Gotcha!

So, I just realized last night that we haven't done the best job of keeping everybody up to date since we got here. As I write it is late Sunday afternoon here (so approaching early Sunday morning there in the States). We've been here for 3 days now. Let's see...we arrived in Moscow Friday morning, were picked up and drove to Tver. We checked into our hotel, grabbed some lunch and then headed to the police station to sign something. Hello, scary KGB style police station. Now THAT was a scary old building! Literally crumbling down around you. There ended up being line, so what literally took 5 min took more like 2 hours. We had to do that before we could go pick up Esther though, so our coordinator offered to do the line waiting part and we went and walked around for a while and then napped in the car (the 3 snoring Americans would have made a very easy target...). Bryan went in to sign since he is the primary petitioner for Esther's passport and visa and then we were able to head to get her! it was pouring rain, cold and dark by that time and the normal road was under construction so we had to park along a different road and walk in. I don't know what I expected...doesn't it seem like you should have to, I don't know, sign something or SOMETHING? But it was incredibly easy. We walked in. They had her freshly bathed and dressed in just a dress (as opposed to the layers she normally wore). They handed her to us and she appeared to recognize us and then touched both our faces like we had worked with her on and said "nice", thus proving she DID recognize us. We switched her into her clothes, snapped a few pictures with her favorite worker and walked out. There is something odd about walking into a building and just taking a kid. You just expect someone to stop you or ask you to prove that you're YOU or...well, something. I guess after proving 5 different ways that our house is our house and the mountain of paperwork, this just seemed too...easy. :) We came directly back to the hotel since by that time it was like 7. We bathed her (she was NOT impressed) so she smelled, well, less like orphanage and we KNEW she was clean, pajama-ed everyone up and hit the hay. That went really well until about 5 in the morning when she realized she was in a strange room that was full of things to be touched and explored and became a tiny little ball of energy. We MIGHT be a little jet lagged. Yesterday Bryan and Luke walked in the rain to the bank to exchange money. We took turns being jet lagged. My turn was last night. Luke is "not tired" but is sleeping right now. We walked today down to the mall to buy shoes - I errored on the size of big and, sure enough, the ones we brought are big! So far we are doing really, surprisingly well. She is eating and sleeping well after we got past that 5am wake-up call the first day. She loves Luke. She finds it hilarious that people want to carry her. Her new game is to hold up both hands for Luke to pick her up and then when he starts to go get her she runs away to see if he will go catch her. When he does she giggles like it's the funniest thing to ever happen. She is definitely an active toddler - as in, Ben and Andrew active. Curious about everything, pretty impressed by the endless food idea, very impressed by juice and sippy cups and pretty enthralled with the idea of being the only toddler competing for the attention of 3 whole people. She has already decided she might want to start talking and has said "mama", "nice" and "cat" along with being willing to start signing ("more" was a pretty easy sell...). She has been singing and humming since we got to the hotel and does not appear at all phased by the idea that she's in a completely strange place (although when she napped with me I did wake up to her poking me and putting her toes in my mouth...don't worry. I redirected her. To Bryan's.) So, that gets us to today - I should add that we are completely on our own for the last few days. Our coordinator must have decided we were doing ok because he very tentatively pitched the idea of going back to Moscow and leaving us on our own for the weekend. He checks in everyday by email so I think he was a little nervous. He comes back tomorrow and we go pick up Essie's passport picture and then go do something at another police station. Tuesday...I'll be honest, no idea what we have to do Tuesday. Oh, right. Tuesday we will take Luke to exchange the money he raised (the boys set the goal of 100.00 to b diapers for the orphanage. They ended up with just shy of 300!). Luke will cash that in for rubles and then go the store and buy diapers and deliver them to the orphanage. Wed we get her passport and we head to Moscow for the US Embassy side of things. All in all we feel things are going very well and she is adjusting to us and us to her very quickly. She had a whole list of firsts today...first time going shopping, first time eating at a restaurant, first new shoes, first walk outside...you get the idea. When you consider how much is new, she's doing surprisingly well (or we wouldn't have left the apartment). Prayer requests: That the paperwork/legal portion of the trip will go smoothly. We get her visa on Fri afternoon and leave on Sat morning. There is no room for error, literally. If it's late, we don't make our flight. That she will continue to adjust smoothly as we travel to Moscow. Each step we take gets her farther and farther out of her comfort zone and what she knows.