Princess Patterson

Another day with what we have fondly dubbed the ‘Patterson Princess’. What does that mean for me? My friends, I will officially be moving my title to Queen Bee soon…And Deb, I guess I will be needing a new chair? LOL .We cannot wait to get this little one out camping, because although I will ensure she is every bit the Princess and remains a frilly little lady to the very end, her daddy has other ideas. He even joked about bringing a camouflaged outfit to bring her home in - Hee hee hee –like I am going to let that happen! She seems to be every bit adventurous and likes to play ball and rough house. As long as she does it in patent leather shoes I am fine.

Snuggling with mommy...
So, we arrived at 9:30 this morning and our little princess was not there. She was at the Doctors having a small hemoglobin removed. They pointed it out to us yesterday, and I was not overly concerned. I am familiar with these as my good friend’s son had one. The can either grow larger or go away over time. Apparently they decided to take care of it and not wait to see which way it would go. Interestingly enough, something like this would keep her from being chosen by a Russian family – that and her brown hair and brown eyes.

So, no little girl…now what? We decided to kill time and drove off to the notary to create a document that stated we want to adopt Rose. The other family that met their daughter yesterday brought in an International Adoption Doctor to look over the child’s records and perform a physical. John and I listened to her medical background and we opted out of this choice. Except for the hemoglobin, we could see no other signs that she was healthy enough for us. To us this is the little girl Gods wants us to love and care for, so we are moving forward and completed a statement that said who we are, and that we wanted to petition the court to adopt her.

We needed to kill some time so we went to Aribak Street where there are lots of vendors and stores. We spent our lunch at McDonalds and yes, they really do have clean bathrooms! What was really interesting to me was what appeared to be the equivalent of an outside ‘drive up’ window where people were lined up to buy their food….on foot. Too funny. Crowds of people were on the inside, and remember, they aren’t too good on lines here, so you can imagine the frustration in trying to get your food. The Big Mac and fries is still sitting in my tummy like a lead brick. I told John it will be another five years before I do that again!

At three o’clock we met up with our driver and returned to the orphanage. They brought in Rose and you could tell she was not feeling 100%. She came to me and allowed me to pick her up – and hugged me tight. She just stayed there with her arms around my neck for a while until I passed her off to her daddy for his hug time. She obviously still does not know who we are and is trying to figure us out.

Today she engaged us very well. She played with a big ball and even wandered around the room with it. She can pass and kick a ball very well, and is so smart. We took down some stacking rings and she was able to restack them in order. Her motor skills are fantastic.

After a few hours they took us the her groupa. She shares her area with what appeared to be around 10 other children. We saw where she sleeps (little beds all in a row – neat as a pin) and plays, her cubbies and the other children. One little boy saw John and said “Hi Daddy!” Hmmmm, that got us thinking because most children fondly call adults Mama and Papa. We are not too sure on his story. A few had obvious signs of FAS, others had downs syndrome. It broke my heart to see them there – and put into prospective just how overall healthy Rose is. Overall this orphanage is in very good shape, very colorful and the children are obviously well cared for. The outside has murals painted on walls, many little brightly painted and covered play areas and lots of bikes and toys. Nature is all around including giant white birch trees and squirrels. Compared to what we saw in the Ukraine, I am quite impressed.

Rose’s caretakers took her picture book that we assemble with names and titles in Russian (mama, papa, brother, etc) so they could read them to her while we are away. She was paying attention while they read off each page and when we together in the play room she kept looking at the picture, then at John, then back to the book, and so on. I told ya she was smart. My pictures threw her a bit because I am both blond and brunette, but she seemed to get it in the end. They also agreed to take pictures of her for us with the disposable camera that we left. They wrapped her in the pink blanket we brought and V translated for us that they called her ‘The Princess” and of course Mommy concurred!

We gave Princess Patterson one last hug and kiss and told her goodbye. We are both smitten with her. Not in love yet, but definitely smitten. All in all we really feel like she is the child for us.

We leave tomorrow at 1:20 and I cannot wait to get home. Enough said.

See you all soon!

Queen Bee