A River Runs Through It

Today we got to visit Maia and it was great to see her. Since we were going to go and have her passport picture taken, we waited in the baby room and played there until lunch was ready. Then, today of all days, Maia chose to eat a very good lunch. She ate and ate and ate. When she was finally done eating, we changed her clothes in to something ‘nice’ that I brought for the picture and she was all bundled up in a snow suit, and boots, and a hat – it was hysterical! She couldn’t move. Reminded me of a similar time we had Matthew all bundled up in his snowsuit as a baby. Then, we went to the car and drove to the passport picture place. She was very quiet and serious on the car – no sounds and no real emotion – just pensive and looking out the back window taking it all in. (Since she couldn’t really turn her head to the side, I suppose! LOL.) When we got to the passport place, we undressed her from the snowsuit, etc. and it was time to take her picture. Do you think we could get her to smile?!?!? No way! She was having none of that. The picture cracks me up – very serious – but that’s OK!! At least it is done and we are one step closer to getting her passport done – one step closer to getting home. The people at the passport place were very nice and easy to work with. They kept taking pictures hoping she would smile, but she wouldn’t. Oh well, they tried. It’s fine! We took Maia back to the baby house and had to say goodbye for the day… it is sad, but I won’t complain – it was just great to see her and spend time with her! We’re getting closer each day, and I just have to remember that!

Sneak peek:

Then, we were lucky enough to get to go have lunch at Masha’s house again! Delicious again, of course. Olga, her mom, is an incredible cook. We had borscht, and some more yummy carrots and the salad we had last time, with corn, and crab meat, and mayonnaise, and this time there were apples in it. Just wonderful!! Then we had the best baklava I think I’ve ever had in my entire life. Seriously, the best ever!! Wow! We had some homemade cherry wine which was out of this world, to celebrate my positive outcome in court. We also had the pleasure of meeting Masha’s sister.

Tonight we will be going to watch a music concert with Masha and her family. We are excited to see something local and cultural since we haven’t ventured out too much on our own. Her sister will be performing in the concert.

Tomorrow will be a day without a Maia visit – we will have to find something to amuse ourselves. We have decided what yet. Saturday, it will be back to the baby house to visit Maia – some of our time will overlap with Catalina and Calin and we can’t wait!

It snowed last night so this morning there were a few inches of fresh snow on some of the cleaned off sidewalks. The funny part was, by the time we left the apt. this a.m., it was all warm and melting outside. There are HUGE puddles pooling on the sides of the streets, water running every which way, and of course, the inevitable post holes popping up in the streets here – they say it takes a LONG time for this water to go somewhere as the drains just can’t keep up with all the melting as it swirls around and down the streets like a river. The weather forecast online calls for more snow… so we’ll see! To us, it is just warm outside – and now very, very wet and slushy.

We did lose power last night for the first time, but only for about 30-45 minutes. We lit our candle and got out our tiny flashlights… and just when we were getting used to sitting around in the dark, the power returned. So, we finished watching our movie.

That’s all the news for today – another great day in Petro!