The Cluttered Pantry

Tuesday night in Chita, our last night in town. The day was great, with super last visits with the kids. As we grownups are becoming antsy and a bit impatient to get the show on the road, we sense the same feeling in the Henderson girls too—-like, if zhanna could communicate in English, today I think we would have heard the “ok I’m tired of this same room and these same toys and this same routine—let’s get going already”. Of course it came out in nonverbal ways, and tho’ I’ve never dealt with it before as a parent, the feeling was pretty palpable. During the afternoon visit one of the kids’ lead day-to-day caretakers came in to say her final dasvidanyas, and it was truly very sweet…and it felt like the kids knew they were saying farewell to them.

After we said our final goodbyes to the kids and to the head of the orphanage (who said her goodbye to Elena in the hallway as she made the sign of the cross on her forehead) it was off to the passport office where the dads signed for our kids’ Russian federation passports—repleat with babydoll-like photos in them. Simply adorable. Now we’re back in the flat, beginning the final packing process and toasting many nasdarovias to Katia and Eugene and her father and the judge and all the caretakers at the orphanage and everyone who has helped this to be the most amazing and gratifying adventure of all time.

Next? A Wednesday 6am calltime downstairs for the final trip to the orphanage, where we’ll quickly re-dress all the kids and then it’s off to the airport for the 6 hour flight to Moscow…and then the drive to the Belgrade Hotel on the Golden Ring, the official doctor’s visits for the signoff that the US Embassy requires, and THEN it’s bath time, dinner, and a well-earned sleeeeeepy.

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