Two Days til our court date

Andrei picked us up this morning at 8:30, and we went straight to the orphanage. When we got there, Katie was all ready and waiting for us...dressed in the outfit we gave her yesterday and wearing a necklace and bracelet. Of course, she preferred my bracelet so we traded. It was a beautiful day, so we went for a walk outside on the grounds for awhile. Then we played in the play room before returning outside for a little more. Her group was outside as well, and they went in at 11:30 for lunch. We thought it would be a smooth transition for Katie if we went in at the same time and she just joined her group. Well, it was somewhat chaotic getting everyone inside and up the stairs, and at one point we heard a child cry on the stairs at the same time that a worker struggled to get a child to stand up. We thought it was the same child until we saw Katie walking up the stairs ahead of this child. Katie stopped at the landing and turned around. Her face was red with tears streaming down, and she was crying. I ran to comfort her, and she stopped crying but was still very sad and upset. We don't really know why she was crying. She's never cried any other time that we've had to leave, but that doesn't necessarily mean anything. One of the workers took her from me after awhile and told me to do something, but all I could do was look at her blankly. I felt so helpless, but since we'll be going back there tomorrow, maybe we can comfort her some more.

Katie's signing is really coming along, especially when goldfish crackers are involved!

After Andrei picked us up, we came back to our apartment for lunch before resting for a couple of hours. Then we went to go register our visas before doing some shopping and sight-seeing. We ate dinner at a Russian restaurant, which was very tasty, and we went to Red Square to see St. Basil's and G.U.M. lit up at night. G.U.M. (pronounced goom) is a beautiful shopping mall with gorgeous architecture. Dusk lasted for about 2 hours before it was finally dark at 11:00. We would post pics, but one of our converters doesn't work anymore, so I'm using the laptop on the battery -- no time for uploading pics. Sorry! I took an adorable one of Steve and Katie walking hand in hand outside today. We'll post it after we get home.

It's midnight, so we're going to bed. We'll see Katie again tomorrow and then court on Wednesday. We're getting there!