Gotcha Day

In the adoption world Gotcha Day is a celebration of the day you get your child. Yesterday was our gotcha day.

As soon as we got to the orphanage she wanted to get out of there. But her caregivers made her take the time to say goodbye to everyone. It was very hard to say goodbye to all those little faces. Her friend V gave her a kiss on the cheek, that little charmer. She did not cry when we left, she just wanted to go. Once we got in the car she did not want to stop to eat. She was afraid we were going to take her back. It's hard for her to understand why we are still in Russia. The translator explained to her several times that she was not going back, but she was still worried.

We tried to get her to take a nap, since she does usually and she was almost asleep in the car. But I was laying next to her, and whenever I would open my eyes she would be staring at me with a huge grin on her face, "Mommy, I love you." She was just too excited to sleep.

She requested pizza for dinner. We went to this restaurant we found that serves really good "american" food. She chowed down on the pizza, the girls who worked there were just staring at her, I'm pretty sure they've never seen a child eat that much. She asked me again after dinner if after she slept if she had to go back to the orphanage. Poor thing is not going to feel better till she is back in America.

Speaking of staring. People with disabilites are not seen in public in Russia. And boy do people stare, adults and children alike. Not the same kind of sympathetic type of stare you would get in the US from most people. That's really a sad thing, and I pray this changes in the future.

She had told us on the phone several weeks ago that someone had given her a cell phone but that it didn't have any money on it. We thought someone had given her an old cellphone to play with. Not exactly.
We get back to the apartment and she pulls out this cellphone, and a small notebook with several phone numbers in it. She dials a security code, then dials someone's number, and proceeds to have a little conversation!! We were in shock!! Was she really speaking to someone? So we have her use the regular phone to dial the same number, sure enough a Russian speaking woman answers the phone. So not only does she have this cellphone whoever gave it to her gave her a charger to go with it. Eventually our translator called us and we were able to have her talk to Nahstya. She said when she was in the hospital a lady there gave it to her. I was so mad, who gives a 7 year old a cellphone!! And I was scared what kind of weirdo exactly would do this also.
Today, the land phone in the apartment rings, and it is the lady who gave her the phone, she speaks very broken English. She tells me she works at the hospital and met Nahstya there, She tells me how wonderful she thinks Nahsta is and that she is glad that she was adopted by Americans. She seems harmless and very nice. Our translator says she thinks the lady just pitied Nahstya and wanted to do something nice. But I'm still wierded out a bit. Nahstya totally freaked out when we took the phone from her, crying and everything, which is not like her. So I let her speak to the lady, and figured once we get back to the states it will be behind us. Is this not odd? I am also angered that the children's home sent her with us without mentioning this. It's just not normal.