It is only 11am here, but today is turning out to be a very good day.

Thanks to some wonderful friends at home, our house will be decorated for Christmas. It sounds so trivial, but coming home to a festive house will mean a lot to us. It is hard to get in the Christmas spirit here. We are not bombarded with the holidays like we are at home. We are doing out best to remember it is in 10 days and we listen to Christmas music often. Especially Sara Groves’ FREE O Holy Night Tour. You can download it here. It is a wonderful mix of classic Christmas carols and her own music.

I am feeling way less sick today. I think I’ve coughed once all morning. I am so glad that I should have my energy up for Friday.

Our driver took us to the outdoor market. It was so much fun! I am glad we declined his offer to help us. Struggling to communicate can be a bit fun at times. We got boots for both kids, which were each $31.25 USD. That was about what we found them for at a store around the corner from us, but that store had few options in their sizes and we like the ones we got. We just wandered around the market for awhile, taking it all in. Lots of clothes for sale. That was most of it, at least in the section we were in. There were also ladies pushing little coffee carts for the vendors to warm up. I can’t imagine being at one of those stands all day.

My mom will be mad… I did not take a single photo of the market. I wanted to wait until we were leaving, in case that was NOT okay with them. I did find this photo, which looks like the same market we went to. But, you have to imagine snow everywhere. A few inches on the ground and people shoveling it out of the way with whatever they had… brooms, dustpans or shovels.

After that, we asked our driver to stop at the grocery store. We wanted to get some gifts, like boxes of chocolate for the orphanage staff. One of the things I wanted to get was a children’s book in Russian for them– just to have as a keepsake. We looked at all of the books at the grocery store, not sure which one to buy or what they were able. But we found a children’s alphabet book with all of the Russian letters. Very cute. We also got all of our major gifts covered. And we got diapers. Basically my whole list from yesterday has been done. A big relief.

We also got a call from Celia’s papa today! They’re here! I really fell in love with Celia while advocating about her on my blog. Meeting her during our visits at the orphanage just confirmed that she is just as special as I thought. Although we have not met them in person yet, Celia’s family seems really wonderful too and I am so excited to get to know them and hear how their first meeting went with Celia. Just for clarification, her name is not really Celia, just like Scarlett Lena was not really Erika, the name we first identified her with. It is just a code name for internet protection.

The reality of Friday, picking Ilya and Lena up forever, is slowly hitting me. Setting out their clothes, packing our bags, it’s all becoming a lot more real.

If you have been to Eastern Europe, at least the country we’re in, you know that they listen to music that most of us Americans have not listened to in at least 10 years. Some 20 or 30 years. Enrique Igelsias. ABBA. Heart. Haddaway’s “What is Love”.  The theme from Beverly Hills Cop.  On the radio. All the time. Especially the last one. Hilarious.

Well, one morning on our way to the orphanage, we heard this song. Could it be more adoption-appropriate?

Sasha called us around 11 this morning telling us to be ready to go to the notary in a half hour. So, off we went, downstairs to meet our driver. We seemed to be getting closer to where Olivia’s family is staying. “I wonder if we’re picking them up?” Yes, we were. They needed to go to the notary too.

We went there to make a paper to apply for the kids’ passports. It did not take long. It is so funny… Sasha translates the whole thing for us. Then we sign both papers. Then, they give us the official copies to sign. I am not sure what they do with the official copies, but I swear I saw them rip them up the first time we went to the notary. Like, please sign this. We need you to practice your signature before you sign anything official.

After we were done at the notary, the driver took Olivia’s parents back to get ready for court and Aaron, Sasha and I hung out in the mall, waiting for him to come back. Sat there and talked, asking Sasha all of the questions I have been wanting answered. Very important things. Like what kind of vodka I should get my sister for Christmas.

Then the driver returned and off we went to run another errand, before heading home. Sasha wanted to take care of what she could for us today so that we can get everything possible done on Friday.

Our most exciting thing we did today is to book our tickets home! We’ll be flying in to Kansas City at 6:40pm on Christmas Eve! I cannot wait!

I feel like we have so much to get done before we go. We want to get gifts for some of the people who have been good to us and Ilya and Lena. People at the orphanage, Sasha, our driver, Ilya and Lena’s friends at the orphanage. Exchange some money. Try to find pull-ups. Market tomorrow for boots for the kids.

Before we left, I took all of the money and divided it up into envelopes marked for different things. “Facilitator.” “Visas.” “Passports.” One of my envelopes was marked “Orphanage Donation/Dossier Prep” from the Reece’s Rainbow handbook. Well, the orphanage donation was apparently a part of our facilitator fee and we do not need to give them an additional donation. The cost of our plane tickets was a bit more than expected. I believe because we are flying so close to Christmas. But without that extra fee, it all works out. Yay!

We showed up at the orphanage at our regular time. Aaron went upstairs to get Lena, while Olivia’s parents and I waited downstairs for someone to get Ilya and Olivia. Aaron came back down about 10 minutes later and told us that the kids were in quarantine and we could not visit them.

Disappointing, especially for Olivia’s family, who will only be here until tomorrow. And the kids will also be quarantined tomorrow.

We thought since we know had lots of time and a driver who we were already planning on paying for 3 hours, we’d stop at the supermarket and the outdoor market. Well, the outdoor market is closed on Mondays! So, we just stopped at the supermarket and were home by 11. A disappointing day, but I hope that the kids will be feeling better by the time we break them out and I’ll be feeling 100% too!