Update

The over night train to Ivanovo was good except we didn’t really sleep. This made for a very long day the next day. We drove about 1 and a half hours to the orphanage and Nadya walked in nervously with a smile on her face. She has gotten a bit taller and actually looks thinner. She was quit shy, but warmed up although she didn’t talk much she would answer our questions. Our visit at the orphanage was actually a lot longer than I expected, because of all the adoption formalities and Nadya was a sport. So patient, and left a few times to go check up on her friends, but was always back quickly. That night we met up with Tanja, our friend, and had dinner. We also saw Katya briefly. It was a comfort to see them as we are both missing home. The next morning we arrived at court and Nadya was waiting for us. She gave me a hug immediately, and didn’t really want much to do with papa. The court hearing went actually pretty quickly and there were really no surprises. Then they waived the ten day waiting period and made it all official. Nadya seemed nervous and scared and wouldn’t talk much at first. Typical kid. She was very attached to me at first but after shopping at the mall, (where she wanted everything!!!!!!!!!!, but was able to pick out only a few things and was really good about it.) She learned that papa is the man who buys everything and does all the opening. The Johnson household is now going to be poor, because I am afraid that Nadya can out shop me. She walks around taking in everything and wants to go in every store and looks at everything. She picked out a new outfit, a new doll and two children movies in Rusian. Hopefully we will get her passport quickly. As I am typing Nadya is doing my hair. She looked at pictures and she can say Hallie and Alex. Carter is a little different because she is rolling the R’s but it still sounds similar. She is talking up a storm in Russian and Doug and I just look at her and throw our arms in the air and she just smiles. We are looking forward to being able to understand her tonight when we meet up with Tanja for dinner.




We got Nadya’a passport in one day which is great, but it looks like we still can’t go home until Wednesday. After we see our coordinator tonight to verify we will call and try and change our plane tickets. The apartment that we are staying in is great. It has wireless internet, free international calling satellite TV, air conditioning and a washer. This makes our stay a little bit easier. Our hotel in Ivanovo didn’t have air conditioning and it was HOT.
Nadya doesn’t seem to be eating much but she is drinking a ton of juice, drinkable yogurts, and strawberry milk. I guess it is a good thing these all have a lot of calories. We saw the doctor today and he said that Nadya is doing well, she is thin and has long fingers and toe nails and although she is small he expect she could grow like a weed and may actually be tall.
Nadya seems to enjoy her Russian cartoons and channel surfing. She loves to tease her papa, maybe a little too much, but this is what they did in January and he now has a different role. I think that when we get home and she can see Hallie, Alex, and Carter interacting with him as a father, she will start to understand. We are waiting for our laundry to finish washing so we can leave and go out walking perhaps visiting the zoo.