Fast Forward

To today. I want to post about today right now so I don't forget anything, and when we get home I will rewind and post about Wednesday and Thursday.
Right now it is about 11:00 pm here, we leave our apartment at 3:30 am, our driver will pick us up and take us to the airport.
This morning of course was our last visit with Anastasia, it was surpisingly upbeat, she is just so happy that she will be part of our family.
When we got to the orphanage this morning her teacher said she would like for us to see how much Anastasia knows, so she took us to the "school room", and she sat with her and showed us how she works problems, does her alphabet, spells her name, etc... Her teacher is beyond sweet, she truly cares about the children, and it shows. She had our translator take a picture of the Gary, myself, Nahstya and her together and asked that we bring her back a copy when we come back.
We got to see Nahtsya's bed, and her group area, the one we saw before was not hers and we were not sure if we were going to be allowed to see hers. They have many toys and it is extremely nice and kept very clean. They have 3 little sinks and toilets in their bathroom, and to my surprise they have toothbrushes and cups.
Every time we would see anyone that worked at the orphanage she would beam from ear to ear and tell them very proudly that this is my Mommy and Poppy. We went back up to the music room and played hide and seek her favorite game, amongst others. She was aware that this was our last day to visit this time, and she said she would not cry because she knew we were going to come back just as Karina's parents had. (the little girl who was adopted from the same orphanage by the couple we know from Atlanta) It makes me feel good that she trusts us. Things are very easy with her, the affection is not dramatic like it was sometimes before, like she was trying to win us over. She no longer ever called me Mama, like she would have before on and off, I am now Mommy, and she calls Gary mostly Poppy. We did not expect her to speak much English while we were here since we could rely on the translator, but boy were we wrong!! Wednesday she just started to bust out with the English, even our Translator was amazed. She would just pop out these sentences, "Mommy sit down, Poppy go." She would also use "you", and "me" in the right context which children don't usually do for several months of being home. She would talk, and then hear the translator tell us what she said, then later use the words that she had the heard the translator use. Such as monster, noone told her, such and such word is monster, she just figured it out, and would say, "you monster, me go" (game).
There was also a lot of mixed Russian and English, like our favorite, "go ta da", basically go to there. Or, "Poppy, carry me, ta da!"
We went downstairs for her to eat her lunch, then we had about 30 minutes to spend with her. She called Poppy into the room while she was eating and asked him to "up 10 times", it's a tradition they have he throws her in the air. She was showing off her Poppy to the other children. Little stinker.
She then came out and sat on my lap and talked until we had to go.
She asked again for an explanation of about how long it would be till we came back, and that she would go home with us the 3rd time. She also wanted to make sure that if she was too scared to ride the bus that I would drive her to school. She asked again why we decided to keep her, and we told her again what we told her before. She said ,"Oh, so you wanted 3 children" I said, "yes, but not just any third child, we wanted you." She said, "because you love me?" "Yes, we love, and we always will," I told her.
She had many questions. And we tried to answer them the best we could.
One of the funniest things she told us was that when she was in America that she saw the Christmas paper in the garage, and that she thinks that Mommy and Poppy bought the presents, and not Santa. Ah, we tried our best to work our way out of that one, but she was not buying it! She said next year she would stay awake and see if there really was a Santa.
She told us that she lived with her mother until she died, then stayed with her Granpa and Grandma until they brought her here. She said her mother's name and that she remembers her.
Our goodbye was good, I started to choke up, and she looked up at me and said, "Mommy your face has turned all red" I told her because it made me cry to leave her. She said, "Because you love me very much?" "Yes," I told her. She told us how much she loved us and that she would be patient and brave until we came back, she did not cry. I am thankful for this. The lady in charge of paperwork and several others walked over to tell us goodbye and told me not to cry. I had our translator ask again about the Grandpa. She said that he has been to visit, but not only several times, well that certainly is different than never!! And that he is with another woman, not Anastasia's biological grandmother, she is an alcholic and not involved. So this whole time Anastasia has right, she considers that woman her grandmother, and obviousily they have visited her. The paperwork lady thought I was crying because I was afraid the grandfather would prevent the adoption, but she said not to worry that he has signed away his rights and wishes for Anastasia to be adopted. She sais she feels Anastasia is lucky to have us as parents, we are very young and have good life to offer her. I thanked her, and she also said that Anastasia is a very good girl.
I better go to bed now, and sleep for several hours before we leave for the airport. I cannot wait to kiss those boys of mine, this is the longest we have been away from them.