One Step Closer

Today we took Valerie to have her picture made for her passport. That puts us 1 step closer to bringing her home!!!

After that, Lena, our translator, took us to the big grocery store. Lena looks like a supermodel. She is very tall, super skinny, and gorgeous. Today she happened to be wearing a tiny little miniskirt and got many stares. Bryan, I forgot my camera today but Catherine took her picture so I'll try to post it later. I think she lives on carrot juice and she seems to get a kick out of watching us shop. I feel sure she doesn't buy things like bacon and ice cream ever! Of course, we have to ask lots of questions because we can't read Russian and don't know what anything is. The first 3 times I tried to buy milk here in Khabarovsk I got home with either Kefir (fermenty yogurt type stuff that Valerie loves) or really heavy cream. It's all in bags not cartons and we've had a couple of wrecks with that in the fridge. What are you supposed to do with a giant floppy bag of milk after you open it? Anyway, Lena showed me to look for the bags that say Moloko. Sure enough, that's milk! I can even get different fat percentages.

I have a whole new empathy for people who are illiterate because that is basically what we are over here. It is frustrating and at times a little scary to not be able to read anything. However, we know this is temporary. I can't imagine never knowing how to read or write. We've had some great adventures and gotten home with some really interesting things from the grocery. Some of them have been pretty good, others not so much.

Valerie is such a little smarty! She can say knock, knock when she knocks on the door. She can also say Dada, Mama, and Bubba. She actually sometimes calls Todd Dada and Blaine Bubba. Does she ever call me Mama? Nope. Today I would say, "Say Mama" and she would say "Dada" and giggle every time. I think Todd may be secretly sabotaging me!! I play this game with her where I make a buzzing sound and spin my finger in the air and then tickle her saying, "tickle, tickle, tickle" Today she came up and did it to me. It was so cute! She buzzed and waved her finger around. When she tickled me it sounded like, "dig-a, dig-a, dig-a"! We keep saying Monkey See, Monkey Do. She imitates every thing Blaine does. They took a bath together tonight and had a ball but they splashed water everywhere! So now the saying is Monkey See, Monkey Do, Monkey gets in trouble too!

Valerie is sleeping well both at night and at naptime. She rocks herself in her sleep at night and it is kind of disturbing to watch. She doesn't do it at all at naptime, just at night. This is just a typical post institutionalized behavior and I've read all about it, talked to other families who've experienced it, and understand why she does it. But it's still hard to watch. Basically, it's her way of soothing herself. She learned to do this because she didn't have anyone to comfort her or rock her at night. That just makes me so sad. She not only rocks but also bounces her head against the pillow or mattress. When she starts that I just have to step in. I am so glad she has us now to rock and soothe and love her. I'm so glad we have her.
Other than the rocking and speed eating, her behaviors are very normal. She is so happy and is picking up new things very very quickly. We are so proud of her! Todd said tonight that it was so nice to have a baby around again and it is!