Just hanging around Irkutsk

Tuesday morning we got a phone call from a friend at home – yeah! He was "Google mapping" and was able to pretty close pinpoint our apartment. I told him to show that to JJ when he's by them later this week. So all morning then we spent "on-line" but just downloading. We loaded on IM so we can maybe webcam with JJ one day. We have the software now I think so just have to figure how to activate the camera and set a time for the call. I'll work on that here.

Got some of our dossier documents emailed to us, mainly the ones I had never seen, so that will help us prepare a little better for court. Still hope to get some of the WI ones I don't entirely remember (I had started working on this in Feb 2008!) I go between utterly nervous for Friday (and worried I'll get a cold sore) and at total peace knowing God has this in his hands. Yes, I know he does but my human nature kicks in way too often. We really can feel the prayers when they are sent heavenward for us and for Nathan Genya also. I just can't believe that a little boy who gets an injury to the eye because he is proud he has parents wouldn't be able to become a part of our family! I just keep praying, talking to God and reading the Bible for reassurances!

So after the uneventful morning we decided to head out for lunch. Yesterday we had seen a fast-food type place so headed there. I had hoped we could just point but we couldn't – had to order with words and we got a gal who said "oh no" when I asked if she spoke English. So we made it through with my handy translation book. JJ, I ate ketchup!! (it came on the burgers) We ordered hamburgers and fries – the burgers I think were made in the morning and sat there until we foolishly got them. They sat in our stomach all afternoon – but the fries were passable. When we were at the counter there were some young boys, maybe about 10-11 years old, who wouldn't talk English to us but we know they knew what we were saying… Their table was near us and they ordered something really good looking (which I had tried to get by pointing but that didn't work for some reason). So I went over to them and in my very broken Russian asked them what they were eating is called – they said "shis-shiek" which is like shish-ka-bob. That is what we're ordering next time! It wasn't a cheap meal either – our afternoon tea/cake breaks are less expensive so that's what we'll do more I think. But it was nice to try another place and just explore.

After eating we headed to a different part of the city – past the courthouse and continued on down to the river. Pigeons everywhere – Brandi, I think of your pigeon stories with Evan when I seem them! On the way a whole cadet of either military or police type recruits marched by us – they were practicing formation at a memorial, I think to WWII. They were all very young looking and the girls all had bows in their hair. Down at the river there were all sorts of engraved locks attached to the metal wall. I said we have to ask Alex or Andrew what that's for. Then we walked by the area with all the ice sculptures and watched young kids and teenagers slide down the ice slides. They all were having fun! Then we just came back to the apartment as we don't know exactly anyone would be coming by.

The weather is much nicer today – it says -14c on the TV but there was no wind. You could tell it's warmer as the women were now in shorter jackets and mainly nylon, not the long furs anymore. That must be what they do?? And the sidewalks were much messier today – the snow and ice was melting. There were more sidewalk sweepers out today also.

So we got a phone call from Alex about 4:30 – he had been at the court all day with our documents and they were accepted! Including the medicals. There is one document requested yet from the State of WI but that can be faxed to the court along with a promise to send the original within two weeks. It is really just a clarification of a document she has already – but adding the words "international adoption" to a statement (that is implied by a previous statement is how I read it). He also said that we were going to go to Cheremo. today but he couldn't reach us ?? Brian said that is NOT what he said last night, he said specifically we "wouldn't go tomorrow" – but we are going to go Wednesday (tomorrow) – But Andrew, who really wants to go with us, isn't feeling well and Alex is unable to go with us so we might go with Andrew or we might just go with Andrey our driver. The language would be a bit of a barrier but we can handle it. I still have a list of questions to ask them at the BH but will have to wait for Andrew to help with that. So at least we have a plan for tomorrow! And we continue to review documents and get everything prepared for Friday morning – we have a few questions to ask Alex about proceedings and how to respond to questions but we're preparing for our "offense" (instead of the "defense" we've been doing for months!)

As we knew Alex wasn't coming by for a few hours we went out for one more walk – it was snowing slightly and windy again but overall not too bad. We walked for about 45-minutes. Now we're watching TV, this time of night there is this program on the MTV station where people get 1 or 2 minutes to do their own thing. Just saw a very bad violin player, now a belly dancer (not real attractive either!) and generally there are some American Idol wannabes who make it painful to listen to their songs!

Tonight we're just going to have some leftovers for dinner and might try the frozen blini's we bought at the supermarket the other day…then probably watch another episode or two of Moonlighting (we had forgotten how fun that show was! Good lines!). And maybe we'll get lights in the bedroom?!?