking Andrei a couple of questions as we drove through Moscow but his curt one-word answers made it clear he didn't want to talk. This guy is a pretty wild driver. I was feeling sick and I guess Valerie was too. She kept falling asleep and then waking up crying. We finally got to the Marriot and I thought I was gonna die as Todd kept trying to explain to the girl that no, he was not Nathan Hunt, he was Todd Hunt, just like it says on his passport. I was wearing this heavy backpack and holding Valerie thinking she looked awfully pale, praying that we would just hurry up and get a room. Then she began to make some strange noises and began throwing up all over the two of us! Poor thing! I know after all that she was thinking, "Just take me back."

We got up to our room, cleaned Valerie and I up and ordered some cheeseburgers from room service. We weren't up to going anywhere. We were starving and they were marvelous! Then Andrei came back with Catherine and her crew who's plane had been delayed. He sat down in our room with Todd to fill out our Embassy paperwork. Valerie was by the desk and he asked me to "move the child". As he was leaving he told us the doctor would come the next day but he didn't know when. I said that we had plans with friends (Todd and Angela Harris, who now live in Moscow) tomorrow night and it would be helpful to know when the doc was coming so we could plan around him. He rudely informed me that I needed to remember that we were here to complete an adoption. I was tired and cranky and was about ready to spit on him! We had brought a gift for him but he definitely won't be receiving it. After all, we're here to complete an adoption, not to be nice to people. This is the same guy who told us we would just have to do without our bags for the next 4 weeks when they didn't arrive last time we were in Moscow. Not my favorite person. Ok, ok, I got to rant and this probably won't seem like such a big deal later. We really do love our agency and all the employees we've dealt with except this one! He is correct about one thing, we are here to complete our adoption and as long as he gets that job done for us and gets us back to the airport in one piece, that is all that matters. But Dan Gibbs has a sign in his office that says, "Because Nice Matters" and I tend to agree. I guess us folks from west Texas just think differently about that!

As always, things looked brighter the next morning when we all woke up at 4 something. Literally, it was already light outside! Todd went to the fitness center and ran on the treadmill for a while. We showered and hung around the hotel until about 8, then we ventured out for breakfast. We found a neat little place and had some great fruit and pancakes and fresh squeezed apple juice that tasted just like you were eating a green apple, the way apple juice ought to taste, I guess. We were going to walk with Catherine's bunch to Red Square today but Valerie was getting deliriously tired so just Blaine and Todd went and I stayed here to let her have a nap. I bet we'll get another chance to go later on since our hotel is really close. The doctor comes today at 2:00 pm. Todd Harris is sending his driver for us at 3:00 and we are going to their home for the afternoon and for dinner. We are so looking forward to a home-cooked meal, some space for the kids to run, and a good visit with old friends from Monahans! It was so sweet of them to invite us. My Todd laughed and said who would have ever thought that a Grandfalls boy and an Imperial boy would be meeting up in Moscow!

We haven't really been told what we will need to do adoption-wise over the next couple of days. We fly out on Wednesday. We're in the home stretch!